Trafford Coach Lines

Acquired by PAT on March 12, 1964

Trafford Motor Coach was a relative youngster to the transit scene. Its founding in 1941 was due in large part to a relative lack of service provided by the Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo) on its Trafford-East Pittsburgh car line. In typical jitney fashion, Michael Bretsnyder and Joseph Schneider managed to have their buses scheduled just ahead of the streetcars. Their success was enough to inspire PRCo to install a loop at Trafford in 1944 and assign the modern PCC cars to the service.

A branch operated from Trafford to Irwin after the demise of the West Penn Railways car line. Another branch connected Trafford with Harrison City. In 1942 John and Joseph Dent purchased the rights from the founders. Profitability was doubtful, the lack of maintenance was obvious and this trend carried through to the takeover in 1964. The Irwin branch was discontinued in 1947. The following year the Dents went into partnership with Harry Marketel to form Trafford Motor Coach Line and through service into Pittsburgh was approved. The name was changed to Trafford Coach Lines in 1950.

Trafford Coach Lines operated several routes for which there were no published timetables; apparently they served the mills at shift change times. Although express service was offered via the Parkway these trips did not appear on the timetables either. They operated as "advance sections" of the regular service and if patronage was insufficient, the trips were cancelled. The PRCo car line was discontinued in 1962. At the end, most service was Trafford to Pittsburgh, either via Oakland or the Parkway, A few trips operated from Trafford to Jeannette with several Pittsburgh-Jeannette trips rounding out the schedule. Twenty-six buses were in the stable at takeover, including GMs and Macks, some of which sported GM diesel engines. Only three of the fleet were not second-hand, included was one 1963 TDH 4519.

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This page was updated on June 26, 2008