View source for General Motors streetcar conspiracy

{{short description|Alleged conspiracy by GM and others to replace streetcar lines with buses}}
{{use mdy dates|cs1-dates=y|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox event
| title                    = General Motors <br>streetcar conspiracy
| image                    = General Motors building 089833pv.jpg  
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| caption                  = [[Cadillac Place]], the GM headquarters<br> building as seen in 1981
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| duration                 = <!-- {{duration|h=x|m=x|s=x}} or {{time interval|date1|date2|options}} -->
| date                     = 1938–1951
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| location                 = [[United States]]
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| accused                  = {{unbulleted list
  | [[General Motors]]
  | [[Firestone Tire and Rubber Company|Firestone]]
  | [[Standard Oil of California]]
  | [[Phillips Petroleum]]
  | [[Mack Trucks]]
  }}
| convicted                = 
| charges                  = Violation of the<br>[[Sherman Antitrust Act]]
| trial                    = 
| verdict                  = GM fined $5,000
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The '''General Motors streetcar conspiracy''' refers to the convictions of [[General Motors]] (GM) and related companies that were involved in the monopolizing of the sale of buses and supplies to [[National City Lines]] (NCL) and subsidiaries, as well as to the allegations that the defendants conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]]. This suit created lingering suspicions that the defendants had in fact plotted to dismantle [[tram|streetcar]] systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation.

Between 1938 and 1950, National City Lines and its subsidiaries, American City Lines and [[Pacific City Lines]]—with investment from GM, [[Firestone Tire and Rubber Company|Firestone Tire]], [[Standard Oil of California]] (through a subsidiary), Federal Engineering, [[Phillips Petroleum]], and [[Mack Trucks]]—gained control of additional transit systems in about 25 cities.{{efn|Some put the number as high as 100, but reliable sources suggest that National had already acquired 20 city systems and two interurbans by the end of 1937,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ruggles |first1=C.O. |title=Problems in public utility economics and management |publisher=McGraw Hill |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068096257;view=1up;seq=191 |via=Hathitrust.org |access-date=2014-11-19}}</ref> and these should be subtracted from the 46 systems mentioned in the case,<ref name="Subcommittee">{{cite book |author=U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly |title=The Industrial Reorganization Act: Hearings, Ninety-third Congress, First Session [-Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session], On S. 1167 |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005440360;view=1up;seq=119 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Hathitrust.org |year=1973 |access-date=2014-11-18}}</ref> and adjusted to reflect the splitting of the Elgin-Aurora line into two systems.}} Systems included [[Streetcars in St. Louis|St. Louis]], [[Baltimore Streetcar System|Baltimore]], [[Los Angeles]], and [[Oakland, California|Oakland]]. NCL often converted streetcars to [[bus]] operations in that period, although electric traction was preserved or expanded in some locations. Other systems, such as [[San Diego]]'s, were converted by outgrowths of the City Lines. Most of the companies involved were convicted in 1949 of [[Conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] to [[Monopoly|monopolize]] interstate commerce in the sale of buses, fuel, and supplies to NCL subsidiaries, but were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the transit industry.

The story as an urban legend has been written about by Martha Bianco, Scott Bottles, Sy Adler, Jonathan Richmond,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Richmond|first1=Jonathan|title=Transport of Delight The Mythical Conception of Rail Transit in Los Angeles|publisher=University of Akron Press}}</ref> Cliff Slater,<ref>{{cite journal |title=General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars |journal=Transportation Quarterly |location=US |date=Summer 1997 |pages=45–66 |url=https://utahrails.net/streetcars/slater_GM-demise-of-streetcars.pdf}}</ref> and Robert Post. It has been depicted several times in print, film, and other media, notably in the fictional film ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'', documentary films such as ''[[Taken for a Ride]]'' and ''[[The End of Suburbia]]'' and the book ''Internal Combustion''.{{Not verified in body|date=March 2023|reason=This sentence is not referenced at all in the rest of the article. Further, this paragraph may need to be moved to the end of the article.}}

Only a handful of U.S. cities, including [[San Francisco Municipal Railway|San Francisco]], [[Streetcars in New Orleans|New Orleans]], [[Newark Light Rail|Newark]], [[RTA Rapid Transit|Cleveland]], [[SEPTA|Philadelphia]], [[Pittsburgh Light Rail|Pittsburgh]], and [[MBTA|Boston]], have surviving legacy rail urban transport systems based on streetcars, although their systems are significantly smaller than they once were. Other cities, such as [[DC Streetcar|Washington DC]], and [[The Tide (light rail network)|Norfolk]], have re-introduced streetcars.

==History==
===Background===
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|image1 = Horse_Drawn_Streetcar.jpg
|image2 = Old_Post_Office_and_General_Store,_Plymouth_Meeting.jpg
|image3 = Denver streetcar in 1895.jpg
|footer = Left to right: Horse-drawn, electric, and cable street cars in the United States
}}

In the latter half of the 19th century, transit systems were generally rail, first [[horsecar|horse-drawn streetcars]], and later [[electricity|electric powered]] [[tram|streetcars]] and [[cable car (railway)|cable cars]]. Rail was more comfortable and had less [[rolling resistance]] than street traffic on [[sett (paving)|granite block]] or [[macadam]] and horse-drawn streetcars were generally a step up from the [[horsebus]]. Electric traction was faster, more sanitary, and cheaper to run; with the cost, excreta, [[epizootic]] risk, and carcass disposal of horses eliminated entirely. Streetcars were later seen as obstructions to traffic, but for nearly 20 years they had the highest [[power-to-weight ratio]] of anything commonly found on the road, and the lowest rolling resistance.

Streetcars paid ordinary business and property taxes, but also generally paid franchise fees, maintained at least the shared right-of-way, and provided street sweeping and snow clearance. They were also required to maintain minimal service levels. Many franchise fees were fixed or based on gross (v. net); such arrangements, when combined with fixed fares, created gradual impossible financial pressures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goddard |first1=Stephen B. |title=Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century |date=Nov 15, 1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=69–70}}</ref> Early electric cars generally had a two-man crew, a holdover from [[horsecar]] days, which created financial problems in later years as salaries outpaced revenues.<ref name="Post Urban Mass">{{cite book|last1=Post|first1=Robert|title=Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|pages=75–77}}</ref>

Many electric lines—especially in the West—were tied into other real estate or transportation enterprises. The [[Pacific Electric]] and the [[Los Angeles Railway]] were especially so, in essence [[loss leader]]s for property development and long haul shipping.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedricks |first1=William B |title=Henry E. Huntington and the Creation of Southern California |date=1992 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |page=104}}</ref>

By 1918, half of US streetcar mileage was in bankruptcy.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=20712890 |last1=Smerk |first1=George M. |title=Urban Mass Transportation: From Private to Public to Privatization |journal=Transportation Journal (American Society of Transportation & Logistics Inc) |date=Fall 1986 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=83–91}} See p. 85.</ref>

===Early years===
[[File:OctopusTheVerdict1899.jpg|thumb|''The Menace of the Hour'', 1899 illustration by George Luks depicting the new electric subway system in New York City as an octopus ("the menace")]]

