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  • Franchise Runs on Pacific Electric

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This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

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 #42034  by eddiebear
 
I have a number of the Interurban Press books on Pacific Electric, its operations and lines. One term I come across, frequently, up until the early 1950s, is the franchise run or franchise car. It appears when a line was converted to bus operation or for all intents and purposes shut down, a car would continue to make a one a day run for days, weeks or even several months and then the service would be 100% discontinued. The term is not generally used in the Northeast. As long as a trip was operated a line apparently was still active.
I've guessed that the purpose of the franchise car was to keep the city or county from ripping up the line until the PE removed what it wanted tp salvage or negotiated the most favorable terms it could get regarding repaving the roadway and so on. Am I close to right on this?

 #43026  by Rich T
 
I recall hearing the term "franchise run" used years ago in New Jersey when Public Service was abandoning trolley service. The Oakland line in Jersey City was one in particular as I believe there was only one run in the morning and one in the afternoon to maintain the franchise. My understanding is service couldn't be discontinued until the public utilities commission approved the abandonment application, therefore a very limited service was operated so as not to be in violation of state regulations.

 #43181  by walt
 
The term franchise car, or franchise run was actually pretty universal during streetcar/interurban days. Basically this was a run over an almost abandoned track segment for the purpose of keeping that segment from being considered abandoned. In the Suburban Philadelphia area ( Delaware County) the Red Arrow Lines/ SEPTA predecessor Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company originally began its trolley lines at 63rd and Market Streets on the city-county line. When the 69th Street Terminal was opened in 1907 most of the runs began there, rather than at 63rd Street. Once freight service was abandoned ( freight trolleys had continued to run to 63rd street to a joint freight station with the city streetcar company, the PRT) there was a short period when there was a 5:30am "franchise" car to West Chester which began at 63rd Street. At this time, this was the only P&WCT run which used that track segment. Finally that run was eliminated and the trackage was abandoned.

 #43195  by Ken W2KB
 
Often the railway business had morphed into an electric utility. The private rights of way we used for electric transmission lines and until a transfer to the electric business could be accomplished where the ROW had a reversionary interest to adjoining landowners if railway operations were abandoned, the now mostly electric utility had to acquire additional rights. So one roundtrip a day (or week) was operated.

 #43220  by walt
 
Ken W2KB wrote:Often the railway business had morphed into an electric utility. The private rights of way we used for electric transmission lines and until a transfer to the electric business could be accomplished where the ROW had a reversionary interest to adjoining landowners if railway operations were abandoned, the now mostly electric utility had to acquire additional rights. So one roundtrip a day (or week) was operated.
That is an interesting phenominum--- the electric companies such as those mentioned were often formed as a side-business by the electric railways to sell off surplus electricity which was generated primarily to run the cars. It wasn't very long before the electric company become much more profitable than the railway, and in many cases have long outlasted the railway. In DC, the Potomac Electric Power Company ( PEPCO) which still exists, began as a subsidiary of the Washington Railway & Electric Company, which was one of two streetcar companies operating in DC. WRy&E merged with the other company, the Capital Traction Co. to form the Capital Transit Company in 1936, and PEPCO went into the new company as a subsidiary. In 1948 the Public Utilites Holding Company Act was passed which required the holding company which held both C.T.Co and PEPCO stock to divest of one of the properties. The company chose to retain PEPCO. C.T.Co was sold, and went downhill under its new management, being replaced by DC Transit in 1956. DC Transit was acquired by WMATA in 1973. As stated, PEPCO still exists having outlived its parent by almost 50 years.

 #90052  by Otto Vondrak
 
When the New York, Westchester & Boston passenger service was abandoned on Dec. 31, 1937, "franchise" or "inspection" runs continued through at least 1940 when the line was officially sold off and dismantled.

(ps- www.nywbry.com)

I was under the impression it was a legal requirement of some sort as a result of the state granting a franchise for the right to conduct transportation or some such legal nonsense? These runs maintained the transportation franchise for the company...

-otto-

 #90471  by Ken W2KB
 
Franchises are normallly associated with a right to use the public streets and roads for location of physical plant rather than requiring the business entity to locate entirely on private property. E.g., utility poles in streets, street trackage, etc. Absent a franchise, public streets can only be used for transient travel. To some extent, franchises were granted to bus companies by municipalities; that was in part a continuation of streetcar franchises (often the same company converted to buses) but even where the bus company was 'new' the theory was that the constant occupancy of the streets and roads by many buses running along regular routes was the equivalent of having property in the public right of way.

As mentioned above, approval of abandonment of service had to be obtained so often a minimal service continued to operate long after the regular service ended.