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each transit agency makes their own decisions about purchasing, so the phase-in was gradual. long distance buses started having them in the late 1930s. for city buses, san antonio was the first big city to buy them, in the '40s. nyc didn't buy them until 1956. it was a long process.

This era of design is my jam. I would absolutely choose this art deco bus over literally any other option.

Thanks for the detailed synopsis!!

Good way to push your book.

I think a version of it showed up in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the film, not the original novel)

And even there it probably meant that the system converted to buses 5 or 10 years before it otherwise would have.

The entire cast of characters who destroyed TCRT condensed into this famous portrayal of Judge Doom in Roger Rabbit. They just set it in LA instead of Minneapolis. 🤣

Thanks for the thread. Enjoyed it. 🙏🏻

Curious your take, but from reading the work of David Sadowski, it seems the CTA’s dismantling of streetcars in Chicago is at least half a conspiracy. The management didn’t like the streetcars and fudged the numbers to claim eliminating them would save money. thetrolleydodger.com/2016/07/03/t...

(addendum: if you want to read the book, it's called "the lost subways of north america". if you get a copy directly from me, i'll sign it for you)

The Rockford and Interurban railway was also largely ripped up and sold for scrap. Though I’ve hunted down a few of the remaining rail lines and its course can still be followed along the roads it ran next to (or down the middle of.) search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ACFX...

I think the conspiracy is comforting to people -- "a few bad guys did this." The reality -- "electeds, planners, and most of the public believed that the car was the future and rail transit was outdated" is actually more unsettling since it raises the question of what we're getting wrong now.

Oh wow. My daughter was recently in Minneapolis and their transit system *specifically* met with her disapproval -- I had no idea the reasons were so spicy! totally sending this to her, thanks.

Some engineered their own demise. The Michigan United Railway started a bus company in 1925. It could have provided feeder lines to the electric railway, but instead ran parallel services. The railway immediately ran in the red and shut down within 5 years. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/street...

And the system was bigger!

what was the typical ownership structure of the new bus companies? were they, as now, public, or were they straightforward commercial enterprises established to compete with the decaying rail offerings? in what ways was regulation a factor in their rise? how else can I avoid buying your book? 😆

What's GMs incentive to act like a vulture? I'm under the impression they're in a competitive growing market at that point, why throw money into something that's dying? (I guess I don't know how "general" the motors are...)

Fare rates were in most cases regulated by the state governments. Nickel fares were standard until the late 20s or 30s on many systems This is a fictional fare increase chart but follows on average what happened in California across major operators

Waiting for a bus in the middle of the Valley in summer 1980 and getting an Old Look was not a pleasant experience.

I keep coming back to John Gunther’s INSIDE USA - and how excited people in postwar America were to see the public infrastructure of highways knocking down those corporate fatcats in the railroad offices!