Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

Final bus service 1969

Posted Monday, August 6, 2012, at 12:00 AM

This bus made a last run in Cape Girardeau in 1969 at Broadway and Main Street. Cape Transit Co. took its buses off Cape Girardeau streets in mid-1969 because of lack of passengers, the same reason street cars stopped running here. Bus service began in 1941 and ended May 31, 1969. (Southeast Missourian archive)

This previous blog has a picture of a Smelterville transit bus stopped at Broadway and Lorimier Street.

This previous blog has picture of the bus garage at 425 Good Hope St.

This previous blog has a picture of a trolley car operating at Broadway and Main.

Comments

View 1 comment or respond

Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.

Odd that if a lack of rideship spelled the end of trolley operations in Cape that buses could continue successfully in the same capacity for another 28 years before they, too, succumbed.

From 1936 to 1950, a consortium of companies that included General Motors, Standard Oil of California, and Firestone Tire, as well as others, bought over 100 electric street car lines across the country with the intent of converting these lines into bus routes. These coversions gave the investing companies vast new outlets for their vechicle, fuel, and tire sales.

In 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals were indicted in Federal court of conspiracy to form a transportation monopoly. Two years later, GM was convicted on one count and fined $5,000. The only individual convicted was the treasurer of GM. He was fined one dollar.

-- Posted by criticaldiscerner on Sun, Aug 12, 2012, at 9:39 AM

Respond to this blog

Posting a comment requires a subscription.