Central Greyhound Lines


Central Greyhound Lines is a name used in six different contexts or applications in the intercity highway-coach industry in the USA. In each of the first five instances, the name was used for a regional operating company of The Greyhound Corporation. In the last instance the name was used for an internal administrative department of the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, a separate, independent, unrelated firm, after the GLI bought the core bus business of The Greyhound Corporation.

The first GLI

The Motor Transit Corporation, the original Greyhound firm, before it became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation, started a new route between Chicago, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana, in February 1927, four months after its formation.
To comply with an Indiana statute, the MTC had already created a wholly owned subsidiary, based in Indiana and named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., of Indiana, to conduct the route between Chicago and Indianapolis.
Thereby the GLI of Indiana became the first business unit of the growing Greyhound empire to make a public use of the name of the Greyhound Lines.
The GLI of Indiana also took over another firm, the Blue Goose Lines, running in the Hoosier State from Indianapolis southward to Evansville and northward to Kokomo and onward to Fort Wayne, bought from Ralph Bogan and Swan Sundstrom, two original busmen from northern Minnesota.
In 1929 the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
The GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio developed additional routes, mostly by buying existing properties.
During the early years of the growth of the Greyhound empire, the GLI of Indiana performed an important function, by operating a number of significant routes before they became transferred to other operating companies.

The first Central GL

In 1930 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent Greyhound firm, formed two new regional companies – the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines and the Central GL.
The purpose of the Pennsylvania GL was to provide an entity in which the Pennsylvania Railroad soon bought a minority interest, a subsidiary in a territory which coincided with the territory of the railway firm – so that the rail company could supplement its train service and substitute bus service in place of some of its unprofitable and marginally profitable passenger trains.
Greyhound then transferred the routes of the GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio to the new companies. The east-west routes went to the Pennsylvania GL, as did the other ones paralleling other lines of the PRR. The remaining routes went to the Central GL.
The GLI of Indiana and the GLI of Ohio then went out of existence.

Ohio GL

The Central GL in 1935 became renamed as the Ohio Greyhound Lines – to allow Greyhound to reassign the name Central to a new subsidiary, in the Midwest and the Northeast, one in an area which coincided with the territory of another major railway company, the New York Central System, one in which Greyhound transferred a minority non-voting interest to the NYC System. The Greyhound executives wished for the latter subsidiary to bear a name which suggested the kinship with the related railway firm, as in the case of the neighboring Pennsylvania GL and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Despite the name of the Ohio GL, the firm was based in Indiana, to satisfy the statutory requirement of the Hoosier State for domestic corporations for operations there.
The Ohio GL continued to increase its route network throughout its area, mostly by the acquisition of existing carriers.

The second Central GL

Thus the second Central GL came into existence in 1935, based in Cleveland, Ohio, as a subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation, and it continued until late in 1954, when it was merged into the Pennsylvania GL.
The Central GL came from three major components:
The first major part of the Central GL, the Safety Motor Coach Lines, had been founded in 1924 by Edwin Eckstrom, an accountant, born in Ludington, Michigan, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
In 1926, after the Motor Transit Corporation came into existence, its first purchase was Eckstrom's Safety Motor Coach Lines, and Eckstrom became the first president of the MTC.
In 1929 the Safety Motor Coach Lines took over the Interstate Stages, the Southwestern Michigan Motor Coach Company, and the YellowaY of Michigan, all three of which firms Greyhound had acquired through a related company, named as the Automotive Investments, Inc., based in Duluth, Minnesota.
In 1930 the Safety Motor Coach Lines became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Michigan, then in -35 as the Central Greyhound Lines of Michigan; then in -36 it became merged into the undenominated main Central GL.
The second major part of the Central GL, the routes between Chicago and New York City via Cleveland, began in 1923, when Clark McConnell, a lawyer in Cleveland, founded the Cleveland-Ashtabula-Conneaut Bus Company, running about 71 miles from Cleveland to Conneaut, reaching to the east-northeast on the way toward Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York.
The CAC Bus Company in 1927 extended its route to Buffalo.
CAC in the next year, 1928, became renamed as the Great Lakes Stages, and it extended all the way to New York City – via Buffalo and Olean, Port Allegany, Mansfield, Scranton, and Stroudsburg, and Columbia, Dover, and Newark.
The GLS also developed a branch line between Erie and Pittsburgh.
In 1929 the Motor Transit Corporation bought the GLS, and the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
The GLS became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Ohio.
The other route between Cleveland and New York City came into existence during the development of the set of routes described next.
The prelude to the third major part of the Central GL, the routes in upstate New York, began in 1913 in the Thousand Islands region, a resort area along the border between Canada and the US, on the Saint Lawrence River, which is the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean from Lake Ontario and therefore also from all five of the Great Lakes.
In 1913 Fred Dailey began service between Watertown, New York, the nearest town with a train station, and Alexandria Bay, on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River, a distance of about 32 miles.
Dailey and others, with various degrees of success developed a number of routes throughout the region. Dailey also extended downstream from Alexandria Bay to Ogdensburg.
In 1923 Walter Aldrich and others started a bus firm to run from Syracuse to Watertown, about 73 miles to the north.
By the next year, 1924, Aldrich alone ran the line between Watertown and Syracuse, using Fageols, on the first highway link between that part of northern New York and the rest of the Empire State. He also took over the two routes between Watertown and Alexandria Bay.
In 1925 a group of investors in Watertown set out to assemble a bus line between Binghamton and the Canada–US border, a distance of about 180 miles. They formed the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation, which then bought Aldrich's routes from Watertown to Syracuse and from Watertown to Alexandria Bay.
Colonial then developed routes from Watertown to Utica and to Plattsburgh plus several branch and feeder lines, mostly by the purchase of existing firms.
By 1928 Colonial had indeed extended from Syracuse – not only just to Binghamton but also all the way to New York City – along two routes – one via Binghamton and Scranton and one via Utica, Albany, Kingston, and Newburgh, in part along the west shore of the Hudson River, and via Ridgewood.
Colonial continued to increase its route network within its area.
Late in 1928 Colonial extended westwardly from Syracuse to Rochester, then early in 1929 eastwardly from Albany to Boston and westwardly again from Rochester to Buffalo.
In 1928 Colonial began acquiring the intrastate rights between Syracuse and Buffalo, by buying existing firms; that process continued until 1930, after it had become a member of the Greyhound family.
In 1929 the Motor Transit Corporation bought the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation, and the MTC became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation.
Colonial became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of New York.

The first Eastern GL

In April 1929, as previously mentioned, the Motor Transit Corporation formed the Eastern GL, as a holding company, to own a number of Greyhound subsidiaries to the east of Chicago – other than the Pennsylvania GL, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad would hold a large but minority interest.
In 1929 the MTC bought both the Great Lakes Stages and the Colonial Motor Coach Corporation, then in 1930 renamed the GLS as the EGL of Ohio and renamed Colonial as the EGL of New York.
Even before the MTC completed its purchase of Colonial, a number of Colonial coaches began to appear in the Greyhound livery, including lettering for the Colonial Greyhound Lines – in part to take advantage of the goodwill attached to the name of Colonial.
Likewise the names of the GLS and Colonial were retained and used in public for a while.
In 1928 the MTC bought the Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland Bus Company, which served the cities which the name indicates, then in 1931 Greyhound merged it into the EGL of Michigan, then transferred that route to the EGL of Ohio.
Thus by 1933 Greyhound consolidated the entire service between Cleveland and Chicago in the EGL of Ohio.
Later in 1933, however, Greyhound transferred the routes from Cleveland to Detroit and to Chicago back into the EGL of Michigan, then merged the remainder of the EGL of Ohio into the EGL of New York.
Thus the former GLS routes between Cleveland and New York City and all the former Colonial routes became consolidated in the EGL of New York.

The third Central GL

In 1935 The Greyhound Corporation renamed the Eastern GL, a holding company, as the Central GL – to attach the name Central to the territory coinciding with that of the New York Central System – and Greyhound renamed the EGL of Michigan as the CGL of Michigan, as a subsidiary of the main Central GL.
The CGL of Michigan continued only until the next year, 1936, when Greyhound merged it into the undenominated main Central GL.

The fourth Central GL

In 1935, in connection with the renaming of the Eastern GL as the Central GL and the EGL of Michigan as the CGL of Michigan, Greyhound also renamed the EGL of New York as the CGL of New York Central GL.
In 1936 The Greyhound Corporation began to eliminate its multiple intermediate holding companies – to avoid a hugely increased federal income tax on the undistributed earnings of corporate subsidiaries – one under the Revenue Act of 1936, which the national Congress had passed as a means by which to cause a simplification of complex corporate structures in the public-utility industries.
In that same year, 1936, Greyhound applied to the federal Interstate Commerce Commission for its mandatory approval to merge the EGL of New England into The Greyhound Corporation and to merge both the CGL of Michigan and the CGL of New York into the main Central GL.
The ICC approved.
In 1936 Greyhound merged the EGL of New England as a division into the parent firm, thereby converting The Greyhound Corporation into an operating company.
Thereby the parent firm, The Greyhound Corporation, became a carrier in its own right and with its own authority.
Also in that same year, 1936, Greyhound merged the CGL of Michigan into the main CGL, which continued as a subsidiary of the parent firm.
However, the Public-service Commission of the State of New York, which also held jurisdiction over the activities of the CGL of New York within the boundaries of its own state, withheld its approval – saying that the proposed merger would jeopardize its authority over operations within its state.
Therefore, the CGL of New York remained as a separate corporate entity and as a subsidiary, but as a subsidiary of a subsidiary.
In December 1955 the New York PSC finally agreed to drop its requirement for a domestic Greyhound subsidiary in New York – on the condition that Greyhound continue to obtain the vehicular base registration in New York for all the coaches assigned to the routes operating in that state.

