Prior to 1936, many privately owned motorcoach companies found themselves isolated with regard to the interchange of passengers from their lines against the more highly organized groups. Many of these motorcoach operators saw the need for an umbrella organization that would support independent motorcoach carriers—one that would help them secure fair exchange for interline passenger business. But little was done about this need—until February 5, 1936—when a meeting was held in the office of Mr. H. W. Stewart, then General Manager of Burlington Transportation Company.

The meeting was held with the idea of forming an association—a system comprised of privately owned or independent motorcoach companies. Its primary purpose was to help increase passenger traffic between- and within- members' respective territories, thus, positively affecting economies and furnishing safer, more convenient and expeditious service for the traveling public.

Officials representing the original five member companies who attended the first meeting of the association of Trailways®—also became its managing committee—they were:

The newly organized association adopted cream and crimson as the official colors for all motorcoaches operating under the banner of Trailways®.

Within the first two years of its inception, there were 40 motorcoach companies that had united under the Trailways® banner. At the time of its founding, the Trailways® system was serving 24,023 miles of routes, principally in the Midwest. Over the next six years, companies joined Trailways® at an extremely rapid pace, adding many additional route miles, particularly in the South, East and Pacific Northwest.

In 1942, Trailways® established a national travel bureau. The bureau was added as a complement to the system's motorcoach transportation. It offered tours and charters, sightseeing, hotel accommodations and other travel-related services. After World War II, these kinds of individual packages were extremely popular with travelers. However, during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Trailways® continued the bureau as an incidental business aspect only, while other emerging motorcoach companies became heavily focused on the tour and charter business, especially in the wake of deregulation in the early 1980s. In the mid-nineties, after a review of its former successes, Trailways ® would once again focus on strengthening its travel-related services through the rebuilding of a charter and tour division dedicated to these various markets. Before the end of World War II, another 13 companies had joined the Trailways® system, making the world's largest system of independent motorcoach operators—even larger!

A significant route breakthrough was made in 1949, when six different Trailways® companies succeeded in establishing the Dixieland Route between Raleigh, NC and Dallas, TX, a distance of some 1,500 miles. Today, the majority of all member companies still participate in coordinated through-bus operations. Such procedures have helped to standardize equipment, simplify maintenance, and improve service. For more than sixty years, Trailways® has been known for offering premier intercity motorcoach travel.

Throughout the 1980s, the system of Trailways® experienced consequential changes. Deregulation was among several catalysts that would bring about the need for strategic reorganization.

Another change-catalyst that affected Trailways®' long-standing competitive edge was when the Greyhound Corporation sold its bus line in a leveraged buyout. A few months later in a calculated move to diminish the route service capacity of Trailways®, the newly independent Greyhound Lines purchased Trailways®' largest member company—Trailways® Bus System, Inc., located in Dallas, TX. This marked a significant era in Trailways®' history—because competing equally with Greyhound ended!

For an organization that was not only driven by competing equally with Greyhound, Trailways® also had to face other harsh industry realities such as the decline of intercity bus travel and the increased competition from other modes of transportation.

In the fall of 1994, under new corporate leadership, Greyhound began to once again, work with Trailways® member companies, and not against them. Today, most of Trailways®' 24 scheduled route (intercity) division members have regional interline agreements with Greyhound to help provide long-haul service for their passengers.

Cooperation with Greyhound has also extended to bus terminals, scheduling and fare information services.

The turnabout at Greyhound, combined with a desire by many Trailways® members to cooperate where possible, has meant a shift in expansion focus for the organization. Long haul, scheduled route recruitment of members into Trailways® is no longer its primary marketing focus.

And the priority focus for members in the scheduled route division has moved to complete route maintenance, which includes a variety of member cooperative services, programs and the procurement of their presence on Trailways®' current routes.

From 1936 until 1996, membership in Trailways® was limited to the recruitment of companies whose primary income was scheduled route service! Scheduled route membership expansion is still an organizational goal—but on a limited basis.

Today in anticipation of the changes and challenges that will impact the industry throughout the 21st Century, Trailways® is undergoing a calculated restructuring effort to become a fully expanded and highly integrated transportation and travel services organization. Once this transformation effort is complete, Trailways® will become a worldwide, multimodal transportation organization, offering consumers expansive transportation and travel-related services, which includes the following: Scheduled Route Service, Charters, Tours, Airport and Corporate Shuttles, Limousine and Transit Services, Military Moves, School Bus Assistance, Sightseeing and Travel Planning, Package & Freight conveyance as well as Air, Rail and Sea travel access.

Trailways® A membership-based marketing organization comprised of privately owned and operated transportation companies providing a wide range of travel-related services.

Trailways® Travel services include, but are not limited to, the following:
Scheduled Route, Intercity and Transit
Charter and Executive Day Coaches
Tours, Travel Planning
Escorted Motorcoach Tours, Guides and Sightseeing Services
Corporate Commuter and Business Shuttles
School and Military Transfers
Cruise Ship, Airline, and Rail Connections and more.