MILWAUKEE AREA INTERURBAN BUS LINES
In 1938, The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company successor The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Company began abandoning the interurban railways. And between 1939 and 1946, Henry P. Bruner acquired most of the remaining pieces of The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Company operations outside Milwaukee, forming a company Kenosha Motor Coach Lines to own most of the lines. Nearly all of the operations eventually wound up with Northland Greyhound Lines. Although a company known as "Speedrail" attempted to continue the interurban railway operations. These last interurban railway lines ceased operations in 1951, after a series of accidents and other problems.
The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company operated buses through its subsidiary Wisconsin Motor Bus Lines, although it ceased to be a separate subsidiary in 1934. That system reached its peak in 1930, but the Great Depression resulted in the abandonment of most of the bus service between 1933 and 1937. After 1937, the only remaining bus service was over various routes in the Milwaukee-Oconomowoc-Watertown-Madison corridor. And in 1947, those operations were sold to Northland Greyhound Lines.
INTERURBAN BUS ROUTES
These links cover bus extensions, connecting with and supplementing the interurban railway network radiating from Milwaukee. Bus routes which replaced the interurban railways, are covered at the Interurban Railway page of this Web site.
Southwest of Milwaukee
West of Milwaukee
Northwest of Milwaukee
Many independent bus companies attempted to operated in southeastern Wisconsin. But Wisconsin Motor Bus Lines either acquired the companies, or drove them out of business through competition.
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