In a message dated 7 Mar 2005 13:15:01 -0800, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
writes:
> As I said, the railroads were FORBIDDEN by the govt to do what you
> suggest, and ORDERED to divest what things they had done. For
> example, the railroads set up bus lines to more efficiently serve
> light-volume areas, but the govt ordered them out. Railroads were
> regulated, just like the phone company, and the phone company was
> tightly limited into what communication product markets it could
> enter. (Western Electric had sound systems they had to discontinue.)
It was the Motor Carrier Act of 1935 that prohibited railroads from
owning motor carriers. Such operations that were in existence before
the passage of that act were grandfathered.
The Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company was perhaps the dominant
freight and passenger motor carrier in many parts of the western
Midwest/Southwest region. The Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company's
bus operation, known as Santa Fe Trailways, was one of the core
companies that first former the National Trailways Bus System, and
then many of the largest, dominated by Santa Fe Trailways, merged to
form Transcontinental Bus Systerm, Inc., which continued to use the
name of its large Texas (non-railroad-owned) component, Continental
Trailways.
There were a number of such major motor carriers, both freight and
passenger, organized before 1935 by major railroads, which continued
in operation for many decades; their successors may continue to be in
operation.
Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com
Wesrock@aol.com