Dayton Electric Railway Historical Collection

The Dayton Electric Railway Collection chronicles the evolution of the Dayton area transit system from 1907 to the 1930s. History indicates that the first streetcar lines, the earliest of which had been chartered in 1869, were not founded for profit from fares, but to open up the outlying farm lands to real estate development. Until 1887, the motive power of all city lines was horses and mules. In 1887, however, the White Line became the first railway company to operate on electricity. Thus Dayton has the distinction of being one of the earliest cities in the country to use electric power for transportation. It should be noted that at the end of 1909, Dayton had one hundred miles of railway tracks.

According to the collection, the city was serviced by four streetcar lines in 1918. They were The City Railway Company, The Dayton Street Railway Company, The Oakwood Railway Company, and The Peoples Railway Company. By 1930, this system had proliferated into six separate railway companies operating eleven streetcar lines, but no major bus line. Little cooperation existed between the different companies. For a city that was the size of Dayton, such a condition was unparalleled in the nation. The results of this hodgepodge system were predictable - duplication of service, reduced schedules, and reduced revenues for each line. A 1930 study concluded that the railway system, because of its poor financial status, could not keep up with the growth of the city, which was estimated to be twenty-five to thirty percent per decade. Nor was uncontrolled growth of a transit system, although on a lesser scale than in Dayton, unique to that city. . To quote from the 1930 study: "Uncontrolled transit development by private enterprise is more responsible than any other factor for the congestion from which our cities are suffering."

The authorities of Dayton certainly were aware of this chaotic transit situation. There was an attempt in 1929 to merge all railway companies into one corporation, The Dayton Railway and Transportation Company. Since additional research could not find a transit company by such a name at that time, it can be assumed that nothing ever became of this organization. Apparently the exigencies of World War II made consolidation imperative. It seems that The City Railway Company in 1943 emerged as the one line that would service the Dayton area. As far as can be determined, The City Railway Company was succeeded by the City Transit Line around 1953. The privately owned City Transit Line was eventually taken over by the publicly owned Regional Transit Authority of today.