ABSTRACT
Bus transport in the USA started in the second decade of the twentieth century when numerous entrepreneurs in all parts of the country operated local services between nearby communities using automobile sedans. By the late 1920s the possibility of national lines suggested increased business; but the onset of the Great Depression forced reorganization in the burgeoning and highly competitive industry. At the turn of the twentieth century Americans who wished to travel between cities either for work or for pleasure had limited options. The steam railroad offered the best, the most reliable and the fastest means of transport. Electric railways provided reasonable intraurban and short-distance intercity travel. In the Iron Range district of northern Minnesota, early bus operators started up business by carrying men between mining locations. Within the bus industry advances in mechanical engineering and competition, both between small independent carriers and between buses and trains, stimulated improvements in motor-coach equipment and in operating practices.
