Off-topic, but in reference to this line in "The Trains Done Left Me" song:

The train's done left me and the jitney bus has gone

See this excerpt regarding jitneys in Atlantic City, New Jersey
{my hometown} :

Only in Atlantic City
Jitneys are the city's unique and affordable means of transportation

by David G. Schwartz

"The jitney is an almost-uniquely Atlantic City[New Jersey} mode of transportation. Though the distinctive short buses seem timeless parts of the city, they have been around less than 100 years. Their history, however, encompasses some of the resort's best and worst times.

Jitney buses arrived on Absecon Island in 1915, when automobiles were relatively new. Though several of the larger hotels had private motorcars to pick up valued guests from the train station, most people used trolleys to get around. Jitney drivers charged 5 cents a head ("jitney" was once slang for a nickel, and the name stuck). On good summer days, drivers made between $15 and $20 a day, and even in the off-season they could expect to make $10 a shift. Jitneys were essentially large motorcars...

...the advent of casino gaming in 1978 brought the jitney drivers millions of new passengers, and with routes customized to serve casinos in the Boardwalk and Marina areas, jitneys adjusted to the new casino-driven resort. By the early 1980s, rides cost 75 cents, and routes were running profitably 24 hours a day...

To provide service to the city's growing casino population, jitney routes increased to four. In addition, in the 1990s the Jitney Association partnered with the South Jersey Transportation Authority to run free round-trip shuttles between the train station and the casinos.

The Jitney Association is currently trying to battle a free shuttle service instituted by Harrah's Entertainment to transport players between its four properties in Atlantic City. The jitney is more than a part of Atlantic City's past; it is an indelible part of American culture. In 1982, the Smithsonian Institute received a full-size retired jitney for its collections, a fitting reminder of this humble bus' contribution to the city and the nation"...

http://www.casinoconnectionac.com/department/AC_History/September_2007


-snip-

I remember jitneys in 1960s Atlantic City, New Jersey as mini-buses whose routes were only along Pacific Avenue, one of AC's main streets that extends from one end of the city to another. I recall that the jitney fare as being the same amount as a regular bus, but I can't remember how much that was but it was certainly more than 5 cents.

In contrast, in my adopted city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, "jitneys" are a referent for private cars that take the place of taxi-cabs in most low/middle class income African American neighborhoods. The practice of using private cars as taxis came about because licensed yellow cabs refused to take trips and/or to pick up passengers in Black neighborhoods. While things have improved somewhat in this regard, jitney service is still alive, and well, and still illegal [?] in most low income/middle class African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh & its surrounding towns.

Neighborhood jitney drivers are mostly older men who wait for "trips" at store fronts designated for that purpose. A person can either call for "car service" or walk to that building and ask for "car service". A person can ask for his or her favorite or regular jitney driver, or take that trip with whichever driver agrees to drive it. As is the case with legal cab service, a jitney trip is door to door service. In contrast to the custom in cabs, in jitneys a single passenger sits in the front seat so that a police officer would be unable to tell that she or he is a paying customer. Supposedly, jitneys are less expensive than cabs, but I don't know that this is [still] true.

In addition to "neighborhood" jitneys, there are also "grocery store" jitney drivers who wait outside of certain large grocery stores for "trips". Some other jitney drivers cruise down Fifth Avenue, the main street of Pittsburgh and honk their horns to pick up multiple passengers. Unlike the other jitneys who will theoretically go anywhere [except in snow and/or ice storms], these Fifth Avenue jitney drivers will only take people to the Hill District, a predominately African American neighborhood that is right next to Pittsburgh's downtown area. Fifth Avenue jitneys charge the same fare as Port Authority buses, though given the fare hikes that buses have recently undergone, maybe jitney fares are cheaper than buse fares now.

Pittsburgh's award winning playwright August Wilson wrote a play titled "Jitney". Here's some information about that play:

http://www.curtainup.com/jitney.html