New Buses for Employee Transit Lines – Sept. 1962

Sixty years ago, Employee Transit Lines, Inc. was holding a special event to promote its purchase of eight new buses to serve the people of Lorain.

Above is the ad that appeared in the Journal on Sept. 19, 1962 announcing Transit Day, during which rides were free.

Mayor Woodrow "Woody" Mathna cut the ribbon opening one of the new buses. Below is the Journal front page from Sept. 20th with a photo of the Mayor doing just that.

The occasion gave the Journal the opportunity to publish a few articles looking back at the history of mass transportation within the city of Lorain. Below is an article about the Lorain Street Railway, predecessor to the bus line. It ran in the paper on Sept. 19, 1962.

According to the article, "The Lorain Street Railway connected Lorain and Elyria and provided frequent service northward and southward originating at the National Tube Co. for the low rate of three cents.

"The frequent service of the Railway was a run every 20 minutes except during the hours immediately preceding the night and morning shifts of workmen in the steel mill, when a three to five minute schedule was in operation.

The article also briefly mentions the Lake Shore Electric interurban line, as well as the Cleveland, Elyria and Western Electric.

Another article from the same edition of the Journal looks back at horse and buggy days and the streetcar era with vintage photos. Also included on the page was a pair of photos of Employee Transit buses.

Visit Drew Penfield's Lake Shore Rail Maps website for an accurate and comprehensive history of the Lorain Street Railway and the Lake Shore Electric Railway.

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It's hard to stomach the loss of the bus lines, although I don't remember the buses in Lorain at all. But even in the late 1970s and well into the 1980s, buses were a convenient way for me to travel. I used to take a Greyhound bus home from Ohio State a few times that took many backroads, as opposed to being on I-71 all the way. In the 1980s, I took an RTA bus that left Aqua Marine in Avon Lake and went all the way to Downtown Cleveland where I worked. A few times, I even took another bus out of Downtown Lorain to get to Cleveland that picked me up right outside the Overlook Apartments.

Nowadays, most people prefer to drive themselves rather than sit on a bus. Ironically, with traffic jams and highway accidents, time is not always saved by driving one's self.