Trolley Buses in Fort Wayne
Trolley buses in Fort WayneWhen I first came to Fort Wayne to live, in 1946, they had a trolley bus system. Trolley buses were powered by electricity and ran with poles that were connected to power lines up over the street. They did not have motors but just hummed with electricity.
I rode the bus to my work place for several years. The bus business was very much a part of most people's day getting to and home from work.
We used tokens mostly. You could buy tokens cheaper and then use them instead of cash. If I remember right you could buy three tokens for a quarter but if you paid by cash it cost 10 cents for each trip. So you saved a nickle on three tokens. Not much but then every little bit counted.
You could also get transfers if you needed to go somewhere not on the line you started on.
The buses were all over Fort Wayne, so there were not many places where you couldn't get to by bus, or at least get very near where you wanted to go.
Not too many years after I came here the bus system went out of business, At least the trolley buses. They still have some buses in Fort Wayne but they are motor buses, not trolley. I think by this time more people had cars and drove to work instead of riding the bus.
I don't know why the trolley buses lost favor but soon all of the power lines over the streets were gone and you only saw motor buses. I have not ridden a city bus in many, many years. I ride the Greyhound bus to Texas but I never ride the city buses. I know that there are some people still riding them because I see every once in a while where the the bus company is having financial trouble and want to raise the prices. I think it is over a dollar now to ride a bus anywhere and maybe more. Which is still a bargain if you have to buy gas for a car to drive!
I don't know why the trolley buses lost favor but soon all of the power lines over the streets were gone and you only saw motor buses. I have not ridden a city bus in many, many years. I ride the Greyhound bus to Texas but I never ride the city buses. I know that there are some people still riding them because I see every once in a while where the the bus company is having financial trouble and want to raise the prices. I think it is over a dollar now to ride a bus anywhere and maybe more. Which is still a bargain if you have to buy gas for a car to drive!
posted by kyra lafain @ 12/28/2008 12:30:00 PM
1 Comments:
Paris had trolley cars at one time. Several years ago when they repaved Bonham Street, they had to scrape off the many years of paving on the old road. They uncovered the trolley tracks. There is also a place on Pine Bluff Street where the street gets wider. That was where the trolley turned around.
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