A Dive Into Our Archive
The Mills Dean Library at the Trolley Museum is home to many hidden treasures. One of these treasures is the Capital Transit Weekly Pass Collection. It may surprise our readers to learn that this collection holds thousands of weekly passes; they were in use between 1933 and 1958. Our collection was created with donations from many different collectors.
Weekly passes were a convenient way for riders to pay fare for a week without a cash payment for each ride. The passes were first issued the week of December 3rd, 1933, when Capital Transit was created by the merger of the Washington Railway & Electric Company and the Capital Traction Company.
Each pass included a different design and color scheme, illustrating holidays, nature, and events.
The first pass (above),issued for the week of December 3rd, 1933, was designed by Clifford Berryman, the political cartoonist at the Evening Star (later the Washington Star). The pass featured the character he created to represent Washington, D.C. Subsequent passes were printed by the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. with ideas for individual passes created by Robert Dougan, executive assistant to the president of Capital Transit.
The ideas were sent six to seven weeks in advance. Sometimes this meant that the artwork did not correspond to reality. This happened when the cherry trees bloomed earlier or later than expected.
Weekly pass of the week of April 4, 1937 featuring Cherry Blossoms.
Weekly pass for the week of June 14, 1936, themed “School’s Out!”.
A big change occurred in 1954 when the passes changed to a plain color design (above). In 1955, a carmen’s strike caused a pause in the passes, and none were issued for weeks 27 through 33. Some of these do exist, likely owned by former transit employees. After the strike, Congress took away Capital Transit’s franchise and a new owner was sought. D.C. Transit was formed and it continued to issue plain color passes until the end of week 34 in 1958.
The passes soon became collectors’ items. Capital Transit received letters requesting passes for the early weeks and usually complied with the request as they usually had a surplus. Ridership greatly increased during World War II, and, as a result, many more passes were printed during the 1940s, making them much easier to collect. During this time “Buy War Bonds” was a common theme followed by “Buy Victory Bonds” at the end of the war (below).
The fare for the weekly passes started at $1.00 for streetcar rides only. The $1.25 pass included rides on buses in D.C. if the bus fare was ten cents or less. It was also possible to purchase a pass that included trips into Maryland: $1.50 for Zone 1 or $1.75 for Zone 2.
Today we have the SmarTrip card to use on transit in the D.C. region—useful, but certainly not as interesting.
Sources
• Genius of Passes by Dorthea J. Lewis (Unknown newspaper 5/2/1936)
•Update of Old Transit Passes by Jack Eisen (Washington Post 7/6/1978)
•Website: Capital Transit Weekly Passes by Richard Cook
•NCTM archives
