List of trolleybus systems in the United States

Cincinnati Street Railway Marmon-Herrington TC44 trolleybus #1300, photographed as new in 1947.

San Francisco Muni ETI 15TrSF trolleybus #7108, on Van Ness Avenue at Geary Street, in 2004.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (Greater Boston area) Neoplan trolleybus #4120, photographed as new in 2004.

This is a list of trolleybus systems in the United States by state. It includes all trolleybus systems, past and present. About 65^[1]^:78 trolleybus systems have existed in the U.S. at one time or another. In this list, boldface type in the "location" column and blue background colored row indicates one of the five U.S. trolleybus systems still in operation.

Alabama

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Birmingham Electric Company Birmingham Transit ^[2]	Birmingham	30 April 1947	22 November 1958

Arkansas

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Little Rock	26 December 1947	1 March 1956

California

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Los Angeles	11 September 1910	1915	An early commercial trolleybus system in the United States.^[3]^[4]^[5] Later, there were 1922 and 1937 demonstrations of newer vehicles.^[1]^[6]
Los Angeles Transit Lines (1947–51); Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (1951–63)^[5]	Los Angeles	3 August 1947	30 March 1963	Construction of a new system was planned in the early 1990s, but the plans were cancelled in December 1993 because of a severe budget crisis.^[7]
	(Oakland)			Construction started 1945, not completed. Vehicles built for Oakland were used in Los Angeles.
	San Francisco	6 October 1935		See note, and see also Trolleybuses in San Francisco.
	(Wrightwood)			See note.

Note for Los Angeles: First system connected Sunset Boulevard with a new housing development, "Bungalow Town," in Laurel Canyon. Built and operated by Laurel Canyon Utilities Company.^[8]
Note for San Francisco: The first trolleybus line was opened by the former Market Street Railway Company (MSR). The San Francisco Municipal Railway ("Muni") opened the second trolleybus line on 7 September 1941. MSR was absorbed by Muni on 29 September 1944. Most of the current trolleybus system was built to replace MSR tramway lines.
Note for Wrightwood: Line planned ca. 1911 by Lone Pine Utilities Company, an affiliate of Laurel Canyon Utilities Company (q.v., above). Planned to connect Grava railway station (or halt) to Wrightwood. A contemporary account in a local newspaper states that construction was started but not completed.

Colorado

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Denver	2 June 1940	10 June 1955

Connecticut

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	New Haven	1903		Demonstration.

Delaware

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Wilmington	24 September 1939	6 December 1957

Georgia

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Georgia Railway and Power Company (1937-1950), then Atlanta Transit Company (1950-1963)	Atlanta	28 June 1937	27 September 1963	Main article: Trolleybuses in Atlanta Mass conversion of 20 streetcar lines to trackless trolleys in 1949. In 1950, had 453 coaches and was the largest system in the United States.^[9]

Hawaii

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Honolulu Rapid Transit Company Limited	Honolulu	1936	-	Demonstration
Honolulu Rapid Transit Company Limited	Honolulu	1 January 1938	22 June 1957

Illinois

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)
Chicago Transit Authority	Chicago	17 April 1930^[10]	25 March 1973
	Peoria	13 November 1931	3 October 1946
	Rockford	10 December 1930	6 June 1947

Indiana

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Fort Wayne	7 July 1940	12 June 1960
	Indianapolis	4 December 1932	10 May 1957

Iowa

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Des Moines Railway Co./Des Moines Transit Co.	Des Moines	9 October 1938	24 January 1964	Trolleybuses here were known as "Curbliners".^[11] One Des Moines trolleybus is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.^[12]

Kansas

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Topeka	27 March 1932	30 June 1940

Kentucky

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Covington	11 September 1937	12 March 1958	System extended across the Ohio River to Cincinnati.
	Louisville	27 December 1936	7 May 1951

Louisiana

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	New Orleans	2 December 1929	26 March 1967
	Shreveport	15 December 1931	26 May 1965

Maryland

Location	Date (From)	Date (To)
Baltimore:
♦ Baltimore - Randallstown	1 November 1922	31 August 1931
♦ Urban system	6 March 1938	21 June 1959

Massachusetts

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
BERy, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority	Boston:			See Trolleybuses in Greater Boston.
	♦Cambridge	11 April 1936		Four lines extend from Harvard station in Cambridge and do not serve the city of Boston proper. However, trolleybuses operate in Boston proper on the Silver Line (Waterfront).
	♦ Somerville - Medford - Arlington	8 November 1941	31 March 1963
	♦ Everett - Malden	17 September 1933	31 March 1963
	♦ East Boston - Chelsea - Revere	5 January 1952	9 September 1961
	♦ Dorchester	25 December 1948	6 April 1962	Not connected with remainder of the system.
	♦ Arborway	29 September 1951	1 October 1958	Not connected with remainder of the system.
	♦ South Boston Waterfront (MBTA's Silver Line – Waterfront)	17 December 2004		Dual-mode (diesel-trolley) buses use electric traction in the South Boston Waterfront tunnel and a short surface section, and diesel traction elsewhere.^[13]
	Fairhaven	16 October 1915	1 December 1915	Experimental.
	Fitchburg	10 May 1932	30 June 1946	System also served Leominster.
	Nantasket Beach	1887		Demonstration.
	Nantasket Beach	August 1904	@1908	Possibly first non-experimental passenger trackless system in US.

