Name/Title
PatchEntry/Object ID
2010.19.19Description
Circular green patch with gold lettering "BURLINGTON RAPID TRANSIT BRT" Attached to bus driver's uniform.Context
From the Vermont Historical Society Library:
"On February 16, 1926, the first local bus route in Burlington, the “Country Club
Loop”, was established by William S. Appleyard, who owned an automobile dealership
on South Winooski Avenue. Calling his company the Burlington Rapid Transit Company
(BRT), he received permission from the Public Service Commission (PSC) to operate a
non-competitive (with BTC) bus route in the Hill Section of Burlington. Soon, when
BTC failed to comply with PSC orders to expand their lines, the commission granted
Appleyard permission to operate his buses in places directly in competition with the
BTC.(Burlington Trolley Co.)
Over the next few years, Appleyard received permission to expand to seven
competitive yet successful bus routes in the Burlington area. His success, combined with
the devastating flood in November of 1927 (that damaged trolley tracks and collapsed the
Winooski Bridge, a main BTC route), proved to be the undoing of the BTC. In 1929,
Appleyard bought the BTC in order to acquire its routes and eliminate competition. BTC
trolleys operated until August 4, 1929, when, at 4 p.m., a crowd gathered at City Hall
Park to witness the famous and symbolic torching of Car #5, their oldest trolley. The
trolley era had ended.
Meanwhile, in 1927, Appleyard established the Vermont Transit Company
(VTC), under which he operated out-of-town buses. Over the next decade and a half,
Appleyard purchased existing bus lines throughout Vermont, connecting Burlington via
bus to the other towns and cities of Vermont (and beyond). Towns accessed by VTC
buses included Barre (1927), Rutland and Vergennes (1928), Bennington and Pittsfield,
MA (1929), Portland, ME (1932), Bellows Falls, White River Junction and Claremont,
NH (1935), Albany, NY (1936), St. Johnsbury and Littleton, NH (1937), Newport
(1938), Chester and Springfield (1939), and Concord and Manchester, NH (1941). By
1945, VTC buses were connecting Vermonters to New York City, Boston and Montreal.
...In 1973, Burlington Rapid Transit’s name was changed to BRT, Inc., which
became a real estate investment business. The local bus service BRT provided was
undertaken by the Chittenden County Transportation Authority, though BRT maintained
ownership of the bus station and leased it to the VTC. The CCTA continues to operate
the local bus service today (2010). "Acquisition
Accession
2010.19Source or Donor
Vermont Transit Company, Inc.Acquisition Method
GiftRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Burlington Rapid TransitRelated Places
Place
City
BurlingtonCounty
Chittenden CountyState/Province
VermontCountry
United States of AmericaContinent
North America