By Wesley Harris
Ruston once had a bus service that made the rounds to Ruston neighborhoods during the 1940 and 50s.
The privately-operated buses ran a varying number of routes, mainly to provide transportation to the downtown district and Louisiana Tech.
Owners W. E. Simmons and J. H. Kilgore started the service in January 1946 with six routes that circled from City Hall on West Mississippi Avenue to Woodland Park, Cooktown Road, U.S. 80 West, and the Washington Heights area off Vaughn Avenue.
While most municipal transit systems today rely on taxpayer dollars, Ruston Bus Lines was a private entity—chartered by the Ruston Town Council—that relied on its profits to maintain operations.
Initially, one bus would run a route and then move to the next route. For example, for Route 1, the bus left City Hall at 6:00 a.m. and arrived at Woodland Park at 6:10. It then returned to City Hall, picking up passengers along the way. At 6:20 a.m., it returned to City Hall and started Route 2 to Wilder’s Store on Cooktown Road and then to Louisiana Tech at 6:34 before returning to City Hall.
Route 3 left for U.S. 80 West at 6:35, then to Tech before returning to City Hall by 7:00 a.m. About 7:15, the bus left for Washington Heights, Wright’s Service Station on U. S. 167 South, and then back to City Hall by 7:39.
Routes 5 and 6 covered U.S. 167 north to Toma Lodge and the Farmerville Highway-East Mississippi Avenue area.
At first, the buses made their routes every two hours. Later, they repeated their loops once an hour.
Those route times wouldn’t work today with increased traffic and considerable more traffic lights.
Fare for a bus ride was 10 cents for a one-way trip, but the rate had to be raised to 12 cents in 1948 due to increased operational costs.
In 1948, a noon route was added from Ruston High School through Louisiana Tech and over to Eastland Avenue so students could go home for lunch and be back to the school by 1:00 p.m. Another route started in 1948 took workers to the California natural gas plant in the Nobles community.
By 1950, a bus route to and from Choudrant had been added.
The line appears to have shut down in late 1951. No advertisements appear after that.
Another short-lived bus line made round trips between Farmerville and Ruston, primarily to permit Union Parish residents to shop in downtown Ruston.