Note for Boston: The historic trolleybus ("trackless trolley") system of the Boston metropolitan area had six groups of lines (Clarke). The Silver Line - Waterfront was added in 2004.

Michigan

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Detroit	19 June 1930 15 December 1949	11 August 1937 16 November 1962	Also 1921 and 1924 demonstrations.
	Flint	1936 6 December 1936	- 26 March 1956.	Demonstration. -

Minnesota

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Duluth	15 October 1931	15 May 1957
Twin City Rapid Transit Company	Minneapolis	5 May 1922	22 May 1923	Experimental. One-wire trolley pole overhead, and a shoe to streetcar rails below to complete the circuit.

Missouri

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Kansas City	29 May 1938	4 January 1959	Interstate line to Kansas City, Kansas opened 4 October 1950; closed 14 July 1951 because of flood damage.
	Saint Joseph	1 August 1932	22 November 1966

Nevada

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Caffrey Trolley Road Wagon	Reno	1898	Not a coach, but an experimental freight wagon^[14]

New Jersey

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Camden	1 September 1935	1 June 1947	"All-Service Vehicle" (ASV) system.
	Newark	15 September 1935	10 November 1948	"All-Service Vehicle" (ASV) system.

Notes for Camden and Newark: The "All-Service Vehicle" systems used gasoline-electric motorbuses modified for operation from external power or onboard engine-generator set. The route systems were not fully electrified, and operating depots had no overhead wires. (A modern-day equivalent of this is the dual-mode bus.)

The operator conducted a demonstration at Weehawken in 1934 prior to opening of public service with ASVs in 1935. Weehawken was served by the Newark system.

The Newark ASV system also served many adjacent towns, including the Hudson County towns of Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Union City and West New York, the Passaic County towns of Passaic and Paterson, and the Union County towns of Elizabeth and Plainfield.

New York

Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Buffalo	30 December 1949	January 1950	Demonstration.
Cohoes	2 November 1924	12 December 1937 (or 9 October 1933)
New York	1923		Demonstration.
♦ Brooklyn	23 July 1930	26 July 1960
♦ Staten Island	8 October 1921	16 October 1927
Rochester	1 November 1923	22 March 1932

North Carolina

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Greensboro	15 July 1934	5 June 1956

Ohio

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Akron	12 December 1941	6 June 1959
	Cincinnati	1 December 1936	18 June 1965
Cleveland Transit System	Cleveland	1 March 1936	14 June 1963
	Columbus	3 December 1933	3 May 1965
	Dayton	23 April 1933		See note, and see also Trolleybuses in Dayton.
♦ Dayton Street Railway Company (Dayton Street Transit Company)		23 April 1933	(28 April 1941)	Sold to CRC.
♦ Oakwood Street Railway Company (Oakwood and Dayton Transit Company)		19 January 1936	(1 October 1956)	Sold to CTC.
♦ Peoples Railway Company (Peoples Transit Company)		11 October 1936	(9 March 1945)	Sold to CRC.
♦ The City Railway Company (later: The City Transit Company, or CTC)		25 March 1938
♦ Dayton-Xenia Railway Company		1 October 1940	(31 October 1955)	Sold to CTC.
	Toledo	1 February 1935	28 May 1952
	Youngstown	11 November 1936	10 June 1959

Note for Dayton: Dayton was a notable exception to the "typical" U.S. trend of consolidation ("unification") of public transport services. Five companies operated tramway service from 1909 to 1933. All five companies operated trolleybuses for several months in 1940–41, prior to the beginning of consolidations. The largest company, the City Railway Company (CRC), became the City Transit Company (CTC) in 1955 and was taken into public ownership by the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority in 1972. MVRTA is known today as the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority.

Oregon

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Portland Traction Co.; Rose City Transit Co.	Portland	30 August 1936	23 October 1958	Also demonstration, May 1935 - October 1935.

