08/31/2026
In 1902, three smaller trolley lines consolidated to form the International Railway Corporation (IRC). That the IRC opened a 92-mile route between Buffalo and Rochester and by 1908 had added stops along the Rochester Road (Rt. 31) corridor through Niagara and Orleans Counties.
The local trolley lines and the “interurbans” were a huge success and established Olcott as a resort destination. For the next ten years, the IRC enjoyed a monopoly on transportation in northwestern New York. Faster than horse and buggies, it became the main means of getting from one place to another. However, by 1920 competition from automobiles was cutting into the IRC business and accidents were happening. In 1903, in two cars going in opposite directions on the Lockport-Olcott line collided on the same track in Burt, killing one passenger and injuring many others. Hundreds of people who had taken the trolley to Olcott were stranded for days in the resort town after the accident. No cause for the incident was ever established, but people were then hesitant to ride the trolleys.
By 1919, a $14,000 deficit in Lockport caused the IRC to increase its fare for the first time in 20 years. Passengers would now have to pay 6¢ rather than 5¢ for a ride in Lockport. This kept the Lockport service going for another 19 years. The trolleys finally stopped running in Lockport on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1938. This account ran in the Union-Sun & Journal the next day: “The crowd [on the last ride] was good-natured but boisterous. The trolley car didn’t have a chance. Windows were smashed, advertising signs torn down, even the seats ripped up as it neared the barn on its final journey…Windows were kicked out and broken out with sticks, hammers and any weapon handy. There was always the danger of flying glass but no one was injured…The damage to the trolleys was not resented by the company. They are to be scraped and sold for junk anyway.” That same day bus service provided by the IRC took over the old trolley routes in Lockport ending an era that had begun almost 40 years earlier.
Photos: IRC employees in 1930; Lockport-Olcott interurban; Lockport interurban at Pendleton Station