[[John D. Hertz]], better remembered for his car rental business, was also an early motorbus manufacturer and operator. In 1917 he founded the [[Chicago Motor Coach Company]], which operated buses in Chicago,<ref name=CTAhist>{{cite web |url=http://www.transitchicago.com/news/default.aspx?pg=92&ArticleId=1423 |title=CTA Marks 50 Years as Chicago's Major Public Transit Provider |date=2002-10-01 |publisher=[[Chicago Transit Authority]] |access-date=2012-04-29}}</ref> and in 1923, he founded the [[Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company]], a manufacturer of buses. He then formed [[The Omnibus Corporation]] in 1926 with "plans embracing the extension of motor coach operation to urban and rural communities in every part of the United States"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/a/american_motor_bus/american_motor_bus3.htm |title=Untitled |work=New York Times |date=July 16, 1924 |via=Coachbult.com}}</ref> that then purchased the [[Fifth Avenue Coach Company]] in New York.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=nyhs/fifthave.xml&style=nyhs/nyhs.xsl&part=body |title=Guide to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection 1895–1962 |work=New York History Society }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{author missing}}</ref> The same year, the Fifth Avenue Coach Company acquired a majority of the stock in the struggling [[New York Railways Corporation]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/05/24/archives/coach-line-ready-to-rip-up-car-tracks-in-a-wide-bus-plan-fifth-av.html |title=Coach line ready to rip up car tracks in a wide bus plan; Fifth Av. Company Promises Quick Start if the city Approves Project. |work=The New York Times |date=24 May 1926 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> (which had been bankrupted and reorganized at least twice). In 1926, General Motors acquired a controlling share of the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company and appointed Hertz as a main board director.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coachbult.com - Hertz |url=http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/h/hertz/hertz.htm |access-date=2024-03-01 |website=www.coachbuilt.com}}</ref> Hertz's bus lines, however, were not in direct competition with any streetcars, and his core business was the higher-priced "motor coach".<ref name=CTAhist/>

[[File:72 Pass. Double Deck Coach - 1936. (Chicago Motor Coach Comp - (3592634391).jpg|thumb|left|A Chicago Motor Coach Company double decker bus in 1936]]

By 1930, most streetcar systems were aging and losing money. Service to the public was suffering; the [[Great Depression]] compounded this. Yellow Coach tried to persuade transit companies to replace streetcars with buses, but could not persuade the power companies that owned the streetcar operations to motorize.{{sfn|Bianco|1998|pp=9–10}} GM decided to form a new subsidiary—United Cities Motor Transport (UCMT)—to finance the conversion of streetcar systems to buses in small cities. The new subsidiary made investments in small transit systems in [[Kalamazoo, Michigan|Kalamazoo]] and [[Saginaw, Michigan]], and in [[Springfield, Ohio]], where they were successful in conversion to buses.{{sfn|Bianco|1998|pp=9–10}} UCMT then approached the [[Portland, Oregon]], system with a similar proposal.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bianco |first=Martha J. |date=Winter 1997 |title=The Decline of Transit—Corporate Conspiracy or Failure of Public Policy?: The Case of Portland, Oregon |journal=Journal of Policy History |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=461–464|doi=10.1017/S0898030600006175|s2cid=154495266 }}</ref> The UCMT was censured by the American Transit Association and dissolved in 1935.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7WtKH-9ha4MC |title=The automobile age |last=Flink |first =James J. |year=1990 |publisher=MIT Press |page=365 |isbn=978-0-262-56055-9}}</ref>

The [[New York Railways Corporation]] began conversion to buses in 1935, with the new bus services being operated by the [[New York City Omnibus Corporation]], which shared management with The Omnibus Corporation.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PYEiu6CC7AC |title=Securities and Exchange Commission |page=238 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1945 |quote=The New York Omnibus Corporation, successor to the New York Railways Corporation commenced the operation of bus route in 1936. In all but one year since then it has been profitable|last1=Securities And Exchange Commission |first1=United States }}</ref> During this period, GM worked with [[Transport of New Jersey|Public Service Transportation]] in New Jersey to develop the "All-Service Vehicle", a bus also capable of working as a trackless trolley, allowing off-wire passenger collection in areas too lightly populated to pay for wire infrastructure.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Francis R. |title=Electric transportation |series=International texts in electrical engineering: E. E. Dreese ... Consulting editor |date=1940 |publisher=International textbook company |asin=B003IH9ZNA |location=Scranton, PA |page=40 |edition=1 |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068154510;view=1up;seq=54 |access-date=2015-03-11}}</ref>

Opposition to traction interests and their influence on politicians was growing.{{dubious|reason=this was a staple of urban politics in many areas for a couple of decades.|date=March 2015}} For example, in 1922, New York Supreme Court Justice [[John Ford (New York politician)|John Ford]] came out in favor of [[William Randolph Hearst]], a newspaper magnate, for mayor of New York, complaining that [[Al Smith]] was too close to the "traction interests".<ref>{{cite news|title=Ford says Smith too close to traction interests|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9322550/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|access-date=4 March 2017|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|date=3 September 1922|page=A5}}</ref> In 1925, Hearst complained about Smith in a similar way.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19250906&id=hZ9QAAAAIBAJ&pg=6812,7082455 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222170447/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19250906&id=hZ9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jSEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6812,7082455 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-12-22 |title=Smith Hearst battle a wow |year=1925}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=January 2017}} In the 1941 film ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', the lead character, who was loosely based on Hearst and [[Samuel Insull]], complains about the influence of the "traction interests".<ref>{{cite book |title=Orson Welles's Citizen Kane: A Casebook |editor-last=Naremore |editor-first=James |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195158915 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzCH4UgSUr8C&pg=PA93}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/citi2.html |title=Citizen Kane |first=Tim |last=Dirks |quote=Soon, Kane uses the paper to attack trusts, Thatcher and others among America's financial elite. Headlines of the Inquirer blare out the exposé in a montage of early Inquirer newspaper headlines: "TRACTION TRUST EXPOSED," "TRACTION TRUST BLEEDS PUBLIC WHITE," and "TRACTION TRUST SMASHED BY INQUIRER." |access-date=17 August 2022 |website=Filmsite}}</ref>

The [[Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]], which made it illegal for a single private business to both provide [[public transport]] and supply [[electricity]] to other parties, forced electricity generator companies to divest from trolley, streetcar, electric suburban, and interurban transit operators that they used to [[Cross subsidization|cross-subsidize]] in order to increase the basis of their limited return on investment.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

