Long Island Traction Company

The Long Island Traction Company was a street railway holding company in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States.

For the street railway company in Queens and Nassau County, see New York and Long Island Traction Company.

History

In order to get around anti-stock watering statutes, the owners of the Brooklyn City Rail Road, capitalized at $6 million, incorporated the Long Island Traction Company in West Virginia in March 1893 with a capital of $30 million. The BCRR-controlled[1] Brooklyn Heights Railroad, until then the operator of only the short cable-operated Montague Street Line, leased the BCRR on June 6, 1893.[2][3][4] The Long iSLAND Traction Company acquired the Broadway Railroad by May 1893,[5] and incorporated the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad on November 24, 1893 to take it over, as well as the Broadway Ferry and Metropolitan Avenue Railroad and Jamaica and Brooklyn Railroad.[6] The increased capitalization was used to convert the companies from horse car to trolley operations.

The Long Island Traction Company went bankrupt in mid-1895[7] after a January strike.[8] The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was incorporated January 18, 1896,[9] and took over the LI Traction Company in early February.[10]

Controlled lines
From the Brooklyn City Rail Road[11]
From the Brooklyn Heights Railroad
  • Montague Street Line
From the Broadway Railroad[12]
From the Broadway Ferry and Metropolitan Avenue Railroad[12]
  • Lutheran Cemetery Branch
  • Metropolitan Avenue Line
From the Jamaica and Brooklyn Railroad[12]
  • Jamaica Line

References
  1. "The Montague Street Road". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 18 July 1890. p. 6.
  2. Frank Parsons, The City for the People: Or, The Municipalization of the City Government and of Local Franchises, page 96
  3. William Z. Ripley, Trusts, Pools and Corporations, page 146
  4. "The Lease of the City Lines". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 7 June 1893. p. 10.
  5. "Reaching for Routes". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 31 May 1893. p. 10.
  6. "Surface Railroad Deals". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 25 November 1893. p. 1.
  7. "Local Stocks and Bonds". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 2 June 1895. p. 23.
  8. "The Tie Up". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 14 January 1895. p. 1.
  9. "L.I. Traction Reorganization". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 18 January 1896. p. 1.
  10. "Local Stocks and Bonds". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. 9 February 1896. p. 23.
  11. Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Causes of the Strike of the Surface Railroads in the City of Brooklyn, 1895, pages 33-34
  12. Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Causes of the Strike of the Surface Railroads in the City of Brooklyn, 1895, pages 52-53
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