The End of An Era
Four railway officials and employees are shown aboard the Green Line parlor car, “Kentucky,” which made it’s next to last run on July 1, 1950 during ceremonies celebrating the conversion of the Fort Mitchell line from streetcars to buses. Pictured are Morris Edwards President of the Cincinnati Street Railway and the American Transit Association; William Warton, operator of the Green Line, who retires today after 28 years of service; Charles Cummins of Covington and David L. Ringo, President of the Green Line. Credit: Cincinnati Enquirer
Until 1950, Northern Kentucky was home to a web of streetcar tracks and connections that served a wide swath of the river cities and beyond. The streetcars are our heritage. One could ride the rails and visit, commute, and do business in Bromley, Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright, Park Hills, Covington, Ludlow, Latonia, Newport, Southgate, Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Thomas, and yes, even Highland Heights. The system was tied to Cincinnati by three river crossings on the Roebling, Central, and L&N Bridges.
Northern Kentucky was home to a large share of the 222 miles of streetcar tracks in the region.1
But at 12:05 AM on Sunday, July 2, 1950, that legacy became part of our past. That’s when Elmer Denigan, guiding the Fort Mitchell “rattler”, reached the end of the line and then navigated the cars back home to the to the barn at 20th and Madison in Covington. The Cincinnati, Newport and Covington Railway yielded to the buses that replaced it with the promise of additional service and modern comforts.
A day and a half earlier, in an effort to foment enthusiasm for a motorized future, the soon-to-be-mothballed “Old Kentucky” from the Fort Mitchell line led a parade of the new modern buses across the Roebling and into Dixie Terminal. The condemned cornerstone of our connectivity was forced to parade it’s spiritless, expendable replacement around town for all to see.
Then in the wee hours, it made it’s last symbolic run to the end of the Fort Mitchell line. In operation since 1903, the last surviving streetcar line in the Commonwealth went dark and the great disinvestment in our river cities commenced.
For decades Cincinnati’s streetcar system consistently carried over 100 million passengers a year.2 Comparatively, in 2000 approximately 25 million people rode Cincinnati’s Metro bus system.
By 1972, yielding to lack of ridership caused by population shifts, rising fares, and the completion of a quick connection to the airport via I-71/75 and I-275, the Green Line was out of business altogether.
The Times They Were a’ Changin’
Coincidentally enough, the same day streetcar operation came to a close in Northern Kentucky, residents learned for the first time of plans to construct a six-lane “superhighway” connecting Covington and Florence. The plan, which had been hatched a year earlier by federal officials had been more recently refined and influenced by Kenton County and Covington officials. This plan alternatively named the Dixie Expressway and the Covington-Florence Expressway would eventually be known to us as I-71/75.
The plans came to light due to a motion by the Lookout Heights Board of Trustees who drew up a resolution opposing the route of the superhighway between Covington and Maple Avenue.
The resolution failed to alter the course of history and the superhighway. Years later construction began on a stretch of interstate that would ultimately be dubbed “Death Hill”.
Northern Kentucky Streetcar 
My father worked for Green Line driving a bus for many years. I’m a little confused though with the date of retirement of the last street car run. He always told the story that Green Line discontinue general use of the trolley car system in Northern Ky but continue one line that ran through Park Hills out to Ft. Mitchell as a party car that could be rented out privately. He worked this party trolley for extra money. He was on the actual “last” trolley run in 1959 when the trolley line lost is electrical braking system coming out of Ft. Mitchell heading down the track to Covington. The trolley was full of little children for a birthday party. It is an incredible story of how they eventually got the car stopped at the bottom of Montague. That was when they officially ended use of the trolley car system deeming it unsafe.
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