===National City Lines, Pacific City Lines, American City Lines===
In 1936, [[National City Lines]] (NCL), which had been started in 1920 as a minor bus operation by E. Roy Fitzgerald and his brother,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/42124846/ |title=The Nebraska State Journal from Lincoln, Nebraska |date=1943-10-19 |page=5 |quote=The five Fitzgerald brothers, who in 24 years ran a secondhand bus into a transportation system extending from Michigan to Texas... The five brothers started on the well known shoestring and ran a second hand bus into a monster transportation system which spreads from Michigan to Texas.}}</ref> was reorganized "for the purpose of taking over the controlling interest in certain operating companies engaged in city bus transportation and overland bus transportation" with loans from the suppliers and manufacturers.{{sfn|Bianco|1998|pp=9–10}} In 1939, Roy Fitzgerald, president of NCL, approached Yellow Coach Manufacturing, requesting additional financing for expansion.{{sfn|Bianco|1998|p=4}} In the 1940s, NCL raised funds for expansion from [[Firestone Tire]], Federal Engineering, a subsidiary of [[Standard Oil of California]] (now Chevron Corporation), [[Phillips Petroleum]] (now part of [[ConocoPhillips]]), GM, and [[Mack Trucks]] (now a subsidiary of [[Volvo]]).{{sfn|Bianco|1998|p=4}} [[Pacific City Lines]] (PCL), formed as a subsidiary of NCL in 1938, was to purchase streetcar systems in the western United States.<ref name="para8">{{harvnb|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}}, Para 8 "Pacific City Lines was organized for the purpose of acquiring local transit companies on the Pacific Coast and commenced doing business in January 1938."</ref> PCL merged with NCL in 1948.<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}} "National City Lines and Pacific City Lines merged in 1948 and continued their practice of 'bustitution.'"</ref> American City Lines (ACL), which had been organized to acquire local transportation systems in the larger metropolitan areas in various parts of the country in 1943, was merged with NCL in 1946.<ref name="para8"/> The federal government investigated some aspects of NCL's financial arrangements in 1941 (which calls into question the conspiracy myths' centrality of Quinby's 1946 letter).<ref>{{cite web |authorlink=United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce |author=((U.S. House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce)) |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112104227691;view=1up;seq=1148 |via=Hathitrust.org |access-date=2015-02-02 |date=1941 |page=1124 |title=Hearings: Seventy-seventh Congress, First Session}}</ref> By 1947, NCL owned or controlled 46 systems in 45 cities in 16 states.<ref name=Hist2>{{harvnb|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}}, para 6 "At the time the indictment was returned, the City Lines defendants had expanded their ownership or control to 46 transportation systems located in 45 cities across 16 states."</ref>

From 1939 through 1940, NCL or PCL attempted a [[takeover#Hostile takeovers|hostile takeover]] of the [[Key System]], which operated electric trains and streetcars in [[Oakland, California]]. The attempt was temporarily blocked by a syndicate of Key System insiders, with controlling interest secured on January 8, 1941.<ref>{{cite news |date=1941-01-09 |title=Control of Rail System:Acquired |pages=17 |publisher=San Bernardino Sun |agency=United Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/49139732/ |quote=Control of Rail System: Acquired (By United Press) San Francisco, Jan. 8. Control of the Railway Equipment & Realty Co., formerly the Key System, which operates interurban train service between San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda and local service in the latter cities, has been acquired by a group of Oakland businessmen, headed by A. J. Lundberg, president, and William P. St. Sure, vice-president, it was announced tonight. St. Sure said control of the transit firm was acquired "to prevent its acquisition by outside interests." National City Lines, a Chicago corporation, had been reported interested in buying Railway Equipment & Realty for the last year. The Oakland group purchased a majority of the stock on the San Francisco stock exchange today. A block of 26,500 shares sold at $5 a share.}}</ref> By 1946, PCL had acquired 64% of the stock in the Key System.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

Beginning in the 1940s, NCL and PCL slowly took control of Los Angeles' two streetcar systems: [[Pacific Electric|Pacific Electric Railway]] (known as the "Red Cars") and [[Los Angeles Railway]] (known as the "Yellow Cars"). In 1940, PCL acquired Pacific Electric's operations in Glendale, Burbank, and Pasadena.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=1940-06-06 |title=Pacific Electric Ry. Sells Local Services; Bus and Rail Lines Conveyed by Southern Pacific Unit |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/06/06/archives/pacific-electric-ry-sells-local-services-bus-and-rail-lines.html |access-date=2023-05-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Lines to [[Upland–San Bernardino Line|San Bernardino]] were phased out in 1941 and the [[Hollywood Subway]], which ran lines from [[Glendale–Burbank Line|Burbank]], [[Glendale–Burbank Line|Glendale]], and the San Fernando Valley, closed in 1955.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vessey |first=Laurence R. |title=A history of the rail passenger service operated by the Pacific Electric Railway Company since 1911 : and by its successors since 1953 |publisher=Interurbans |year=1958 |isbn= |location=Los Angeles}}</ref><ref>"L.A. Subway Closes After Special Trolley Car Trip" (PDF). [[Los Angeles Times]]. June 20, 1955. p. 8. Retrieved May 24, 2023.</ref> In 1945, ACL acquired Los Angeles Railway at a price of about $13,000,000.<ref name=":0">Quinby, Edwin J. Pamphlet. (1947).</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Rasmussen |first=Cecilia |date=2003-03-23 |title=From the Archives: Did Auto, Oil Conspiracy Put the Brakes on Trolleys? |url=https://www.latimes.com/me-2003-los-angeles-streetcar-history-story.html |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Soon after, the company announced it would scrap all but three of the existing Yellow Car lines.<ref name=":0" />

In 1953, the remainder of Pacific Electric's network was sold to Metropolitan City Lines, a subsidiary of PCL.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bail |first=Eli |title=From Railway to Freeway Pacific Electric and the Motor Coach |url=http://www.erha.org/mcl.htm |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=www.erha.org}}</ref> Subsequently, the remaining assets of the original Pacific Electric system and the original Los Angeles Railway system were sold by Metropolitan City Lines and Los Angeles Transit Lines, respectively, to the newly formed [[Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority]].<ref>{{cite news |date=6 May 1955 |title=Plan for Public Purchase of Transit Lines Revealed: Legislature Will Get Bill to Legalize Agreements on Sale With Metro and LATL Transit Lines |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |id={{ProQuest|166781491}}}}</ref> Under the new public authority, the final remaining streetcars in Los Angeles were phased out, with the final Red Car (Los Angeles to Long Beach Line) making its last service on April 9, 1961 and the last Yellow Car (V Line) on March 31, 1963.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Scott |date=2016-01-03 |title=Tracking the slow decline of the Pacific Electric Railway Red Cars |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-california-retrospective-red-car-20160103-story.html |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-09-03 |title=1948 and 1963: Coverage of the demise of L.A.’s streetcars |url=http://documents.latimes.com/1948-1963-los-angeles-streetcar-coverage/ |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=latimes.com |language=en}}</ref>

===Edwin J. Quinby===
In 1946, Edwin Jenyss Quinby, an activated reserve [[Commander (United States)|commander]],{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} founder of the Electric Railroaders' Association in 1934 (which [[lobbying|lobbied]] on behalf of rail users and services),<ref name=Quimby>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4TrXitjuU8C&pg=PA192 |title=Suburbanizing the masses: public transport and urban development in historical perspective |editor1-last=Divall |editor1-first=Colin |editor2-last=Bond |editor2-first=Winstan |year=2003 |page=192 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-0-7546-0775-5 |access-date=2011-04-08}}</ref> and former employee of [[North Jersey Rapid Transit]] (which operated into New York State), published a 24-page "expose" on the ownership of National City Lines addressed to "The Mayors; The City Manager; The City Transit Engineer; The members of The Committee on Mass-Transportation and The Tax-Payers and The Riding Citizens of Your Community". It began, "This is an urgent warning to each and every one of you that there is a careful, deliberately planned campaign to swindle you out of your most important and valuable public utilities–your Electric Railway System".<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}}</ref> His activism may have led Federal authorities to prosecute GM and the other companies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}}  "Quinby’s charges would finally bestir the government to begin an investigation into National City Lines and its owners and subsidiaries and suddenly the opposition changed their tactics (in a clear admission of guilt)..."
Thanks to Quinby’s warning, the Feds eventually took GM to trial and convicted them for controlling these companies to monopolize sales of its products, a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act."</ref>

