The plan of the Reading Railroad Company to end passenger train service to Lykens Valley area communities, was announced in the Lykens Standard, November 13, 1925. The trains were to be replaced with motorcoaches. The bus routes would service Williamstown, Lykens, Shamokin, Tower City, Tremont, Pine Grove, and other communities which previously had Reading Railroad stations.
LYKENS TO BE TERMINUS OF READING COMPANY MOTORCOACH ROUTE
Lykens and Williamstown in Dauphin County will be among the first of the Central Pennsylvania towns to receive the motor bus service that is to be operated by the Reading Company in conjunction with rail service.
Maps filed with the Public Service Commission by the Reading Transportaation Company, which is applying for a certificate of public convenience, show that the motorcoaches will run from Lykens thru Williamstown, Tower City and Tremont to Pottsville.
The system for which the first certificate is being sought and upon which the hearing will be held December 2 [1925], centers about Pottsville. Other routes are to be established later over the territory covered by the 1582 miles of Reading track. The new company is to be incorporated for $1,000,000 and all the stock is to be owned by the railroad.
From Pottsville one line will be operated to Tamaqua, another to St. Clair, Frackville, Mahanoy Plane, Girardville and thence to Shamokin. At Girardville a route will branch to Shenandoah and Mahanoy City. From Pottsville another motorcoach route will extend westward to Tremont (here a line runs to Pine Grove) and thence thru the Williams Valley to Williamstown and Lykens.
Abandon Trains
Lightly patronized trais will be abandoned and a more frequent motorcoach service inaugurated with the result that the co-ordination train motorcoach service operation will not alone modernize transportation but connect more closely the various communities and virtually give through train service by additional connections with main lines.
In their territory 164,316 passenger train miles will be eliminated on the steam roads and 265,647 motorcoach miles be added making a net increase of approximately sixty per cent service to the communities.
While baggage car traffic, particularly express and milk, has been reduced by public and private motor trucks, units, which normally will carry more passenger or baggage traffic than can be transported in a motorcoach, will be continued as steam trains. If practice indicates the need for still further refinement it is the intention to operate motor trucks supplementary to the baggage portion of the motorcoaches.
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News article from Newspapers.com.
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