Newspaper clipping of H.M. Selander the general manager of Salt Lake City Lines during their decline. 

Newspaper clipping announcing that Salt Lake City Lines was cutting service to another route in 1965. 

Newspaper clipping discussing the Utah legislature moving to exempt Salt Lake City Lines from the state’s tax on gasoline in 1967. 

Salt Lake City Lines and the Interstate 

Once carrying a peak of nearly thirty million riders per year, in 1948 ridership had dwindled to just twelve million by 1962. H. M. Selander, general manager of the bus lines, believed the losses were temporary. He argued that freeways had already claimed thousands of acres of land and would, in time, be “strangled with traffic,” causing individuals to look once more at public transit as a viable alternative to get where they were going.[4]  

Selander would continue to oversee the bus lines as they struggled to keep running. Salt Lake City Lines continued to cut routes through 1965 to save money and stay in business.[5] 

"It is reported the cuts in service will continue until perhaps the last faithful patrons have a choice of one bus to work- and one back home and a long, long walk if they miss. Of course, they could just give up the struggle and drive."

– Salt Lake Tribune [5] 

The State of Utah approved Salt Lake City Lines to be exempted from the state motor fuel tax in 1967 to keep the service running.[6] Yet later that year the bus lines were ready to go out of business.[7] In 1969 Salt Lake City Lines was sold to the Union Street Railroad Co. as it continued to raise fares and lose money.[8] That same year, the Utah legislature passed a transit bill to authorize municipalities to establish their own public transit authorities, which would be safeguarded against the dire straits Salt Lake City Lines had found itself in. [9]