He also questioned who was behind the creation of the [[Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]], which had caused such difficulty for streetcar operations,<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}}. "No one sought an answer to Quinby’s most penetrating question (referring to the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act), "Who Is Behind This Campaign To Separate The Obviously Economical Combination Of Electric Railway And Its Power Plant?""</ref> He was later to write a history of North Jersey Rapid Transit.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.getcited.net/pub/101282454 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309065629/http://www.getcited.net/pub/101282454 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-03-09 |title=Interurban interlude: A history of the North Jersey Rapid Transit Company}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2017}}

===Court cases, conviction, and fines===
On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were [[Indictment#United States|indicted]] in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of California|Federal District Court of Southern California]] on counts of "[[Conspiracy (civil)|conspiring]] to acquire control of a number of transit companies, forming a transportation [[monopoly]]" and "conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines"<ref name=para1>{{harvnb|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}}, para 1, "On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals, constituting officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants, were indicted on two counts, the second of which charged them with conspiring to monopolize certain portions of interstate commerce, in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 2."</ref> In 1948, the venue was changed from the Federal District Court of Southern California to the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois|Federal District Court in Northern Illinois]] following an appeal to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] (in ''United States v. National City Lines Inc.'')<ref>{{cite web |url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/334/573.html |title=United States v. National City Lines, 334 U.S. 573 (1948) |work=FindLaw |year=1948}}</ref> which felt that there was evidence of conspiracy to monopolize the supply of buses and supplies.<ref name=para33a>{{harvnb|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}} "We think the evidence is clear that when any one of these suppliers was approached, its attitude was that it would be interested in helping finance City Lines, provided it should receive a contract for the exclusive use of its products in all of the operating companies of the City Lines, so far as buses and tires were concerned, and, as to the oil companies, in the territory served by the respective petroleum companies. It may be of little importance, but it seems to be the fact, at least we think the jury was justified in inferring it to be the fact, that the proposal for financing came from City Lines but that proposal of exclusive contracts came from the suppliers. At any rate, it is clear that eventually each supplier entered into a written contract of long duration whereby City Lines, in consideration of suppliers' help in financing City Lines, agreed that all of their operating subsidiaries should use only the suppliers' products."</ref>

In 1949, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, GM, and Mack Trucks were [[Conviction|convicted]] of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by NCL; they were [[Acquittal|acquitted]] of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies. The verdicts were upheld on [[appeal]] in 1951.<ref name=para33b>{{harvnb|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}}, para 33, "We have considered carefully all the evidence offered and excluded. We think that the court's rulings were fair, and that, having permitted great latitude in admitting testimony as to intent, purpose and reasons for the making of the contracts, the court, in its discretion, was entirely justified in excluding the additional testimony offered."</ref> GM was fined {{USD|5,000|year=1951|long=no|round=-3}} and GM treasurer H.C. Grossman was fined $1.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snell|1974|p=103}} "The court imposed a sanction of $5,000 on GM. In addition, the jury convicted H.C. Grossman, who was then treasurer of GM. Grossman had played a key role in the motorization campaigns and had served as a director of Pacific City Lines when that company undertook the dismantlement of the $100 million Pacific Electric system. The court fined Grossman the magnanimous sum of $1"</ref> The trial judge said "I am very frank to admit to counsel that after a very exhaustive review of the entire transcript in this case, and of the exhibits that were offered and received in evidence, that I might not have come to the same conclusion as the jury came to were I trying this case without a jury,"<ref name="Subcommittee"/> explicitly noting that he might not himself have convicted in a [[bench trial]].

In 1948, the [[San Diego Electric Railway]] was sold to Western Transit Company, owned by J. L. Haugh, for $5.5 million.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Transit in San Diego: ASCE Anniversary Project |first=Gena |last=Holle |journal=The Journal of San Diego History |volume=48 |number=1 |year=2002 |url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-1/holle.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004181539/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-1/holle.htm |archive-date=2012-10-04 }}</ref> Haugh was also president of the Key System, and later was involved in Metropolitan Coach Line's purchase of the passenger operations of the [[Pacific Electric Railway]]. The last San Diego streetcars were converted to buses by 1949.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/may/29/san-diego-streetcar-will-take-route-past/|url-status=dead |title=San Diego streetcar will take a route to the past |date=30 May 2011 |first=Robert J. |last=Hawkins |work=The San Diego Union-Tribune |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150312063156/http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/may/29/san-diego-streetcar-will-take-route-past/ |archive-date=12 March 2015}}</ref> Haugh sold the bus-based San Diego system to the city in 1966.<ref>{{harvnb|Holle|2002}}. "By 1963 Haugh said he'd be out of business within two years if things didn't improve, and suggested a public takeover of the transit system. The City Council of San Diego presented a ballot proposition that provided for city ownership of San Diego Transit. Upon voter approval in 1966, the city paid Haugh $2 million for the bus company."</ref>

The [[History of MTA Maryland|Baltimore Streetcar system]] operated by the Baltimore Transit Company was purchased by NCL in 1948 and started converting the system to buses. Overall Baltimore Transit ridership then plummeted by double digits in each of the following three years.<ref name=BTC>{{cite book |last=Pietila |first=Antero |title=Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F--pkeY0kr8C&pg=PA220 |isbn=978-1566638432 |pages=220–221 |access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref> The [[Pacific Electric Railway]]'s struggling passenger operations were purchased by Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953 and were taken into public ownership in 1958 after which the last routes were converted to bus operation.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Transit Authority Begins Operating LATL and Metro: Public Now Owns Big Bus Lines MTA TAKES OVER LATL AND METRO |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=4 March 1958 |page=B1 }}</ref>

===Urban Mass Transportation Act and 1974 Antitrust hearings===
The [[Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964]] (UMTA) created the [[Urban Mass Transit Administration]] with a remit to "conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas" noting that "our national welfare therefore requires the provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and modern mass transport to help shape as well as serve urban growth". Funding for transit was increased with the [[Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970]] and further extended by the [[National Mass Transportation Assistance Act]] (1974) which allowed funds to support transit operating costs as well as capital construction costs.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

In 1970, Harvard Law student Robert Eldridge Hicks began working on the [[Ralph Nader]] Study Group Report on Land Use in California, alleging a wider conspiracy to dismantle U.S. streetcar systems, first published in ''Politics of Land: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California''.<ref>pp.&nbsp;410–12, compiled by Robert C. Fellmeth, Center for Study of Responsive Law, Grossman Publishers</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2017}}

During 1973, Bradford Snell, an attorney with [[Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman|Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro]]{{Sfn|Slater|1997}} and formerly, for a brief time, a scholar with the [[Brookings Institution]], prepared a controversial and disputed paper titled "American ground transport: a proposal for restructuring the automobile, truck, bus, and rail industries."{{Sfn|Snell|1974}} The paper, which was funded by the Stern Fund, was later described as the centerpiece of the hearings.<ref>{{cite book |title=Alfred P. Sloan: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management |last=Wood |first=John C. |page=385 |isbn=978-0415248327 |year=2003 |quote=The centerpiece of the hearings was a study written by Bradford C. Snell}}</ref> In it, Snell said that General Motors was "a sovereign economic state" and said that the company played a major role in the displacement of rail and bus transportation by buses and trucks.<ref>{{harvnb|Snell|1974|p=2}}. "it demonstrates General Motors to be a sovereign economic state, whose common control of auto, truck, bus and locomotive production was a major factor in the displacement of rail and bus transportation by cars and trucks"</ref>

