Long Island Traction Company

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

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 [cite BDE|title=The Montague Street Road|md=July 18|y=1890|page=6] Brooklyn Heights Railroad, until then the operator of only the short cable-operated Montague Street Line, leased the BCRR on June 6, 1893. [Frank Parsons, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC12220353&id=LHS4RPim_LwC The City for the People: Or, The Municipalization of the City Government and of Local Franchises] , page 96] [William Z. Ripley, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00597925&id=lAMEAAAAMAAJ Trusts, Pools and Corporations] , page 146] [cite BDE|title=The Lease of the City Lines|md=June 7|y=1893|page=10] The LI Traction Company acquired the Broadway Railroad by May 1893, [cite BDE|title=Reaching for Routes|md=May 31|y=1893|page=10] 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. [cite BDE|title=Surface Railroad Deals|md=November 25|y=1893|page=1] The increased capitalization was used to convert the companies from horse car to trolley operations.

The LI Traction Company went bankrupt in mid-1895 [cite BDE|title=Local Stocks and Bonds|md=June 2|y=1895|page=23] after a January strike. [cite BDE|title=The Tie Up|md=January 14|y=1895|page=1] The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was incorporated January 18, 1896, [cite BDE|title=L.I. Traction Reorganization|md=January 18|y=1896|page=1] and took over the LI Traction Company in early February. [cite BDE|title=Local Stocks and Bonds|md=February 9|y=1896|page=23]

Controlled lines

;From the Brooklyn City Rail Road [ [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC19380048&id=n6axkp6ovaAC 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]
*Annex Line
*Bowery Bay Line
*Bushwick Line
*Calvary Cemetery Line
*Corona Line
*Court Street Line
*Crosstown Line
*Cypress Hills Line
*Flatbush Avenue Line
*Flushing Avenue Line
*Fulton Street Line
*Furman Street Line
*Gates Avenue Line
*Grand Street Line
*Greenpoint Line
*Hamilton Avenue Line
*Holy Cross Line
*Lorimer Street Line
*Lutheran Cemetery Line
*Meeker Avenue Line
*Myrtle Avenue Line
*Nostrand Avenue Line
*Putnam Avenue Line
*Richmond Hill Line
*Second Avenue Line
*Third Avenue Line
*Tompkins Avenue Line
*Union Avenue Line

;From the Brooklyn Heights Railroad
*Montague Street Line

;From the Broadway Railroad [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC19380048&id=n6axkp6ovaAC 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]
*Broadway Line
*Cypress Hills Line
*Ralph Avenue Line
*Reid Avenue Line
*Sumner Avenue Line

;From the Broadway Ferry and Metropolitan Avenue Railroad
*Lutheran Cemetery Branch
*Metropolitan Avenue Line

;From the Jamaica and Brooklyn Railroad
*Jamaica Line

References