The Municipal Street Railway System was formed in 1919 when the City purchased the dilapidated rail lines of the Puget Sound Traction, Light and Power Company. The price of $15 million was the subject of controversy amid City Council members; Oliver Erickson, who opposed the purchase, estimated the true value of the lines at closer to five million. However, Seattle citizens supported purchase of the rail lines by an overwhelming margin, and the ordinance authorizing the purchase was passed in March of 1919. Allegations of bribery for City Council votes in favor of the purchase continued for several years; Mayor Hugh Caldwell, elected in 1920, initiated an investigation, but the suspicions were never proven.
The Municipal Street Railway System was bogged down by debt and other issues from its outset; for example, the first annual report (1919-1920) complains of too much interference from the City Council, presses for regulation of "jitneys," which were railways' major competitors for business, and demands that the City refuse to recognize the rights of railway employees to organize.
The System was administered by the Department of Public Utilities until 1932, when the Department was abolished; it then came under the authority of the Board of Public Works. With a $10 million loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the system was able to purchase buses and pay off the Puget Power debt, and was reorganized as the Seattle Transit system in 1939 (see record series 9380 and 9379).
The annual reports for the Municipal Street Railway System date from 1919 to 1937, although reports do not exist for every year. Two reports exist for 1919; the second is a report on the finances of the Municipal Street Railway System by the Comptroller. The reports include financial information (in its first year of operation, the System operated at a loss of $18,000) and information on routes, including schedule changes and revenue, as well as other operating statistics.
Annual reports are arranged chronologically by year.
Records are open to the public.
[Item and date], Municipal Street Railway System Annual Reports, Record Series 1802-H4. Box [number], Folder [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.
Records were originally filed with the City Clerk in the Comptroller/Clerk's Files (CFs) and were removed to create this record series.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.