This paper was distributed in Senate binding together with an accompanying statement in February 1974, implying that the contents were the considered views of the Senate.<ref name=Snell1974>{{cite web |last=Snell |first=Bradford |title=Statement of Bradford C. Snell Before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly |work=Hearings on the Ground Transportation Industries in Connection with S1167 |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/testimony/1974_statement_bradford_c_snell_s1167.pdf |access-date=2012-08-22 |publisher=S.C.R.T.D. Library |date=February 26, 1974a}}</ref> The chair of the committee later apologized for this error.{{sfn|United States Senate|1974|pp=2325–2326}} Adding to the confusion, Snell had already joined the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly as a staff member.{{sfn|Bianco|1998|p=7}}

At the hearings in April 1974, [[San Francisco]] mayor and antitrust attorney [[Joseph Alioto]] testified that "General Motors and the automobile industry generally exhibit a kind of ''monopoly evil''", adding that GM "has carried on a deliberate concerted action with the oil companies and tire companies...for the purpose of destroying a vital form of competition; namely, electric rapid transit". Los Angeles mayor [[Tom Bradley (American politician)|Tom Bradley]] also testified, saying that GM, through its subsidiaries (namely PCL), "scrapped the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles streetcar systems leaving the electric train system totally destroyed".<ref>{{harvnb|Slater|1997}}  "Mayor Alioto, himself a nationally prominent antitrust attorney, congratulated Snell on the "excellence" of his "very fine monograph." Alioto testified that, "General Motors and the automobile industry generally exhibit a kind of monopoly evil" and that GM "has carried on a deliberate concerted action with the oil companies and tire companies...for the purpose of destroying a vital form of cotric rapid transit. ... Mayor Bradley also testified, in absentia, saying that General Motors, through its American City Lines and Pacific City Lines affiliates, "scrapped" the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles streetcar systems to "motorize" Los Angeles. After GM was through, the 'electric train system was totally destroyed.'"</ref> Neither mayor, nor Snell himself, pointed out that the two cities were major parties to a lawsuit against GM which Snell himself had been "instrumental in bringing";<ref name="act of 1977 193">{{cite book |author=((Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs)) |title=transportation assistance act of 1977: hearing before the Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate |date=1977 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |page=193 |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002941332 |access-date=2015-12-06}}</ref> all had a direct or indirect financial interest. (The lawsuit was eventually dropped, the plaintiffs conceding they had no chance of winning.){{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

However, [[George Hilton (historian)|George Hilton]], a professor of economics at UCLA and noted transit scholar<ref>[http://newsroom.ucla.edu/dept/faculty/in-memoriam:-transportation-economist-george-hilton In Memoriam: Transportation economist George Hilton]</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2017}} rejected Snell's view, stating, "I would argue that these [Snell's] interpretations are not correct, and, further, that they couldn't possibly be correct, because major conversions in society of this character—from rail to free wheel urban transportation, and from steam to diesel railroad propulsion—are the sort of conversions which could come about only as a result of public preferences, technological change, the relative abundance of natural resources, and other impersonal phenomena or influence, rather than the machinations of a monopolist."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.citylab.com/commute/2013/06/be-careful-how-you-refer-so-called-great-american-streetcar-scandal/5771/ |title=Be Careful How You Refer to the So-Called 'Great American Streetcar Scandal' |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=June 3, 2013 |quote=The strongest rebuttal came from transit scholar George Hilton (on whose work Snell had ironically relied) in his own 1974 Senate testimony}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2017}}{{sfn|United States Senate|1974|p=2204}}

GM published a rebuttal the same year titled "The Truth About American Ground Transport". The Senate subcommittee printed GM's work in tandem with Snell's as an appendix to the hearings transcript. GM explicitly did not address the specific allegations that were ''sub judice''.<ref name="act of 1977 193"/><ref>{{cite book|author=((United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs)) |title=National mass transportation assistance act of 1977: hearing before the Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session, on S. 208 ... February 23, 24, and 24, 1977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svFcH8_kD5oC|year=1977|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref>

===Role in decline of the streetcars===
Quinby and Snell held that the destruction of streetcar systems was integral to a larger strategy to push the United States into [[automobile dependency]]. Most transit scholars disagree, suggesting that transit system changes were brought about by other factors; economic, social, and political factors such as [[watered stock|unrealistic capitalization]], fixed fares during inflation, changes in [[Road surface|paving]] and automotive technology, the [[Great Depression]], antitrust action, the [[Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]], [[labor unrest]], [[market economy|market forces]] including declining industries' difficulty in attracting capital, rapidly increasing [[traffic congestion]], the [[Good Roads Movement]], [[urban sprawl]], tax policies favoring private vehicle ownership, taxation of fixed infrastructure, [[consumerism]], franchise repair costs for co-located property, wide diffusion of driving skills, [[automatic transmission]] buses, and general enthusiasm for the automobile.{{efn|1=See elsewhere in this article for cited sources for all of these claims, notably in the '[[#Other factors|Other factors]]' section.}}

The accuracy of significant elements of Snell's 1974 testimony was challenged in an article published in ''Transportation Quarterly'' in 1997 by Cliff Slater.{{Sfn|Slater|1997}} A significant rebuttal to Slater's article was published about one year later in the 1998 ''Transportation Quarterly'' finding that, without GM and other companies' efforts, the streetcar would not "have been driven to the verge of extinction by 1968".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Transportation quarterly / Eno Foundation for Transportation v.52 1998. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015048134814?urlappend=%3Bseq=23 |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}</ref>

Recent journalistic analysis question the idea that GM had a significant impact on the decline of streetcars, suggesting rather that they were setting themselves up to take advantage of the decline as it occurred. Guy Span suggested that Snell and others fell into simplistic [[conspiracy theory]] thinking, bordering on [[paranoid delusions]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003a}} "One of the most recent villains is Bradford C. Snell, a researcher whose delusions of paranoia seem nearly limitless (at least in print)  ... Snell’s 1974 report goes on to craft a plausible case for a vast conspiracy to destroy clean, economic, and user-friendly streetcars"</ref> stating,

{{Blockquote|Clearly, GM waged a war on electric traction. It was indeed an all out assault, but by no means the single reason for the failure of rapid transit. Also, it is just as clear that actions and inactions by government contributed significantly to the elimination of electric traction."<ref name="span1"/>}}

In 2010, CBS's Mark Henricks reported:<ref name=CBSnews2010>{{cite web |last=Henricks |first=Mark |title=The GM Trolley Conspiracy: What Really Happened |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gm-trolley-conspiracy-what-really-happened |work=CBS News |date=2010-09-02}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|There is no question that a GM-controlled entity called National City Lines did buy a number of municipal trolley car systems. And it's beyond doubt that, before too many years went by, those street car operations were closed down. It's also true that GM was convicted in a post-war trial of conspiring to monopolize the market for transportation equipment and supplies sold to local bus companies. What's not true is that the explanation for these events is a nefarious plot to trade private corporate profits for viable public transportation.}}

