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In 1886 the Capital City Railway Company began service in downtown Montgomery with America’s first city wide Electric Trolley system. Soon to be know as the “Lightning Route,” the system enjoyed and still does presently enjoy a great success. In 1936, after nearly fifty years of service, The Lightning Route was replaced by buses. The Lightning Route went back into operations by a private company in the 1980’s and is fully operated today by the Montgomery Area Transit System.
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The City of Montgomery purchased the Montgomery Area Transit System in 1974 and contracted the American Transit Corporation to operate the system. In February, 1998, the City of Montgomery replaced its system of 17 fixed routes with Demand and Response Transit (DART), a call-in reservation service. Demand and Response Transit was formed in an effort to provide more effective service.
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In January, 2000, it was determined that the Demand and Response Transit system was not serving the citizens of Montgomery in an effective and efficient manner. On February 2, 2000, the Montgomery City Council voted to establish, on a trail basis, three (3) new fixed routes to begin on March 6, 2000. The trial run of the fixed route service proved to be both more effective and efficient in serving the transportation needs of the citizens of Montgomery. The new fixed route system was such a success, that the City of Montgomery approved six additional fixed routes. The Montgomery Area Transit System is still today owned by the City of Montgomery and operated by First Transit Group Incorporated through contract.
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Perhaps one the most memorable icons of the Civil Rights movement, Rosa Parks sits in the front of a city bus in Montgomery, AL on Dec. 21, 1956, the day a Supreme Court ruling banning segregation of the city's public transit vehicles went into effect.
For more information on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, try the Montgomery Bus Boycott page maintained by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
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The Rosa Parks commemorative bus as it sits outside the opening of the Rosa Parks museum on December 1, 2000.
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