Lehigh Valley Transit Company

Lehigh Valley Transit Company

1913 map of the Lehigh Valley Transit Company
Locale	Eastern Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1905–1972
Predecessor	Allentown & Bethlehem Rapid Transit Company (1891)
Successor	Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (1972)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	600 V DC trolley wire
Headquarters	Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Lehigh Valley Transit Company (LVT) was a regional transport company, headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania that began operations in 1901 as an urban trolley and interurban rail transport company. It operated successfully into the 1930s, struggled financially during the Depression, and was saved from abandonment by a dramatic ridership increase due to the Second World War. In 1951, the again financially struggling LVT ended its 36-mile (58 km) interurban rail service from Allentown to Philadelphia. In 1952, it ended its Allentown area local trolley service. It operated local bus service in the Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, Pennsylvania areas until going out of business in 1972.

Public transport in Allentown, Pennsylvania began on 21 May 1868 when a horse-car line was placed in operation between the Black Bear Hotel (9th and Hamilton Streets) and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Depot (3d and Hamilton Streets). The transition from horse-power to electric power began in 1891 when the Allentown-Bethlehem Rapid transit company erected a powerhouse at Front and Linden Streets in the First Ward (near the Lehigh River).

In 1893, the Allentown and Lehigh Valley Traction Company was created by investor Albert Johnson by combining a group of local streetcar lines. Quakertown Traction Company in 1898 operated electric trolleys from Richlandtown in Bucks County through Quakertown to Perkasie. By 1900 the Inland Traction Company ran south from Perkasie to Lansdale, and the Montgomery Traction Company ran from there to Norristown. In 1901, a newly formed Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Traction Company under Johnson merged these lines and others in the Lehigh and Delaware Valleys with the plan to create a trolley system to reach north to New York City. But Johnson died later that year, plus the company was in receivership by 1903. In receivership (where by court order interest payments on bonds are suspended to allow a company to have the cash to continue to operate with the plan that eventually it will have enough income to resume payments on bonds) route expansion and construction continued. Thirty five mile Allentown to the Philadelphia area of Chestnut Hill trolley service started the same year. Connection with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company street cars at Chestnut Hill allowed riders to continue to downtown Philadelphia.

In 1905, the assets of the new Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Traction Company were acquired by a new corporate entity: the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. The owners started an extensive rebuilding of the Allentown to Philadelphia route. Much side of road track (the line was always a single track) was replaced by track running in open country, however considerable older side-of-road trackage remained, particularly south of Quakertown. Heavy wood arch windowed interurban coaches were purchased for high speed operation. This upgrading program culminated in a high capacity interurban line running from Allentown to Norristown. It existed until 1951. Multiple car Interurbans operated from Allentown to Philadelphia's 69th Street terminal using the Philadelphia and Western Railroad south of Norristown starting in December 1912. Service on the former Inland Traction route running from North Wales (Junction) to Chestnut Hill continued until 1926, and the route between central Quakertown and Richlandtown ran until 1929, both replaced by bus. The LVT and P&W both reorganized during the next twenty years (LVT twice), but trolleys continued to operate and compete with the nearly paralleling Reading Railroad Bethlehem to Philadelphia line due to lower cost to riders, particularly during the Depression, and then again vitally during the gasoline rationing of World War II.