==Other factors==
Other factors have been cited as reasons for the general decline of streetcars and public transport in the United States. Robert Post notes that the ultimate reach of GM's alleged conspiracy extended to only about 10% of American transit systems.<ref>{{cite book |title=Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology |last=Post |first=Robert C. |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |location= |isbn=978-0-313-33916-5 |page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZ6Kke0MZWwC}}</ref> Guy Span said that actions and inaction by government was one of many contributing factors in the elimination of electric traction.<ref name="span1">{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}} "Clearly, GM waged a war on electric traction. It was indeed an all out assault, but by no means the single reason for the failure of rapid transit. Also, it is just as clear that actions and inactions by government contributed significantly to the elimination of electric traction."</ref> Cliff Slater suggested that the regulatory framework in the US actually protected the electric streetcars for longer than would have been the case if there was less regulation.<ref name=even_earlier>{{harvnb|Slater|1997}} "The issue is whether or not the buses that replaced the electric streetcars were economically superior. Without GM's interference would the United States today have a viable streetcar system? This article makes the case that under a less onerous regulatory environment, buses would have replaced streetcars even earlier than they actually did."</ref>

Some regulations and regulatory changes have been linked directly to the decline of the streetcars:
*Difficult [[labor relations]] and tight regulation of fares, routes, and schedules took their toll on city streetcar systems.<ref name=Hanson>{{cite book |first1=Susan |last1=Hanson |first2=Genevieve |last2=Giuliano |title=The Geography of Urban Transportation |publisher=Guilford Press |edition=3rd |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-59385-055-5 |page=315}}</ref>
*The streetcars' contracts in many cities required them to keep the pavement on the roads surrounding the tracks in good shape. Such conditions, previously agreed to in exchange for the explicit right to operate as a monopoly in that city, became an expensive burden.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stromberg|first=Joseph|date=2015-05-07|title=The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/5/7/8562007/streetcar-history-demise|access-date=2021-08-28|work=Vox|language=en}}</ref>
*The [[Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]] prohibited regulated electric utilities from operating unregulated businesses, which included most streetcar lines. The act also placed restrictions on services operating across state lines. Many holding companies operated both streetcars and electric utilities across several states; those that owned both types of businesses were forced to sell off one.<ref>{{cite web |title=Regional History |publisher=National Capital Trolley Museum |url=http://www.dctrolley.org/exhibits.htm |access-date=2009-05-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531201102/http://www.dctrolley.org/exhibits.htm |archive-date=2009-05-31 }}</ref> Declining streetcar business was often somewhat less valuable than the growing consumer electric business, resulting in many streetcar systems being put up for sale.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Van |last=Wilkins |url=http://www.erha.org/plot.htm |title=The Conspiracy Revisited |journal=[[The New Electric Railway Journal]] |date=Summer 1995 |issn=1048-3845 |access-date=2011-05-27}}</ref> The independent lines, no longer associated with an electric utility holding company, had to purchase electricity at full price from their former parents, further shaving their already thin margins.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jonathan |last=Kwitny |title=The Great Transportation Conspiracy: A juggernaut named desire |publisher=Harper's |year=1981 |page=14}}</ref> The [[Great Depression]] then left many streetcar operators short of funds for maintenance and capital improvements.<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003b}} "And once separated from their subsidies, many died on their own at the end of the depression, without any further assistance from GM."</ref>
*In New York City, and other North American cities, the presence of restrictive legal agreements such as the [[Dual Contracts]], signed by the [[Interborough Rapid Transit Company]] and [[Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation]] of the [[New York City Subway]], restricted the ability of private mass transit operators to increase fares at a time of high inflation, allowed the city to take over them, or to operate competing subsidized transit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Beyond the IRT |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/nyunderground-beyond-irt/ |quote=The Dual Contracts doubled the size of the current system, pushing Manhattan's population northward and fostering residential growth in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. The new lines connected the beaches of Coney Island with the theaters of Times Square, and the citizens of Queens with the shopkeepers of Manhattan. But the terms of the contracts, particularly the fares and how they would be divided, would later cripple the system and threaten its continued growth.}}</ref>

Different funding models have also been highlighted:
*Streetcar lines were built using funds from private investors and were required to pay numerous taxes and [[dividend]]s. By contrast, new roads were constructed and maintained by the government from tax income.<ref name="cqpress32" /><ref name="economist" />
* By 1916, street railroads nationwide were wearing out their equipment faster than they were replacing it. While operating expenses were generally recovered, money for long-term investment was generally diverted elsewhere.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
*The U.S. government responded to the Great Depression with massive subsidies for road construction.<ref name="cqpress32">{{cite book |url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1932122400 |title=Federal Highway Aid and the Depression |series=CQ Researcher Online |year=1932 |pages=425–443 |publisher=CQ Press |quote=The annual federal highway allotment to the states, which stood for a number of years prior to 1931, at $75,000,000, was increased to $125,000,000 for the fiscal years 1931, 1932, and 1933. These sums were further augmented by emergency appropriations totaling $200,000,000, the large additional funds for road building being advanced as a means of giving work to unemployed men in every state.}}</ref>
*Later construction of the [[Interstate Highway System]] was authorized by the [[Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956]] which approved the expenditure of $25 billion of public money for the creation of a new 41,000 miles (66,000&nbsp;km) interstate road network.<ref name="economist">{{Cite news |title=The Cracks are Showing |newspaper=The Economist |date=2008-06-26 |url=http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11636517 |access-date=2008-10-23 |issn=0013-0613}}{{Subscription required}}</ref> Streetcar operators were occasionally required to pay for the reinstatement of their lines following the construction of the freeways.<ref name=dth5>{{Cite web |url=http://www.detroittransithistory.info/PCC/DetroitPCC-5.html |title=The PCC Era in Detroit – Part 5 (The Ending of an Era in Detroit and The México City Sale) |work=Detroit Transit History.info |date=2009-03-30 |access-date=2010-08-16}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2017}}</ref>{{Failed verification|reason=One operator is not operators, once is not occasionally, one line is not lines, one freeway is not freeways|date=January 2017}}
*Federal fuel taxes, introduced in 1956, were paid into a new [[Highway Trust Fund]] which could only fund highway construction (until 1983 when some 10% was diverted into a new Mass Transit Account).<ref name=Hanson/>

