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Santa Fe Case Files
MS 848
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives
Title: Santa Fe case files
creator:
Railroad Commission of the State of California
Identifier/Call Number: MS 848
Physical Description:
10 Linear Feet
10 record cartons
Date (inclusive): 1900-1938
Date (inclusive): 1936-1938
Abstract: 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.
Physical Location: Statewide Museum Collections Center
Collection is open for research. Contact Library staff for details.
Arranged alphabetically by document type.
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.
The Santa Fe case files were initially stored with Jim Seal, and independent bus operator, and Bill Myers, who was the historian
for Southern California Edison. Both were collaborating on passenger train history and obtained the case file when they learned
that the California Public Utilities Commission was disposing of it. They loaned the entire file to Greg Thompson circa 1983,
who used it in writing his dissertation. Around 1987 he returned it to them, but they made a copy for him to keep.
[Identification of item], Santa Fe case file, MS 848, California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, Sacramento, California.
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."
Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Library & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of
the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
The santa fe case. (1938). Opinions and orders of the railroad commission of California, 239-310.
Thompson, Gregory. (1993). The passenger train in the motor age: California’s rail and bus industries, 1910-1941. Columbus,
OH: Ohio State University Press.
Thompson, Gregory. (2011). Public Policy or Popular Demand?: Why Californians Shifted from Trains to Autos (and Not Buses),
1910–1941. Transfers. 1. 105-129. 10.3167/trans.2011.010207.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Santa Fe Transportation Company
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company
Pacific Greyhound Lines
Southern Pacific Railroad Company