The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), in operation since 1902, and the immediate predecessor of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).

PTC was established on January 1, 1940, by the merger of the PRT and several smaller, then-independent transit companies operating in and near the city. It operated a citywide system of bus, trolley, and trackless trolley routes; the Market–Frankford Line (subway-elevated rail); the Broad Street Line (subway); and the Delaware River Bridge Line (subway-elevated rail to City Hall in Camden, New Jersey, and now part of the PATCO Speedline).

In 1955, majority control of PTC was acquired by the National City Lines holding company, which had a record of replacing trolleys with buses in other cities. NCL followed suit in Philadelphia. In 1954, the PTC trolley system included forty-five lines, using more than 1,500 trolley cars. Between 1954 and 1958, three-quarters of the trolley lines were abandoned, and 984 trolley cars were scrapped, replaced by 1,000 new buses.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) was established in 1964, as part of efforts by the Pennsylvania legislature to coordinate government subsidies to various transit and railroad companies in southeastern Pennsylvania. SEPTA acquired the Philadelphia Transportation Company in 1968.