Other issues which made it harder to operate viable streetcar services include:
*[[Suburbanization]] and [[urban sprawl]], exacerbated in the US by [[white flight]],<ref name=BTC /> created low-density land use patterns which are not easily served by streetcars, or indeed by any public transport, to this day.<ref>{{cite book |title=Cities and Suburbs |isbn=978-1134004096 |year=2009 |page=49 |quote=Massive federal highway spending opening up rural land and kept residential land prices relatively low... The federal highway construction program, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, not only connected cities, but it also allowed commuters to travel the interstate highways into the cities from the nearby suburbs... Race also played a significant role in suburban expansion. In selected inner-city neighborhoods Blacks moved into the housing market. The resultant White flight to the suburbs was reinforced by urban renewal and integration of the school system.|last1=Hanlon |first1=Bernadette |last2=Short |first2=John Rennie |last3=Vicino |first3=Thomas J. |publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/6067616/urban-density-is-more-cost-effective-than-urban-sprawl-uitp |title=Urban density is more cost-effective than urban sprawl |publisher=UITP |quote=In low-density areas the car dominates the choice of transport, and the cost of providing public transport in high. In these sprawling cities almost all journeys are made by car}}</ref>
*Increased traffic congestion often reduced service speeds and thereby increased their operational costs and made the services less attractive to the remaining users.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://metroprimaryresources.info/1922-los-angeles-unprecedented-growth-congestion-and-a-plan-for-relief/281/ |title=1922 Los Angeles: Unprecedented Growth, Congestion And A Plan For Relief |date=July 6, 2010 |publisher=Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library |quote=He concludes that the downtown street area is insufficient for present traffic, street area is inefficiently used, outlets for traffic are insufficient, and that increasing efficiency is practically impossible due to the railway systems in operation at the time. He goes on to discuss the 2nd Street Tunnel project, the opening of 5th Street, the Pacific Electric tunnel, and plans for a Union Passenger Station.}}{{author missing}}{{date missing}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/trafficplans/1922_study_plan_relief_street_traffic_congestion_la.pdf |title=Study and Plan of Relief of the Street Traffic Congestion in the City of Low Angeles |year=1922 |first=John M |last=Terrass |page=1 |publisher=University of California, Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering |quote=Traffic congestion, in the City of Los Angeles, has increased rapidly in the past five years. Many complaints have been made by both the people and the public utilities which are directly affect by traffic congestion. Chief Engineer H.Z.Osborne, of the Los Angeles board of Public Utilities, in a discussion of traffic conditions, estimated the present yearly losses due to congestion, as being $8,365,800}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://metrotransportationlibrary.wikispaces.com/Pacific+Electric+Railway+%281901-1965%29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315051611/http://metrotransportationlibrary.wikispaces.com/Pacific+Electric+Railway+%281901-1965%29 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-03-15 |title=Pacific Electric Railway (1901–1965) |quote=Although the railway owned extensive private rights-of-way, usually between urban areas, much of the Pacific Electric trackage in urban areas such as downtown Los Angeles west of the Los Angeles River was in streets shared with automobiles and trucks. Virtually all street crossings were at-grade, and increasing automobile traffic led to decreasing Red Car speeds on much of its trackage. At its nadir, the busy Santa Monica Boulevard line, which connected Los Angeles to Hollywood and on to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, had an average speed of 13 miles per hour (20.9 km/h) }}</ref>
*More recently it has been suggested that the provision of free parking facilities at destinations and in the center of cities loads all users with the cost of facilities enjoyed only by motorists, creating additional traffic congestion and significantly affects the viability of other transport modes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/ITDP_Parking_FullReport.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112152218/http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/ITDP_Parking_FullReport.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-11-12 |title=U.S. Parking Policies: An Overview of Management Strategies |quote=Minimum parking requirements subsidize driving by shifting the costs of car use onto development and the non-driving public..  There is a growing realization that the dysfunction caused by poorly conceived parking policies is a major impediment to creating an effective and balanced urban transportation system}}</ref>

