# Atlanta Transit Company

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Atlanta_Transit_Company
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Atlanta_Transit_Company.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Transit_Company
> Source revision: 1324105016
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Atlanta Transit Company ATC bus at the Southeastern Railway Museum Commenced operation 1950; 76 years ago (1950) Ceased operation 1972; 54 years ago (1972) (acquisition by MARTA) Locale Atlanta, Georgia

The **Atlanta Transit Company** (**ATC**) was a [public transport](/source/Public_transport) operator based in [Atlanta](/source/Atlanta), Georgia, which existed from 1950 to 1972. It was the immediate predecessor of the [Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority](/source/Metropolitan_Atlanta_Rapid_Transit_Authority) (MARTA).

## History

Obverse of Atlanta Transit Company token, with logo.

Reverse of Atlanta Transit Company, which says "Going your way every day. One Fare."

Since the 1920s, the [Georgia Railway and Power Company](/source/Georgia_Railway_and_Power_Company) (now [Georgia Power](/source/Georgia_Power), a part of [Southern Company](/source/Southern_Company)), had been losing money on transit. It commissioned a study from [Beeler](/source/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](/source/Streetcar) on [Atlanta's original network](/source/Streetcars_in_Atlanta), and in May of the next year its drivers [went on strike](/source/Atlanta_transit_strike_of_1950). 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clement_Evans_(businessman)&action=edit&redlink=1), [Granger Hansell](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Granger_Hansell&action=edit&redlink=1) and [Inman Brandon](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inman_Brandon&action=edit&redlink=1), along with [Leland Anderson](/source/Leland_Anderson) of [Columbus, Georgia](/source/Columbus%2C_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](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jackson_Dick&action=edit&redlink=1), joined to become the chairman of the board.

The system consisted of the [trolleybus (trackless trolley) system](/source/Trolleybuses_in_Atlanta) as well as regular (diesel) [transit buses](/source/Transit_bus). The former was phased out in 1963, allowing the city to remove its [overhead wires](/source/Overhead_wires). The city's [drivers](/source/Bus_driver) and [mechanics](/source/Auto_mechanic) were part of [Amalgamated Street Car Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amalgamated_Street_Car_Union&action=edit&redlink=1) 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](/source/Rapid_transit) system. By 1972, when planning was mostly finished, [Fulton](/source/Fulton_County%2C_Georgia) and [DeKalb](/source/DeKalb_County%2C_Georgia) counties had signed on to the new rail system. As a result, MARTA purchased ATC for [US$](/source/United_States_dollar)13 million, making it the sole mass transit entity in the area.

## See also

- [Streetcars in Atlanta](/source/Streetcars_in_Atlanta)

- [Trolleybuses in Atlanta](/source/Trolleybuses_in_Atlanta)

## References

- *Forty Years on the Force* (1972), [Herbert Jenkins](/source/Herbert_Turner_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

v t e History of Atlanta Origins Standing Peachtree Structures Historic districts Buildings listed on National Register: (Atlanta in Fulton Co.) (Atlanta in DeKalb Co.) Demolished buildings Demolished public housing projects Civil War Atlanta campaign Kennesaw Mountain Peachtree Creek Atlanta Ezra Church Utoy Creek Jonesborough Stone Mountain Crime Race massacre (1906) Ripper (1911) Leo Frank lynching (1915) Temple bombing (1958) Peyton Road affair (1962–1963) Child murders (1979–1981) Prison riots (1987) Centennial Olympic Park bombing (1996) Otherside Lounge bombing (1997) Day trading firm shootings (1999) Shooting of Kathryn Johnston (2006) Public schools cheating scandal (2009–2015) Shooting of Scout Schultz (2017) Ransomware attack (2018) Killing of Rayshard Brooks (2020) Spa shootings (2021) Northside Hospital shooting (2023) Culture Opera in Atlanta Arts in Atlanta Disasters Great Atlanta Fire (1917) Winecoff Hotel fire (1946) Air France Flight 007 crash (1962) Peachtree 25th Building fire (1989) Bluffton University bus crash (2007) Tornado strikes downtown (2008) Interstate 85 bridge collapse (2017) Events Timeline International Cotton Exposition (1881) Piedmont Exposition (1887) Cotton States and International Exposition (1895) Gone with the Wind premiere (1939) Funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) Atlanta International Pop Festival (1969, 1970) Democratic National Convention (1988) Super Bowl XXVIII (1994) World Series (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2021) Summer Olympics (1996) WrestleMania XXVII (2011) Super Bowl LIII (2019) Labor Washerwomen strike (1881) Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills strike (1914–1915) Streetcar strike (1916) Transit strike (1950) Scripto strike (1964–1965) Sanitation strike (1977) Sanitation strike (2018) School bus drivers' strike (2018) LGBT Library perversion case (1953) Lonesome Cowboys police raid (1969) Atlanta Pride (1971) Atlanta Eagle police raid (2009) People Mayors Pioneers History of Hispanics in Atlanta History of African Americans in Atlanta Demographic history Gentrification Racial segregation History of the Jews in Atlanta History of Native Americans in Atlanta Places History by neighborhood Former neighborhoods and settlements Annexations and city wards Street names History of Georgia Tech Historic mills Zero Mile Post Protests Atlanta sit-ins (1960–1961) Freeway revolts Occupy Atlanta (2011–2012) George Floyd protests (2020) Stop Cop City (2021–present) Transportation Atlanta Transit Company (1950) Historic bridges Historic ferries Viaducts Western and Atlantic Railroad (1836) Historic streetcars (1871) Trolleybuses (1925) MARTA (1972) Atlanta Streetcar (2014) Category History of Atlanta Timeline of Atlanta history

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Atlanta Transit Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Transit_Company) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Transit_Company?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.