The Leelanau Transit Company was a short line

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

railroad incorporated in 1919 as the successor to the Traverse City, Leelanau, and Manistique Railroad, which was incorporated in 1901 to build a line from

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

Northport, Michigan Northport is a village in Leelanau Township within Leelanau County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 526 according to the 2010 U.S. census. When Leelanau County was formed in 1863, Northport served as the first county seat from 18 ...

in order to support a carferry service to

Manistique Manistique, formerly Monistique, is the only city and county seat of Schoolcraft County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 2,828. The city borders the adjacent Manistique Township, but the two are a ...

on the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

. This line was a project of the

Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854. Beginnings After grappl ...

and completed a connection from Northport to the main north-south line at Walton Junction via the

Traverse City Rail Road Company The Traverse City Railroad was the owner of a branch railroad from Walton Junction, Michigan, to Traverse City. The line was built in 1872, and connected with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its he ...

; unlike the latter, however, it was never folded into the parent company. Ferry service began in 1903 but was suspended in 1908 following the foreclosure sale of the line the previous year, never to resume; the railroad was recorganized as the Traverse City, Leelanau and Manistique Railway before assuming its final name in 1919 in another reorganization. The line was leased to the

Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad The Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Railway Equipment and Publication CompanyThe Official Railway Equipment Register June 1917, p. 579 was a short, standard-gauge line in the U.S. state of Michigan. Organized in 1887, it served several counti ...

; the lease was transferred to the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

when it absorbed the M&NE in 1955. The line remained active at least in part until the 1975, when the final section from Traverse City to Suttons Bay was abandoned. The line north to Northport was taken up in the 1960s. Passenger service was discontinued in 1948. An excursion service, the ''Leelanau Scenic Railway'', operated on the former Leelanau Transit right-of-way between Traverse City and Suttons Bay from 1989 to 1995. This service ended when a truck hit and destroyed a bridge causing the land to be sold for the construction of the

Leelanau Trail The Leelanau Trail is part of U.S. Bicycle Route 35, but also an all paved non-motorized recreational rail trail of in length that extends from the west side of Traverse City, Michigan to Suttons Bay, Michigan. This trail passes through the east ...

. Two of the stations built for the line survive at least in part, and the Suttons Bay station, constructed in 1920, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{Meints-Companies Defunct Michigan railroads