The Atlanta Transit Company (ATC) was a
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
operator based in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, which existed from 1950 to 1972. It was the immediate predecessor of the
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA, ) is the principal public transport operator in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit ...
(MARTA).
History
Since the 1920s, the
Georgia Railway and Power Company (now
Georgia Power, a part of
Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the second largest ...
), had been losing money on transit. It commissioned a study from
Beeler in 1926, but the suggestions were not enough to help. In the late-1940s most years saw double-digit percentage losses of ridership: from 125 million in 1946 down to 100 million in 1948 and finally 86 million in 1949.
In April 1949, Georgia Power ran the last
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
on
Atlanta's original network, and in May of the next year its drivers
went on strike. During the five-week-long work stoppage, Georgia Power sought for a buyer for its increasingly troubled transit business. In response to this, Atlanta businessmen
Clement Evans,
Granger Hansell and
Inman Brandon, along with
Leland Anderson of
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...
, formed the ATC and purchased the transportation properties on June 23, 1950, just over a month into the strike. More than 1,300 employees signed on to the new company and ended their strike. Anderson became the president of the ATC, and in September 1950 a Georgia Power vice president,
Jackson Dick, joined to become the chairman of the board.
The system consisted of the
trolleybus (trackless trolley) system as well as regular (diesel)
transit bus
Transit may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film
* ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world
* ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...
es. The former was phased out in 1963, allowing the city to remove its
overhead wires
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipment ...
. The city's
drivers and
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...
were part of
Amalgamated Street Car Union Local 732. One of the company's promotional drives was called ''Orchids for Operators'', in which customers could nominate a helpful or courteous employee for that honor.
In 1965, the newly formed MARTA began plans for a new
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...
system. By 1972, when planning was mostly finished,
Fulton
Fulton may refer to:
People
* Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who developed the first commercially successful steam-powered ship
* Fulton (surname)
Given name
* Fulton Allem (born 1957), South African golfer
* Fult ...
and
DeKalb DeKalb or De Kalb may refer to:
People
* Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), major general in the American Revolutionary War
Places Municipalities in the United States
* DeKalb, Illinois, the largest city in the United States named DeKalb
**DeKal ...
counties had signed on to the new rail system. As a result, MARTA purchased ATC for
US$13 million, making it the sole mass transit entity in the area.
See also
*
Streetcars in Atlanta
*
Trolleybuses in Atlanta
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit ridersCarson, O.E. Gene (Jan ...
References
*''Forty Years on the Force'' (1972),
Herbert Jenkins
*''History of the Georgia Power Company 1855-1956'' (1957), Wade H. Wright, Foote and Davies
*''Mule to MARTA vol 2'' (1976), Jean Martin, Atlanta Historical Society
{{Atlanta history
History of Atlanta
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
Companies based in Atlanta
Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)