Rose City Transit
The Rose City Transit Company was a private company that operated most mass transit service in the city of Portland, Oregon, from 1956 to 1969. It operated only within the city proper. Transit services connecting downtown Portland with suburbs outside the city but within the Portland metropolitan area were run by other private companies, mainly a consortium of four companies known collectively as the "Blue Bus" lines.
Rose City Transit was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Portland Traction Company, which was also its predecessor. Prior to the formation of RCT, most transit service in the city had been provided directly by Portland Traction under that name since the 1930s. After PTC's bus routes were transferred to Rose City Transit in 1956, PTC continued to run two interurban trolley lines under its own name, but those two lines – the only trolley car lines remaining in operation in Portland after abandonment of the last city streetcar lines in 1950 – were the only transit routes still operated directly by PTC, which otherwise was a freight railroad. Although RCT was a private company, it operated under a franchise agreement with the city of Portland, through which the city had some oversight control. Any fare increases or major service changes had to be approved by the city council.
Many transit systems in the United States were changing from private to public control in the 1950s, as growth in private-car ownership and other factors made operating mass transit service increasingly unprofitable. By 1962, all but two major West Coast cities had made the change and begun subsidizing transit, and one of those two exceptions was Portland, served by the Rose City Transit Company. By 1967, RCT was the last remaining privately owned big-city transit system on the West Coast, after San Diego Transit became municipalized. Rose City Transit's annual ridership declined from 32.3 million in 1956 to 15.7 million in 1968.
Effective December 1, 1969, a newly formed public authority, Tri-Met, replaced Rose City Transit, taking over all operation and facilities, and using the same personnel, under an agreement reached between RCT, the city council and Tri-Met.
Formation
The Portland Traction Company's 20-year franchise to operate the city's transit system, approved by city voters in 1936, expired on February 10, 1956. In October 1955, the city council refused to renew the franchise, citing dissatisfaction with the company's practices, quality of service and out-of-state corporate control. Since 1946, PTC had been owned by a San Francisco-based holding company called Portland Transit Company, which in turn was controlled by a company called Pacific Associates. In January 1956, PTC owner Portland Transit formed a new subsidiary, Rose City Transit Company, which it hoped would gain city council approval to take over all Portland city transit lines. The only lines serving areas outside the city, the two interurban rail lines to Oregon City and Bellrose, would remain with PTC. The council approved this arrangement on a trial basis, and Rose City Transit began operating the city's transit system on February 10, 1956. It used the same vehicles, employees and maintenance facilities previously used by PTC, which technically was its owner, making the transition relatively simple. The new company was initially given only a 60-day revocable franchise by the city, which was later extended by 30 days, while details of a long-term agreement were still being worked out. Both sides wanted changes before agreeing on a long-term franchise; for its part, RCT wanted more freedom to make changes without being required to obtain council approval. At one point when differences between the city council and RCT were great, one city commissioner proposed putting the idea of municipal ownership of the transit system to a vote by the public if an agreement could not be reached. However, differences were eventually worked out, and RCT was given a two-year franchise, and later a 10-year one, the latter taking effect on January 1, 1963.File:Rose City Transit bus laying over in Linnton in 1963.jpg|thumb|left|A 1948 Twin Coach bus of Rose City Transit laying over in Linnton in 1963
Portland Transit, the California holding company, created a separate subsidiary named Landport Company, Inc., to own RCT's vehicles, facilities and properties. Landport leased them to RCT. RCT's first president was Gordon Steele, who had been president of PTC for many years prior; he retired in August 1956.
Local bus service outside the Portland city limits was operated by other private companies, including Portland Stages, Inc.; Tualatin Valley Stages, Inc.; Intercity Buses, Inc. and Estacada-Molalla Stages. These four were collectively – but unofficially – known as the "‘Blue Bus’ lines" or "Blue Buses". In 1964, RCT began negotiating to purchase the four suburban companies, but no deal was reached, and the four Blue Bus lines remained in operation until taken over by Tri-Met in 1970. Bus service between Portland and Vancouver, Washington, was provided only by the Vancouver-Portland Bus Company, a private company that remained in operation until the end of 1976.
Service overview
At the time of the transfer from Portland Traction Company to Rose City Transit, the transit system included about 30 routes, using a fleet of about 230 buses. The adult fare was 20 cents, with tokens priced three for 50 cents, increasing in February 1958 to 25 cents with tokens two for 45 cents. By mid-1966, the basic fare was 35 cents, which was the highest of any transit system on the Pacific Coast.In a series of changes implemented between October 1958 and April 1959, nearly all routes terminating downtown were connected into through-route combinations – for example, the "Broadway" line was linked to the "Powell" line – to make operation through downtown more efficient. After these changes, the revised total number of routes in Rose City's system was 21. Routes were designated only by names, not numbers, during RCT's entire existence. Not until 1973, more than three years after Tri-Met took over, were Portland-area transit routes first designated by numbers. As of 1961, about 180 buses were in scheduled service during rush hour.
Workforce
Rose City's drivers and most other workers were unionized, as they had been under PTC, represented by local 757 of the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach of America. In 1960, 227 of the unionized employees were drivers. RCT never experienced a strike by its drivers, but an impasse between the company and the union during contract negotiations in 1968 led to a three-day suspension of all service, the first suspension of transit service in the city's history. In mid-1968, the company had 350 drivers and 133 other employees.Electric transit
Rose City Transit never operated any streetcar service, but its parent, the Portland Traction Company, continued to operate streetcars on its two interurban lines, from Portland to Bellrose and Oregon City after the urban transit lines were transferred from PTC to RCT. These operated until January 25, 1958, but service was then abruptly abandoned and PTC retained only its freight service. The last three city streetcar lines had closed on February 26, 1950, six years before the city transit system was transferred to Rose City.Trolley bus service
RCT did operate electric trolley bus service, albeit for less than three years. The city's first trolley bus line was opened by Portland Traction on August 30, 1936, and by 1937 Portland had one of the largest trolley bus systems in the country, with seven routes and a fleet of 120 "trolley coaches" – the common name for this mode at that time – built by Mack Trucks. Six trolley bus routes were still intact when RCT took over all of PTC's bus lines in 1956, and these continued under RCT operation, but the Eastmoreland and Sellwood routes were electric only until the end of 1956.Rose City attempted to discontinue permanently all trolley bus service in January 1958, in part to eliminate the regulatory control of the state Public Utility Commission, which had some authority over operating franchises involving streetcars and trolley buses, but not of companies that operated only motor buses. RCT replaced all remaining electric buses with diesel- or gasoline-powered buses on January 29, 1958, on what had been the last four trolley bus routes: Interstate Avenue, Mississippi, Sandy Blvd. and St. Johns. However, the company soon discovered it did not have enough serviceable motor buses to be able reliably to maintain the scheduled service. Trolley bus service resumed on all four routes after only one month, on February 25, 1958, but the reprieve for electric transit lasted only a few months. The company again discontinued all remaining trolley bus service on October 23, 1958, in the late morning, when 16 of the remaining 31 active trolley buses were taken off their routes and driven back to the garage. The city council was upset with the move, but back on January 29 it had passed an emergency ordinance giving RCT the authority to abandon its trolley coach service during a dispute over a requested fare increase, a move the council made so as to keep the state's PUC from asserting jurisdictional control. On October 22, Portland Commissioner William Bowes filed an emergency ordinance to repeal the earlier ordinance and stop RCT from abandoning its trolley service, but the company began dismantling key parts of the overhead wires the day after service ended; the new council ordinance never came to a vote. RCT offered few details for its action, but told city officials that it was "necessitated" by an impending problem with federal taxes.