Letter, Portland Traction Company from Student

In this letter to the Portland Traction Company, Oak Grove School fourth grader Judith Kopp expresses her concerns regarding the company's plans to discontinue trolley service on the Oregon City-Bellrose line to Portland. Her teacher forwarded the letter, together with those of seven of her classmates, to Gordon Steele, president of the company. Steele replied promptly and cordially but explained a different point of view. "We should all know that the motor coach and the private automobile have made street car operations obsolete in the United States and that it is not economically possible to compete with this newer and better type of transportation," wrote Steele.

The discussion of whether the traction company should be allowed to abandon its interurban passenger service between Oregon City and Portland had been taking place since the early 1950s, when the Portland Traction Company petitioned the Public Utilities Commission of Oregon for permission to cancel the service. Although the community--including many senior citizens--still used the line, passenger service was more expensive for the company to operate than freight service, from which the railway made a considerable profit.

Residents and business owners along the trolley line organized a civic program, Transit Savers, to defeat the abandonment of the line. Members believed the trolley company had an obligation to the public and argued that any loss in patronage experienced by the company was brought on intentionally by sub-standard service aimed at discouraging use--not by changes caused by the automobile, as claimed.

Transit Savers hired a lawyer, circulated petitions, and encouraged active participation at public hearings. The group experienced a victory in April 1955, when a Public Utilities Commissioner ordered Portland Traction Company to continue providing passenger service. The railway responded with a series of court cases. With legal battles still in process, Portland Traction Company abruptly stopped interurban passenger service on January 25, 1958, in defiance of the state commission and the circuit courts.

Although trolley service had ended, the legal matter was not resolved until a 1962 Oregon Supreme Court ruling. At issue was the public's right to regulated utilities verses the property rights of the traction company. In a 5-2 decision, the Oregon Supreme Court sided with the traction company, maintaining that the commission's orders were unconstitutional because they infringed on the property rights of the company without due process of the law.

Further reading:
"PUC Interurban Order Transit Savers Victory," Milwaukie Review, 28 April 1955, p. 1. "Company Surprises Customers," The Oregonian, 26 January 1958, p. 1.

"High Court to Ponder Rail Case," Oregon Daily Journal, 6 January 1962, p.3.

Labbe, John T. Fares Please! Those Portland Trolley Years. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1980.

Written by Sara Paulson,  © Oregon Historical Society.