==Counterarguments==

Some of the specific allegations which have been argued over the years include:
*According to Snell's testimony, the [[New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad|New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad]] (NH) in New York and Connecticut was profitable until it was acquired and converted to diesel trains.<ref name=Myths>{{Harvnb|Snell|1995}} "Members of GM's special unit went to, among others, the Southern Pacific, owner of Los Angeles' Pacific Electric, the world's largest interurban, with 1,500 miles of track, reaching 75 miles from San Bernardino, north to San Fernando, and south to Santa Ana; the [[New York Central Railroad]], owner of the New York State Railways, 600 miles of street railways and interurban lines in upstate New York; and NH, owner of 1,500 miles of trolley lines in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In each case, by threatening to divert lucrative automobile freight to rival carriers, they persuaded the railroad (according to GM's own files) to convert its electric street cars to motor buses&nbsp;– slow, cramped, foul-smelling vehicles whose inferior performance invariable led riders to purchase automobiles."</ref> The New Haven's main line between New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, remained electrified, and continues as such under [[Metro-North Railroad]] and [[Amtrak]]. In reality, the line was in financial difficulty for years and filed for bankruptcy in 1935.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hYg1AAAAIBAJ&pg=3608,2898666&dq=new+york+new+haven+and+hartford+railroad+bankruptcy&hl=en |title=New Haven Railway files for bankruptcy |work=Montreal Gazette |date=1935-10-24}}</ref> 
*"GM killed the New York street cars":<ref name=Myths/> In reality, the [[New York Railways Company]] entered receivership in 1919,<ref>{{cite web |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/03/21/archives/us-court-makes-hedges-receiver-for-ny-railways-american-brake-shoe.html |title=U.S. Court Makes Hedges Receiver for N.Y. Railways |date=1919-03-21 |page=1 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> six years before it was bought by the [[New York Railways Corporation]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C12FB3F551B7A93CAAB178FD85F418285F9 |title=New York Railways Plan Now Effective |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1925-04-28 |access-date=2015-06-03 |page=27 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
*"GM Killed the Red cars in Los Angeles":<ref name=Myths/> [[Pacific Electric Railway]] (which operated the "red cars") was hemorrhaging routes as traffic congestion worsened with growing car ownership levels after the end of World War II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Span|2003a}}. "Snell’s report can also be misleading (apparently intentionally so). Snell says: 'In 1940, GM, Standard Oil and Firestone assumed an active control in Pacific (City Lines)... That year, PCL began to acquire and scrap portions of the $100 million Pacific Electric System (of Roger Rabbit fame).' This statement implied that PCL was getting control of Pacific Electric, when, in reality, all they did was acquire the local streetcar systems of Pacific Electric in Glendale and Pasadena and then convert them to buses. Many superficial readers jump on this statement as proof that GM moved in the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric. The ugly little fact is that PCL never acquired Pacific Electric (it was owned by Southern Pacific Railroad until 1953)."</ref><ref name="Curb 2017/9/20">{{Cite news|url=https://la.curbed.com/2017/9/20/16340038/los-angeles-streetcar-conspiracy-theory-general-motors|title=Who's really to blame for the death of LA's streetcars?|last=Chiland|first=Elijah|date=2017-09-20|work=Curbed LA|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref>
*The Salt Lake City system is mentioned in the 1949 court papers. However, the city's system was purchased by [[National City Lines]] in 1944 when all but one route had already been withdrawn, and the withdrawal of this last line had been approved three years earlier.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Transport|Companies|United States}}
*[[Federal Aid Road Act of 1916]]
*[[Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 (Phipps Act)]]
*[[Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956]]
*[[Nader v. General Motors Corp.]] A court case in which consumer protection activist [[Ralph Nader]] claimed that GM had "conduct[ed] a campaign of intimidation against him in order to 'suppress plaintiff's criticism of and prevent his disclosure of information' about its products"
*[[Highway Trust Fund]]
*[[Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation]] (A corporation that was "recaptured" by the city using the Dual Contracts provisions)
*[[Chicago Motor Coach Company]] A bus transit company established by John Hertz in Chicago in 1917
*[[Dual Contracts]] Contracts between New York City and subway operators which restricted fares, enforced share profits and allowed the city to 'recapture' and operate lines
*[[Transportation in metropolitan Detroit]] (Details of a system that was already in public ownership)
*[[Toronto streetcar system]], which received [[Toronto streetcar system rolling stock|much of the rolling stock]] from affected systems
*[[List of streetcar systems in the United States]]
*[[List of trolleybus systems in the United States]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* {{ cite web | url = http://marthabianco.com/kennedy_rogerrabbit.pdf | title = Kennedy, 60 Minutes, and Roger Rabbit: Understanding Conspiracy-Theory Explanations of The Decline of Urban Mass Transit. | last  = Bianco | first=Martha | year = 1998 | pages = 98–110 | access-date = 2008-09-23 }}
* {{ cite web | url = https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-national-city-lines-4 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402101117/https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-national-city-lines-4 | url-status = dead | archive-date = April 2, 2015 | title = United States v. National City Lines, Inc., et al. | last = Lindley |first = Walter | publisher = [[United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit]] | date = 1951-01-03 | access-date = 2009-04-05 | authorlink = Walter C. Lindley |ref = {{harvid|United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|1951}} }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.cliffslateralso.com/TQOrigin.pdf |title=General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars |last=Slater |first=Cliff |work=Transportation Quarterly |year=1997 |pages=45–66 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425092145/http://www.cliffslateralso.com/TQOrigin.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book |last=Snell |first=Bradford C. |title=American ground transport: a proposal for restructuring the automobile, truck, bus, and rail industries |year=1974 |publisher=U.S. Government Print Office |location=Washington |url=http://www.worldcarfree.net/resources/freesources/American.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071120111335/http://www.worldcarfree.net/resources/freesources/American.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-11-20}} A report presented to the Committee of the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, United States Senate, February 26, 1974
* {{ Cite journal | url = http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/g/gm/gm.htm |via= Coachbuilt.com| title = The StreetCar Conspiracy: How General Motors Deliberately Destroyed Public Transit | last = Snell | first = Bradford | date= Autumn 1995 |journal=[[The New Electric Railway Journal]]}}
* {{cite web |title=Paving the Way for Buses&nbsp;– The Great GM Streetcar Conspiracy, Part I&nbsp;– The Villains |last=Span |first=Guy |year=2003 |work=baycrossings.com |ref={{Harvid|Span|2003a}} |url=http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2003/03_April/paving_the_way_for_buses_the_great_gm_streetcar_conspiracy.htm |access-date=2006-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403191459/http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2003/03_April/paving_the_way_for_buses_the_great_gm_streetcar_conspiracy.htm |archive-date=2016-04-03 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |title=Paving the Way for Buses&nbsp;– The Great GM Streetcar Conspiracy, Part II&nbsp;– The Plot Clots |last=Span |first=Guy |year=2003 |work=baycrossings.com |ref={{Harvid|Span|2003b}} |url=http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2003/04_May/paving_the_way_for_buses_the_great_gm_streetcar_conspiracy.htm |access-date=2004-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040702235135/http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2003/04_May/paving_the_way_for_buses_the_great_gm_streetcar_conspiracy.htm |archive-date=2004-07-02 |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book |title=Hearings before the Sub-Committee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session on S.1167 Part 4 Ground Transportation Industries, April 4, 9, 10 and 11 |author=United States Senate |year=1974 |ol = 13510163M}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite book |last=Adler |first=Sy |title=The Transformation of the Pacific Electric Railway: Bradford Snell, Roger Rabbit, and the Politics of Transportation in Los Angeles |publisher=Urban Affairs Quarterly |volume=27 |number=1 |year=1991}}
* {{cite book |last=Bottles |first=Scott L. |title=Los Angeles and the Automobile |publisher=University of California Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-520-05795-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/losangelesautom00bott }}
* {{cite book |last=Black |first=Edwin |title=Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/internalcombusti00blac |chapter-url-access=registration |publisher=St. Martins Press |chapter=10 |year=2006|isbn=9780312359072 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Fischel |first=W.A |year=2004 |title=An Economic History of Zoning and a Cure for its Exclusionary Effects |journal=Urban Studies |volume=41 |number=2 |pages=317–40 |doi=10.1080/0042098032000165271|s2cid=221013040 }}
* {{cite book |last=Goddard |first=Stephen B. |title=Getting There: The Epic Struggle between Road and Rail in the American Century |url=https://archive.org/details/gettingthereepic00godd |url-access=registration |publisher=Basic Books |year=1994|isbn=9780465026395 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Hanson |editor-first1=S. |editor-last2=Giuliano |editor-first2=G. |year=2004 |title=The Geography of Urban Transportation|edition =Third |publisher=The Guilford Press |isbn=978-1-59385-055-5}}
* {{cite book |title=Politics of land: Ralph Nader's study group report on land use in California |year=1973 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicsoflandra00fell/page/410 410–414, 488] |isbn=978-0-670-56326-5 |publisher=Grossman Publishers |last=Fellmeth |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoflandra00fell/page/410 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hilton |first1=George W |last2=Due |first2=John F |title=The Electric Interurban Railways in America |url=https://archive.org/details/electricinterurb00hilt |url-access=registration |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1960 |isbn=978-0-8047-4014-2}}
* {{cite web |last=Hilton |first=George W. |title=What Did We Give Up With the Big Red Cars? |url=http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~pgordon/transit6.html}}
* {{cite news |last=Jaffe |first=Eric |title=Be Careful How You Refer to the So-Called 'Great American Streetcar Scandal' |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=June 3, 2013 |url=http://www.citylab.com/commute/2013/06/be-careful-how-you-refer-so-called-great-american-streetcar-scandal/5771/}}
* {{cite news |last=Kwitny |first=Jonathan |url=http://harpers.org/archive/1981/02/the-great-transportation-conspiracy/ |title=The Great Transportation Conspiracy: a juggernaut named desire |publisher=Harper's |year=1981 |pages=14–15, 18, 20–21}}
* {{cite book |last=Kunstler |first=James Howard |year=1994 |title=The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-671-88825-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/geographyofnowhe00kuns }}
* {{cite book |last=Lewis |first=John E. |title=The Mammoth Book of Conspiracies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wYQ4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT152 |publisher=Constable & Robinson Ltd |pages=152–62|isbn=978-1849017305 |year=2012 }}
* {{cite book |last=Norton |first=Peter D. |title=Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City |publisher=MIT Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-262-14100-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Gregory Lee |year=1993 |title=The Passenger Train in the Motor Age: California's Rail and Bus Industries, 1910–1941 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |location=Columbus |isbn=978-0-8142-0609-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/passengertrainin0047thom }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.1134.org/stan/ul/GM-et-al.html "The Great GM Conspiracy Legend: GM and the Red Cars", Stan Schwarz]{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2017}}
*[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html "Did General Motors destroy the LA mass transit system?", The Straight Dope, 10-Jan-1986]
*[http://www.newday.com/films/Taken_for_a_Ride.html "Taken for a Ride", Jim Klein and Martha Olson&nbsp;– a 55-minute film first shown on PBS in August 1996] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216004517/http://www.newday.com/films/Taken_for_a_Ride.html |date=2008-12-16  }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100514005923/http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/186/186.F2d.562.9943-9953.html ''United States v. National City Lines, Inc.'', 186 F.2d 562 (1951)]
*[http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/g/gm/gm.htm Yellow Coach&nbsp;– 1923-1943- GMC Truck & Coach Division, General Motors Corp.&nbsp;– 1943–present&nbsp;– Detroit, Michigan]{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2017}}

{{General Motors}}
{{Pacific Electric Railway}}
{{United States antitrust law|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Streetcars in the United States]]
[[Category:Corporate crime]]
[[Category:General Motors|Streetcar]]
[[Category:Former monopolies]]
[[Category:1930s in the United States]]
[[Category:1940s in the United States]]
[[Category:1950s in the United States]]
[[Category:Automotive industry in the United States]]
[[Category:Anti-competitive practices]]