{{Infobox bus company|name=Atlanta Transit Company|image=Atlanta 1956 GM TDH-4512 bus 253 at the Southeastern Railway Museum (2022).jpg|image_caption=ATC bus at the [[Southeastern Railway Museum]]|commenced={{start date and age|1950}}|ceased={{end date and age|1972}}<br><small>(acquisition by [[MARTA]])</small>|locale=[[Atlanta]], Georgia}}
The '''Atlanta Transit Company''' ('''ATC''') was a [[public transport]] operator based in [[Atlanta]], Georgia, which existed from 1950 to 1972. It was the immediate predecessor of the [[Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority]] (MARTA).
==History== [[Image:ATCtoken-obv.JPG|thumb|right|Obverse of Atlanta Transit Company token, with logo.]] [[Image:ATCtoken-rev.JPG|thumb|right|Reverse of Atlanta Transit Company, which says "Going your way every day. One Fare."]] Since the 1920s, the [[Georgia Railway and Power Company]] (now [[Georgia Power]], a part of [[Southern Company]]), had been losing money on transit. It commissioned a study from [[Beeler]] in 1926, but the suggestions were not enough to help. In the late-1940s most years saw double-digit percentage losses of ridership: from 125 million in 1946 down to 100 million in 1948 and finally 86 million in 1949.
In April 1949, Georgia Power ran the last [[streetcar]] on [[Streetcars in Atlanta|Atlanta's original network]], and in May of the next year its drivers [[Atlanta transit strike of 1950|went on strike]]. During the five-week-long work stoppage, Georgia Power sought for a buyer for its increasingly troubled transit business. In response to this, Atlanta businessmen [[Clement Evans (businessman)|Clement Evans]], [[Granger Hansell]] and [[Inman Brandon]], along with [[Leland Anderson]] of [[Columbus, Georgia]], formed the ATC and purchased the transportation properties on June 23, 1950, just over a month into the strike. More than 1,300 employees signed on to the new company and ended their strike. Anderson became the president of the ATC, and in September 1950 a Georgia Power vice president, [[Jackson Dick]], joined to become the chairman of the board.
The system consisted of the [[Trolleybuses in Atlanta|trolleybus (trackless trolley) system]] as well as regular (diesel) [[transit bus]]es. The former was phased out in 1963, allowing the city to remove its [[overhead wires]]. The city's [[bus driver|drivers]] and [[auto mechanic|mechanics]] were part of [[Amalgamated Street Car Union]] Local 732. One of the company's promotional drives was called ''Orchids for Operators'', in which customers could nominate a helpful or courteous employee for that honor.
In 1965, the newly formed MARTA began plans for a new [[rapid transit]] system. By 1972, when planning was mostly finished, [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton]] and [[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb]] counties had signed on to the new rail system. As a result, MARTA purchased ATC for [[United States dollar|US$]]13 million, making it the sole mass transit entity in the area.
==See also== * [[Streetcars in Atlanta]] * [[Trolleybuses in Atlanta]]
==References== *''Forty Years on the Force'' (1972), [[Herbert Turner Jenkins|Herbert Jenkins]] *''History of the Georgia Power Company 1855-1956'' (1957), Wade H. Wright, Foote and Davies *''Mule to MARTA vol 2'' (1976), Jean Martin, Atlanta Historical Society {{Atlanta history}}
[[Category:History of Atlanta]] [[Category:Defunct public transport operators in the United States]] [[Category:Companies based in Atlanta]] [[Category:Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)]]