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Capital Transit Weekly Passes
Capital Transit was Washington D.C's transit company for many years. They issued colorful, interesting, printed paper weekly passes that have become collector's items.
Capital Transit was formed by the consolidation of Washington Railway & Electric Company and the Capital Traction Company on December 1st 1933. The first weekly pass was issued two days later on December 3rd, a Sunday. Passes were valid from start of service Sunday to close of service the following Saturday.
Weekly passes for the period 1933 to mid-1936 are relatively scarce. The acquisition of the Washington Rapid Transit Company, in 1936, finished the consolidation of transit services in Washington and increased the ridership of the company. This partially accounts for the increased number of passes extant from this time forward
WWII brought major changes to Washington. Before the war Washington was still basically a small southern town. Printing was the major industry and suburban growth was slow. The expansion of Government during the war years brought enormous growth to the population of the city, increasing ridership on Capital Transit and resulting in more weekly passes being issued. This increase makes 1940's passes the most plentiful surviving passes.
In the summer of 1955, carmen went on strike for higher wages resulting in a gap in the sequence of weekly passes in most existing collections. No passes were issued for weeks 27 to 33 (July 3rd to August 20th), however, several sets exist most likely originally acquired by transit company employees. Capital Transit head, Louis Wolfson, refused to negotiate with the striking carmen unless Congress authorized a fare increase. Congress balked at Wolfson's strong-arm tactics and revoked Capital Transit's franchise.
Capital Transit continued to operate the system while a buyer was sought. During this period the detailed interesting passes were changed to a solid color paper pass. The end of an era. The solid color passes were utilitarian and plain and fewer of them have survived.
In early 2014 three previously unknown passes came to light. They were for the last three weeks of 1953, a trial printing of plain color passes. These three are the rarest of all of the Capital Transit passes. These rare passes can be seen by clicking the 1953+ selection above.
Congress passed Public Law #389, requiring that any new franchise holder convert the entire system to busses within 8 years. Capital Transit went up for bid and nine months later, on August 5, 1956, O. Roy Chalk's bid was accepted and D.C. Transit was formed. Weekly passes continued under the new company name and in the solid color form, until discontinued at the end of week 34 in 1958. Passes were printed for weeks 35, 36, & 37, but they were not used, very few of these have survived.
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