More growth for Central GL

The Central GL continued to develop its route network, mostly and typically, by acquiring other properties.
In 1942 the CGL of New York bought the Champlain Coach Lines, thereby gaining its routes between New York City and Montréal, Québec, Canada, including a branch on the east shore of the Hudson River between Albany and New York City and a branch along each side of Lake Champlain between Albany and Rouse's Point, New York, at the Canada–US border.
In 1946 the main Central GL bought the West Ridge Transportation Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Buffalo and Erie Coach Corporation, thereby gaining their route networks, roughly within an irregular polygon enclosed by line segments connecting Ashtabula, Erie, Buffalo, Olean, and Pittsburgh, then back to Erie. The routes in the southwest corner of the Empire State became transferred to the CGL of New York.

Further events for Central GL

In 1947 The Greyhound Corporation finished reacquiring the remaining shares of the non-voting common stock in the Central GL which it had transferred to the NYC System.
No longer having a need to maintain a subsidiary coinciding with the territory of that railway firm, Greyhound next reorganized some of its routes in the Midwest and the Northeast, seeking a more efficient operation.
During 1948 The Greyhound Corporation merged the Illinois GL into the main Central GL. The routes involved, all in Illinois except into three cities on state lines, were those between Chicago and Effingham, between Chicago and Saint Louis via Springfield, between Chicago and Louisiana, between Springfield and Champaign, and between Davenport and both Champlain and Springfield.
On the last day of 1948, Greyhound converted the main Central GL from a subsidiary into a division of The Greyhound Corporation, thus ending the separate existence of the CGL as a corporate entity – after the completion of reacquiring the stock in the CGL which the NYC System had held.
In 1954 Greyhound merged the main Central GL into the Pennsylvania GL, then in the next year, 1955, the enlarged Pennsylvania GL became redesignated as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation , the first of the four huge new divisions.
Thus ended the second Central GL, and thus began the second Eastern GL.
About the end of 1955 Greyhound merged the CGL of New York into the new Eastern Division .
Thus ended the fourth Central GL.

Through-coaches on through-routes

The main CGL and the CGL of New York ran a large number of through-coaches along their own routes, including those between Chicago and Boston, Chicago and New York City, and Montréal and New York City.
At first they took part in relatively few pool interlined through-routes in cooperation with other Greyhound operating companies – those between Montréal and Washington, DC, and between Syracuse and Philadelphia , between Cleveland and Miami , and eventually between New York City and San Francisco .
Starting in 1948, the main Central GL took part in several more pool interlined through-routes – those between Chicago and New Orleans , between Chicago and both Houston and Laredo , and between Chicago and Los Angeles .

Meeting other Greyhound companies

The CGL and the CGL of New York met the Eastern Canadian GL to the north, the New England GL and the EGL of New England to the east, the Northland GL, the Overland GL, and the Southwestern GL to the west, the Atlantic GL and the Dixie GL to the south, the Great Lakes GL at several points between Chicago and Detroit, and the Pennsylvania GL at various points along most of their routes.

The fifth Central GL

In September 1957, in another round of consolidation, The Greyhound Corporation merged the Great Lakes GL with the Northland GL, a neighboring operating company, thereby forming the Central Division of The Greyhound Corporation, the second of four huge new divisions.
Thus ended the Great Lakes GL and the Northland GL, and thus began the fifth Central GL.
Later The Greyhound Corporation reorganized again, into just two humongous divisions, named as the Greyhound Lines East and the Greyhound Lines West ; even later it eliminated those two divisions, thereby leaving a single gargantuan undivided nationwide fleet.

The sixth Central GL

For a short time late in the 1980s, the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, made the sixth and last use of the name of the Central Greyhound Lines, not as an operating division but rather as an administrative department, along with the Eastern GL, the Southern GL, and the Western GL.

Beyond Central GL

In 1987 The Greyhound Corporation, which had become widely diversified far beyond transportation, sold its entire highway-coach operating business to a new company, named as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., also called the GLI, based in Dallas, Texas – a separate, independent, unrelated firm, which was the property of a group of private investors under the promotion of Fred Currey, a former executive of the Continental Trailways, which was by far the largest member company in the Trailways association.
Later in 1987 the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, the new firm based in Dallas, further bought the Trailways, Inc., the TWI, its largest competitor, and merged it into the GLI.
Later in 1987 the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, the new firm based in Dallas, further bought the Trailways, Inc., the TWI, its largest competitor, and merged it into the GLI.
The lenders and the other investors of the GLI ousted Fred Currey as the chief executive officer after the firm went into bankruptcy in 1990.
The GLI has since continued to experience difficulties and lackluster performance under a succession of new owners and new executives while continuing to reduce its level of service - by hauling fewer passengers aboard fewer coaches on fewer trips along fewer routes with fewer stops in fewer communities in fewer states - and by doing so on fewer days - that is, increasingly operating some trips less often than every day - and by using fewer through-coaches, thus requiring passengers to make more transfers.
After the sale to the GLI, The Greyhound Corporation changed its name to the Greyhound-Dial Corporation, then the Dial Corporation, then the Viad Corporation.
The website of the Viad Corporation in September 2008 makes no mention of its corporate history or its past relationship to Greyhound – that is, its origin as The Greyhound Corporation.