“Mass transit didn’t just die, it was murdered”  Kwitny, 1981

“When GM and a few other big companies created a transportation oligopoly for the
internal-combustion engine  . . . they did not rely just on the obvious sales pitch.  They conspired.  They broke the law. . . in 1949 a jury convicted the corporations and several executives of
criminal antitrust violations for their part in the demise of mass transit.  The convictions
were upheld on appeal.”   Kwitny, 1981

The above quotes refer to the infamous anti-mass transit “National City Lines Conspiracy” led by
General Motors, Standard Oil and Firestone Tires.  The above quotes by Jonathan Kwitny are taken from page 14 of the Feb 1981 edition of Harper’s Magazine (PDF).  It is a truly exceptional article.

In 1949, National City Lines were convicted in Federal court (and in 1951
the conviction was upheld) for  destroying the electrified rail and electric bus transit systems in 44
American cities.  Beginning in 1937, National City Lines embarked
on a nationwide campaign to induce cities (by aggressively pushing “an offer you can’t refuse” of G.M.
/National City Lines financing – at the height of a 12 year long,
world-wide economic depression) to scrap electrically powered
streetcars and trolley-buses, which G.M. did not make, and to substitute gasoline
powered buses manufactured by G.M., burning Standard Oil gasoline, and
rolling on Firestone rubber tires.  When National City Lines would
aquire a transit system, the trolley rails would be ripped up, the overhead wires would be cut down, and the system would be converted to buses within 90 days.  It’s noteworthy that New York City’s
electrified surface transportation system was National City Lines first victim (see the video “Taken For A Ride”).

Strangely, although the Federal Government won the case against G.M.,
it never imposed any penalty on the company other than extremely small
symbolic fines.  Perhaps at the time, the Truman administration
felt it needed the undivided assistance of G.M. in fighting the Korean War, and pursuing
the “Cold War” against the former Soviet Union, more than it needed a
national, privately financed and operated all electric mass transit system.

In 1972, then U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy called for a Federal
investigation into G.M.’s alleged conspiratorial destruction of the
U.S. rail industry and public mass transit industry, in order to
facilitate the sale of automobiles.  (see NY Times article (PDF))

At the time, this subject was brought to the attention of Senator
Kennedy by NYC based labor attorney and transportation expert Theodore
W. Kheel and Ralph Nader associate Bradford C. Snell (see PDF
streetcar conspiracy article by Snell and the video “Taken For A Ride”).
Snell was then a San Francisco based attorney, who worked on NYC’s anti-trust bus lawsuit against G.M.

This led to Senate Bill 1167 of 1974 “The Industrial Reorganization
Act” and the now little known Ground Transportation Hearings of April
1974 – which were sidetracked by the resignation of then U.S. President
Richard Nixon on August 8, 1974 (Watergate). G.M. was literally “saved
by the bell”…

In 1974, during the height of the first “Energy Crisis”, the U.S.
Senate re-investigated General Motors for its involvement in not only
the intentional destruction of the U.S. Streetcar industry, but also
G.M.’s direct involvement in the intentional destruction of the U.S.
rail freight and passenger rail industry, the systematic suppression of
U.S. alternative energy sources, and energy efficient automobile
engines, as well as providing direct material aide to Nazi Germany
during WWII in the critical areas of military truck manufacture, and
military airplane and jet engine manufacture.

Part 4a through appendix  of 1974 Senate Investigation document can be read here (78mb PDF)
Part 4 of 1974 Senate Investigation document can be read here (40mb PDF)