Also listed are the historic companies which had previously operated the public transportation systems in each city, and years of operation of each type of public transportation vehicle.
Some transit systems were identified as locally based in certain cities, which were suburbs of certain larger cities. But in actuality, some of those systems may have been primarily to connect with the larger city, rather than provide local service within the suburb. Such systems somewhat resembled interurban carriers.
Most transit systems became publicly owned around the 1970's. Typically, a privately owned system was a "company" or "Co.". While a publicly owned system would be an "Authority" or "District" or "System". Some publicly owned transit systems began as city systems, but later expanded into regional systems, as indicated. And some publicly owned transit systems were simply renamed for marketing reasons.
For most states, in addition to major metropolitan areas, transit systems are divided into two groups, or two web pages. Following the major metropolitan areas, the first group for each state are generally cities or clusters of cities with a 1940 Census population of at least 25,000. And included are certain cities which experienced phenomenal growth into larger cities, such as Las Vegas. Also included are state capital cities and cities with major universities, with a long history of public transportation. In these cities, traditional fixed route bus systems typically continue to exist.
The second group for each state are the smaller cities. Where public transit survives, many of these smaller transit systems eventually evolved to dial-a-ride operations, no longer with scheduled fixed routes. Some dial-a-ride systems are only available to people with disabilities or to senior citizens.
For certain densely populated areas, listings are organized by counties or by transit district jurisdictions. Many of these areas now have countywide or regional transit systems.
For the larger cities or areas, web links are provided for the present day transit systems. Web links are not included for the smaller transit systems, as that has proven to be too complex due to many changing links.
US Local and State Transit Links
American Public Transportation Association link
State Transportation Department Web Sites
Federal Highway Administration link
State Public Transit Associations
Rural Transit Assistance Program link
The following Wikipedia pages include some of the same information on this web site, but presented in different ways.
List of Streetcar Systems in the United States
Many transit systems now have Wikipedia pages, which include history and fleet and additional information. Each page usually can be found through a Google search. But of course any information on the Web, including this web site, cannot be solely relied on for all of the absolute facts.
Streetcar companies are mentioned in the Moody and the Poor investment manuals, the McGraw Electric Railway Directories, and the McGraw publication Street Railway Journal and its successor Electric Railway Journal. But it is possible, that some streetcar systems failed to be completed, and were never actually operated.
However, some information is lacking for some of the largest cities and the more densely populated regions, including overlapping metropolitan areas. The historic existence of multiple streetcar and bus companies, along with mergers and consolidations, make the tracing of such histories more challenging. Also, some of these lines might have been more of an "interurban" nature. For many cities, independent suburban streetcar companies are not included. Although certain independent steam dummy and cable railways are mentioned.
The private bus companies, which existed between the streetcar era and the era of public ownership of transit systems, have histories which are the most challenging to research. Many of the larger bus companies are mentioned in the Moody and the Poor investment manuals, in some cases they were the same companies which had operated the earlier streetcars.
Many independent bus companies were sole proprietorships, or partnerships or family companies. The history is not always easily available for these companies, which generally were not included in the Moody investment manuals. Some bus company histories were included in various issues of the magazine "Motor Coach Age". Information from the more obscure private bus companies is from various state regulatory commission reports, and from old "City Directories". The City Directories resembled telephone directories, and generally dated from an era when fewer people had telephones. But by around the 1960's, telephone directories basically made the city directories obsolete, containing much of the same information.
One interesting resource for later information is the 1952 "Mass Transportation's Directory", offering an interesting "snapshot", of what obscure bus companies had existed then. A few additional companies were mentioned in the American Guide Series, a series of state guidebooks published in the late 1930's and early 1940's as part of the WPA Federal Writers Project.
When bus company information was obtained from the City Directories, usually only the general decades of operation are listed. And where bus companies are listed as "Private bus co. in 1952", the only references found for these companies are listings in the 1952 "Mass Transportation's Directory".
Overall, there is no uniform consistency in the availability of histories of the private bus companies.