The Santa Fe case file contains a complete record of the proceedings (1936-1938) in front of the Railroad Commission of the State of California to decide whether to grant the Santa Fe Transportation Company's application to operate a bus line in California in the San Joaquin Valley. The application was opposed by the Pacific Greyhound Lines, which at this time enjoyed a virtual monopoly on bus travel in California and the Southern Pacific Company, which owned 39% of its common stock.
Scope and Content
The Santa Fe case file contains unpublished material accumulated during the 3 year duration of the proceedings (1936-1938) in front of the Railroad Commission of the State of California.
The case file includes unpublished documents including more than 17,000 pages of testimony of transcripts organized into 115 volumes, each pertaining to a day of hearings. It also includes more than 800 exhibits, many of financial and operational statistics, as well as corporate histories of the primary contestants and their predecessors. Some exhibit material extends more than 30 or more years into the past.
Types of materials in the case files include: reporter's transcripts, exhibits, motions, points and authorities, resolutions, stipulations, subpoenas, and motions. Of note is the testimony of Southern Pacific President Angus D. McDonald who testified that "the rail carrier must offer an auxiliary bus service if it is to hold its proper place in the travel field" and "rail carriers cannot prorvide passenger train service of sufficient frequency to overcome the advantages which the bus carriers have with their greater frequency."
History / Biographical
The Santa Fe case file is the complete record of a case heard by the Railroad Commission of California between March 3, 1936 and June 25, 1937 and decided on April 18, 1938. In the published opinion to the decision, the Commission noted that “these proceedings comprise the most laborious and thoroughly contested struggle ever waged by opposing transportation agencies in the history of California regulation.”
The Santa Fe case was comprised of four applications (20170, 20171, 20172 and 20173) by the Santa Fe Transportation Company, a California corporation wholly owned and controlled by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company “for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate an auto stage service” in California to be coordinated with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company. These applications were strenuously opposed in application 20237 by Pacific Greyhound Lines, a corporation with extensive passenger stage operations in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and the Southern Pacific Company, which owned 39% of Greyhound’s common stock. At issue was the services provided by the Santa Fe Transportation Company would be competitive with existing and proposed services of Greyhound, which had a virtual monopoly of California intrastate services until 1938.
The question before the court was, “will the greater measure of public benefit result from the proposed Santa Fe service, even though it is competitive with the service of existing carriers, or from the preservation of the present status of the existing services, which are largely monopolistic in nature?”
In their decision of April 18, 1938, the Railroad Commission noted that granting the Santa Fe Transportation Company a certificate to operate a passenger stage service to be coordinated with the rail service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company in California would result in improved train service, including better prices and less travel time and so granted the certificate to operate that the Santa Fe Transportation Company was seeking.
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research. Contact Library staff for details.