The bus company’s low-profit margin prohibited the purchase of any new vehicles, and only an excellent maintenance program kept the old buses running. The worsening condition of the entire system prompted the Central Lycoming Planning Commission to evaluate the future of the company. Their studies indicated the need for a public takeover of the entire system to prevent its continued decline, and it was recommended that a Transportation Authority be formed to purchase and manage the system.

By 1954, privately owned public transportation systems across the country were beginning to feel the pressure of competing with the automobile. As the number of cars and highways grew, attitudes toward mass transportation rapidly changed, especially in small urban areas such as Williamsport. Rising bus fares and reduced schedules added to the feeling that buses were no longer the most convenient mode of transportation.

The new bus service officially started service at 5:30 a.m. on June 11. Buses were now Williamsport’s principal form of public transportation.

Bush established headquarters for the Williamsport Transportation Company at the former Rothfuss garage on East Third and Penn Streets. This building housed the company’s management offices, a maintenance area, and the storage garage for the fleet. Service was started with 15 buses, and Bush basically kept the same routes, schedules, and hours of operation as the trolley system.

There were few extensions of trolley service after the late 1890’s, the only major one being the Cemetery Line which opened for service May 10, 1908 and which ran from the intersection of Park and Campbell to the Wildwood Cemetery gate. The rolling stock was continually upgraded though, and in general, the system was well run and maintained. Beginning around the time of World War 1, continually rising costs and increasing competition from jitney buses and automobiles began to cut heavily into the profits of streetcar companies everywhere.

Two electric trolleys traveling through Market Square around the turn of the century. Note the unpaved streets and many curb-side market stands.

In the city of Williamsport itself, there was great growth and prosperity in the mid-1800’s. These were the days of the Lumber Boom, and throughout the nation Williamsport was known as a town of millionaires. These millionaires, in an expression of civic pride and ambition, provided the funds and impetus for the development of Williamsport’s first form of intracity public transportation – the streetcar. There followed an exciting era in local transportation marked by a number of innovations and many controversies.

Car 4 at Market Square about 1866 -photo looks north

Settlers began coming to the Williamsport area in the mid-1700’s. They came either by flat boats poled upstream or by foot and pack horses over narrow Indian paths. Later, after 1772 when construction of several roads had begun, the settlers were able to use wagons.