Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company

Product Details

 $50 to $75

Historical Context

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This company was originally founded in 1895 as the Gas Supply Company, it was authorized by legislature to manufacture and distribute gas fuel throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut. The name of the Gas Supply Company was changed in 1899 to Connecticut Lighting and Power Company, and its authority expanded to generating and distributing electricity. In 1901, the name was changed to Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company.

A number of streetcar and electric utility companies were acquired during the intervening years, building up a large system in the Naugatuck Valley and surrounding region. All of the property controlled by CR&L was leased to the Consolidated Railway in 1906, which in turn was leased to the Connecticut Company - a subsidiary of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

When the New Haven entered receivership, the Connecticut Company leases were cancelled in 1936 for lack of payment. The Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company resumed independent operation of its lines in 1936, but worked quickly to convert the remaining streetcar lines to bus operation by 1937. Stockholders wished to get out of the transit business, and so those operations were sold off in 1943. A number of under-performing bus routes were discontinued over the years until all service was suspended in 1972. The transit franchises were succeeded by Connecticut Transit, except in Bridgeport by the Greater Bridgeport Transportation Authority after its formation in 1975. Between 1972 and 1975, remaining local bus routes in Bridgeport were taken over fully or in part by CR&L's competing smaller bus companies: Gray Line, Chestnut Hill, Bridgeport Auto Transit, and Stratford Bus Line. A former Milford school and charter bus company- Cross Country Coach, purchased a few of CR & L's older buses to operate a regional route between Norwalk, Bridgeport, and New Haven. This was a restoration of two former CR & L routes, which commenced in 1973 and continued until Cross Country Coach ceased operations in the early 1980s.

Some of the lines in the company's system included the Central Railway and Electric Company, the Norwalk Street Railway, the Waterbury Traction Company, the Bridgeport Traction Company, the Derby Street Railway, the Milford Street Railway, the Shelton Street Railway, the Meriden, Southington and Compounce Tramway Company, and the Cheshire Street Railway

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