American Public Transportation Association records

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Preferred citation:

American Public Transportation Association records, C0051, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
94 Linear Feet 189 boxes
Creator:
American Public Transportation Association
Abstract:
The American Public Transportation Association records consist of material pertaining to the activities of APTA as well as both the American Transit Association (ATA) and the Institute for Rapid Transit (IRT). Types of materials in the collection include: memoranda, correspondence, reports, legislative information, industry-related information (such as brochures and technical reports), and membership information.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

American Public Transportation Association records, C0051, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

The American Public Transportation Association records consist of material pertaining to the activities of APTA as well as both the American Transit Association (ATA) and the Institute for Rapid Transit (IRT). Types of materials in the collection include: memoranda, correspondence, reports, legislative information, industry-related information (such as brochures and technical reports), and membership information.

Series 1: Committees includes correspondence, meeting minutes, and reports created by various committees as well as some subcommittees in APTA and ATA. The composition of the committees typically included association staff and transit system managers. The committees largely worked on issues related to equipment and finances with a smaller number devoted to legislation, marketing, and labor issues. The committees and subcommittees overlap to some extent due to changes in the structure of the association and as a result of changes in transit priorities. The folders date back to the 1908 and the American Electric Railway Transportation and Traffic Association, a precursor to ATA, but many of the folders consist of committee work from the 1970s.

Series 2: Meetings and Publications includes organizational documents such as the constitution, by-laws, annual reports, and press releases. There is also correspondence and information on industry group meetings attended by APTA officials. Officials attended local, national, and international conferences on planning, equipment, and management. There are also files on meetings held by groups with APTA, such as the Rail Transit Group. The organizational documents date from the 1920s, but many of the meeting files are from the 1960s and 1970s.

Series 3: Equipment, Finances, and Statistics is the largest series and consists of a wide range of topics on technical and financial issues. The documents on equipment cover the various vehicles used by transit systems including streetcars, trolley coaches, motor buses, and trains. In particular there are a large number of files on the testing and technical specifications about the Urban Rapid Rail Vehicle and Systems Program Advanced Concept Train, a joint project undertaken in the late 1970s by both APTA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The financial and statistical files overlap to some extent since there are many files on subjects such as fares and accident claims. Other statistical files consist of data on route configurations and responses to questionnaires on a variety of topics, such as the use of tires. Also found in this series are files on specific advisory and technology and advisory boards that existed within APTA. The files in this series largely date from the 1940s through the 1980s.

Series 4: Legislation contains files on legislation, primarily federal, that impacted the transit industry. Many of files focus on the attempts by Congress to pass legislation in the 1970s to provide large-scale funding for transit by using revenue from the Highway Trust Fund, which was established in 1956 to finance the construction of the national interstate system. Documents include correspondence, congressional testimonies, drafts of bills, and reports. There are also several folders that document efforts to fund transit at the state level.

Series 5: Labor consists of reports, correspondence, and legislation on various labor and employment subjects. In particular there are a large number of files on 13(c), a section of the Urban Mass Transportation Act that allowed unions to dispute federal funding for transit systems if they believed that workers would be adversely affected. Another large group of documents found in this series are annual reports on wages and working conditions compiled from information sent in by transit system managers. There are also some files on hiring practices and training. The files largely date from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Series 6: Local Transit consists of files on transit systems in cities and states in the U.S. as well as some files on international cities. The files mostly consist of clippings sent in by transit system managers, but there are also maps, pamphlets, reports, and other documents in many of the folders. There is some overlap between the folders with city titles and the folders with state titles. For instance, there may be some files on Boston found in the "Massachusetts" folder, but in general the folders with the city titles contain the bulk of the information on the transit systems in those particular cities. For the most part, the clippings document the problems faced by the private transit companies following World War II, and some of the folders contain charts and tables on the transit company failures all across the United States.

Series 7: Oversize contains some issues of the APTA publication Passenger Transport, and there are also two reports: one on the Chicago Transit Authority and another one a planning project in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Biographical / historical:

The organization that would eventually become APTA first organized as the American Street Railway Association on December 12, 1882, in Boston, Massachusetts. The initial meetings focused on the price of oats for the horses that pulled transit vehicles, but that focus evolved as more transit companies built electric systems. In 1905, the group met in New York and reorganized as the American Street and Interurban Railway Transportation and Traffic Association. To encompass even more modes of electric transit, the group changed its name once again to the American Electric Railway Transportation and Traffic Association in 1910. By 1932, many of the transit systems relied on motor coaches and trolleys in addition to electric streetcars, so the organization executives chose to be known as the American Transit Association (ATA). In 1966 the ATA relocated from New York City to Washington, D.C., as a result of increasing reliance on federal funding, especially with the passage of the Urban Mass Transportation Act in 1964 and the creation of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration). The American Public Transit Association (APTA) was created in 1974 when the American Transit Association and the Institute for Rapid Transit (IRT) merged. The IRT dated back to 1929 and formally organized on June 7, 1961. In 1976, the Transit Development Corporation also merged with APTA. In January 2000 the name of the organization was changed to the American Public Transportation Association. Despite the various name changes, the mission of the organization has more or less remained the same. The organization specializes in issues dealing with transit equipment, transit management, and labor issues. In the 1970s, the organization developed a closer working relationship with the federal government as more and more transit systems became publicly financed. Today APTA is a leading participant in research and legislation regarding the North American transportation industry and issues relating to it.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Jim Olivetti, Information Center Manager, Department of Transportation, 2000.
Processing information:

Processing completed by Jordan Patty in 2013. EAD markup completed in January 2013 by Jordan Patty.

Arrangement:

Arranged into seven series.

Series
  1. Series 1: Committees, 1908-1987
  2. Series 2: Meetings and Publications, 1928-1997
  3. Series 3: Equipment, Finances, and Statistics, 1927-1992
  4. Series 4: Legislation, 1918-1977
  5. Series 5: Labor, 1933-1978
  6. Series 6: Local Transit, 1898-1992
  7. Series 7: Oversize, 1946-1999
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard