Post

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

in general, public transport before world war II was generally privately owned. it was a business, like railroads had been since the start of the industrial age. nobody liked the privately owned monopolies that owned public transit. 2/

basically, these monopolies dominated metro areas, because they weren't just the transport monopoly. in la, oakland and miami, the train company was the biggest real estate developer. in atlanta, new jersey and new orleans, they were the power company. 3/

these monopolies were hilariously corrupt as well, and they had few friends. henry huntington (of LA's red cars), or charles yerkes (of the chicago eleveated) were as detested as bezos and zuckerberg were today. 4/

the trains got a serious challenge from cars in the early 20th century. and by the end of world war II, the train systems were worn out and needed massive government investment to survive. but because the transit companies were shitty monopolies, nobody wanted to help them out! 5/

in many cases, the train company was _also_ the bus company! the pacific electric railway in LA also owned the motor transit company, which ran the region's buses. 6/

This looks like the perfect place to drop the 1928 Pacific Electric schedule book, which includes buses!

Those frequencies and travel times are mid as hell.

On top of that, the new, shiny buses often had A/C, and the streetcars only had fans. The first air-conditioned bus was introduced in 1946. The first air-conditioned streetcars weren't introduced until 1976. 8/

Put yourselves in the shoes of passengers. Given the choice between a new bus with A/C and an old streetcar without A/C... this is a no-brainer. 9/

not sure I can accept the A/C claim In the 1970's I rode public buses in Detroit that lacked A/C.

All of this is to say, GM was picking the bones of the dying streetcar companies. Think vultures, not eagles. And when we talk about the GM conspiracy charges... GM-affiliated National City Lines actually kept streetcars running longer than peer systems. 10/

what do we know about comparative fare rates?

AC was an option on coach buses pre war. We didn’t see it on GM old look city buses until 58 and really it was more a new look option for both GM and Flxible with its 59 and 60 introduction respectively There was still US agencies not ordering AC on local city buses in the early 2000s

do you have a source for that? carrier (the a/c company) proudly proclaims that they provided the air conditioning for the world's first air-conditioned city bus in 1946.

And I’m remembering how BADLY DESIGNED the A/C on the Boeing LRVs was. They put the compressor UNDER the car? When heat rises?

That’s where most railcar AC systems live because there is the 2-3ft of vertical space you need to install mechanical equipment.