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  • felixwhynot@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    By the 1950s, virtually all streetcar companies were in terrible shape. Some were taken over by new municipal bus companies, while a total of 46 transit networks were bought up by National City Lines — the holding company linked to GM, as well as oil and tire companies, that’s at the center of all the conspiracy theories.

    While it’s true that National City continued ripping up lines and replacing them with buses — and that, long-term, GM benefited from the decline of mass transit — it’s very hard to argue that National City killed the streetcar on its own. Streetcar systems went bankrupt and were dismantled in virtually every metro area in the United States, and National City was only involved in about 10 percentof cases.

    So, there is merit to this claim that auto manufacturers were involved. Interesting to read about the financial history as well… pre-1920s bankruptcies… does feel like a failure of government to see the value here. Interesting read, ty!

    • zabadoh@ani.socialOP
      0·
      5 months ago

      One way of looking at it, the streetcar systems became so important to city life that the fares were tightly regulated as utilities, which was fine until a major disruptor in form of the automobile came along.

      But then the streetcar companies underpriced fares were a public expectation that they couldn’t persuade government to change quickly enough to adapt.

      Kind of like in modern times, COVID was a major disruptor that accelerated work-from-home trends, and away from the downtown office towers that our light rail was built to serve. So many of our public transit systems, both light rail and bus, are both struggling.