Pennsylvania

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Johnstown Traction Company	Johnstown	20 November 1951	11 November 1967
	Philadelphia	14 October 1923		Also demonstration in 1921. Service suspended 1 July 2003 – 14 April 2008.^[15] See also Trolleybuses in Philadelphia.
	Pittsburgh	28 September 1936 1949	11 October 1936 1949	Demonstration. Demonstration.
	Scranton	1903		Demonstration.
	Wilkes-Barre	15 December 1939	16 October 1958

Rhode Island

Location	Date (From)	Date (To)
Pawtucket	18 October 1931	30 May 1953
Providence	22 June 1935	24 June 1955
♦ Providence - Pawtucket	9 November 1940	6 July 1953

South Carolina

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Greenville	19 August 1934	20 February 1956

Tennessee

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Knoxville	28 April 1930	1 July 1945
	Memphis	8 November 1931	22 April 1960

Texas

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Dallas	25 November 1945	28 July 1966

Utah

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Salt Lake City	9 September 1928	September 1946

Virginia

Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Norfolk	1921 1923		Demonstrations.
Petersburg	19 June 1923	31 December 1926
Portsmouth	1923		Demonstration.
Richmond	1921		Demonstration.

Washington

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
Seattle Transit System (until 1973); Metro (1973 to pres)	Seattle	28 April 1940		Also 27 February 1937 - 9 March 1937 demonstration. All service suspended 21 January 1978 – 14 September 1979 for renewal; see note. See also Trolleybuses in Seattle.

Note for Seattle: All overhead wires, other infrastructure and vehicles (but not most support poles for the wires) were replaced during the 1978–79 suspension, but the transition is not considered the end of one system and the beginning of a "second" system, because the suspension was only temporary, for upgrading. The current system is widely considered as having opened in 1940.^[1]

Dual-mode (diesel-trolley) buses operated 15 September 1990 - 24 January 2005 on routes using the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. The overhead wire system in the tunnel was not connected to that used by surface trolleybus services.

Wisconsin

Name of System	Location	Date (From)	Date (To)	Notes
	Kenosha	15 February 1932	1 March 1952
Merrill Railway & Lighting Co.	Merrill	January 1913	December 1913	Experimental.
	Milwaukee	8 November 1936	20 June 1965

Sources

References

1 2 3 Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.
↑ http://www.trolleybuses.net/brm/brm.htm
↑ Sebree, Mac; Ward, Paul (1973). Transit's Stepchild: The Trolley Coach. Los Angeles: Interurbans. LCCN 73084356.
↑ Murray (2000), p. 79.
1 2 Kunz, Richard R. (Spring 1986). "Twin Wires: First U.S. Trolley Buses". Bus World. Sunrise Enterprises. 8 (3): 26–29. ISSN 0162-9689.
↑ "Los Angeles Transit Lines – The Trolley Bus in Los Angeles". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
↑ Trolleybus Magazine (TM) No. 194 (March–April 1994), p. 56. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.
↑ "Laurel Canyon Utilities Company". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
↑ Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1974). The Trolley Coach in North America. Los Angeles: Interurbans. LCCN 74-20367.
↑ "Facts at a Glance". Chicago Transit Authority. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
↑ Gartner, Michael (October 17, 2012). "Des Moines streetcars still run on memory". Cityview magazine. Big Green Umbrella Media, Inc. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
↑ http://www.irm.org/gallery/album272/aab
↑ Trolleybus Magazine (TM) No. 260, Mar.-Apr. 2005.
↑ Caffrey, W. (1898). "The Caffrey Trolley Road Wagon". The Electrical Engineer: A Weekly Review of Theoretical and Applied Electricity. Williams & Company. 25 (507): 87.
↑ Box, Roland (July–August 2010). "More about the 2000s". Trolleybus Magazine No. 292, p. 82. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.

Books and periodicals

Clarke, Bradley H. 1970. "Trackless Trolleys of Boston, The" (no ISBN). Cambridge (MA), US: Boston Street Railway Association, Inc. (Bulletin 18).
Murray, Alan. 2000. "World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia" (ISBN 0-904235-18-1). Reading, Berkshire, UK: Trolleybooks.
Porter, Harry; and Worris, Stanley F.X. 1979. Trolleybus Bulletin No. 109: Databook II. North American Trackless Trolley Association (defunct).
Sebree, Mac, and Paul Ward. 1974. "The Trolley Coach in North America" (Interurbans Special 59). Los Angeles, US: Interurbans. LCCN 74-20367.
Trolleybus Magazine (ISSN 0266-7452). National Trolleybus Association (UK). Bimonthly.

External links

Media related to Trolleybuses in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

All-Time List of North American Trolleybus Systems

Currently operating trolleybus systems in the United States

California	San Francisco

Massachusetts	Boston

Ohio	Dayton

Pennsylvania	Philadelphia

Washington	Seattle

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