Trolleys Of Our Past

[jon]

[jon]

[jon]

[jon]

[jon]

[dicknaegele]

I have a picture stored away somewhere in my dad's albums of my grandfather standing on the step of the Whitesboro trolley. He was a trolley conductor for a short time.

If I am not mistaken, the Central NY Coach Lines, that I drove for part time until they shut the doors, had roots in the trolley that ran from Utica to Syracuse. I don't remember the exact history, but I know that the Sweet family owned Central NY Coach Lines, and at one time owned the Utica Transit. They also owned the rights to the line that ran as far as Fonda, and the Syracuse and Eastern Line. The Oster family owned the Onandaga Coach Lines, which sprung from the Auburn Transit and the old lines that ran from Syracuse to Auburn and Geneva. Those lines merged over the years and Lee Oster was the president of Central NY Coach Lines for a few years. In the late 70's or early 80's we unionized with the teamsters in the Utica garage, and that resulted in the two companies ending the partnership, and Onandaga Coach Lines remained non-union. Onandaga Coach Lines survived when Central NY Coach closed the doors in the face of union demands for more money and more benefits. Greed put those drivers out of work. Tim Birnie and Birnie Bus Service in Rome bought the rights that belonged to Central Coach and now runs the line buses from Little Falls to Syracuse and has the charter rights all the way to Fonda NY.

I drove for Central NY Coach Lines full time from 1971 until I was hired at Griffiss in the mid seventies, and part time on and off until they closed. I also drove charter coaches for Utica Rome Bus Company and Birnie Bus Service over the years part time. It was a great part time job for weekends while working at the Air Force Base all week. I had a total of 23 years working for Schuyler Sweet at Central NY Coach Lines.

Thanks for posting this thread John. There is a deep and rich history of transportation in the Mohawk Valley, as public transportation moved from horse drawn trolleys to electric trolleys and eventually to buses. The Sweet family was instrumental in much of that history in the Utica area and the D'allesandro's and George Marsh were instrumental in operating service from Utica to Rome. The Utica Rome Bus company has also been swallowed up and now is part of Coach USA if I am not mistaken. No longer locally owned and operated. It had been sold to Syracuse Oswego Bus Lines, and then to Coach USA.