General Motors streetcar conspiracy
As a great American streetcar scandal ( engl. General Motors streetcar conspiracy ) is the systematic destruction of the based on the tram public transport in 45 cities in the United States under the leadership of General Motors Company, the largest U.S. automobile company, from the 1930s to the 1960s referred to. The transport companies were bought in order to achieve a closure of the tram routes in favor of automobile traffic, so vehicles and supplies were sold from own production.
By a judgment of the Supreme Court 1956, this practice rail networks shut down, permanently banned, the number of road trains in the United States had been reduced from 37,000 to 5,300. That was behind an organized network of automotive companies, a wider public was not known until 1974. Bradford Snell, a lawyer of the U.S. government, wrote a report based on the court records of 1956 for the Anti -Monopoly Committee in the Senate.
National City Lines
The small bus company National City Lines, which has been active since 1920, has invested concealed in a holding in the companies like General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack and the Federal Engineering Corporation and in return exclusive supply contracts for vehicles, tires and oil were given. Other similar companies were the Pacific City Lines ( on the West Coast of the U.S. from 1938) and American City Lines ( in large cities from 1943). Between 1936 and 1950, bought National City Lines more than a hundred electrically powered transport systems in 45 U.S. cities, including Detroit, Cleveland, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Baltimore and Los Angeles, and replaced them with buses from General Motors. American City Lines merged in 1946 with National City Lines.
1950 General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil were found guilty for a criminal conspiracy. The penalty was only $ 5,000 for businesses, individuals were given sentences ranging from $ 1.
Causes
In the 19th century, the transport began in U.S. cities with rail first horse-drawn trams, and later with cable trams ( cable cars ). Around 1890 the use of electric power for trams began. For the required electricity companies built power plants. They began their excess electricity to consumers to sell, and with time, the focus of the company shifted to the overall energy supply. The gains achieved in the transport business were often used for investment in electricity distribution networks. Long-term investments in its network and fleet were postponed for it. To 1916, the wear and tear on vehicles in the U.S. average was higher than the replacement investments.
The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, an antitrust law, prohibited the utilities as regulated companies to operate unregulated business segments. Among them included many street railway companies. When choosing between the business units, the profitable energy business was preferred and sell the trams. Regulation of fares and working conditions limited the capacity of the transport company in addition.
The onset of mass motorization suburbanization shifted the traffic flows and led to a rapid proliferation of car users. The required results of the tram lines, profits fell so after the end of World War II. The Zeitgeist of a car-friendly city facilitated the reasons for closures.
Education
In 1970, the student of Harvard Law School Robert Eldridge Hicks together the events to reveal the backgrounds of the scandal. The results were first published in 1973 Politics of the country. The testimony before the Anti-Monopoly Committee of the Senate of the United States and the presentation of his report ( "American ground transportation: ... " ) the search of the U.S. government attorney Bradford Snell were known to the public. He emphasized the central role of National City Lines for the decommissioning of the trams.
Effects
After the publicity designs of Bradford Snell, the scandal was considered by some as a major reason for the disappearance of the streetcar in the United States. So this theory was subsequently in the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and processed in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The effect is controversial. Robert C. Post wrote that nationwide were affected by the conspiracy, only ten percent, or about 60 of 600 transport systems, where einstellten by the other approximately 90 percent of the tram service. Cliff Slater came in his research on the history of transport in the United States to the conclusion that buses would have without the actions of General Motors replaced the tram. Randal O'Toole of the Cato Institute, a libertarian -oriented think tank, argues that the tram disappeared due to the development of the combustion engine and the mass motorization.
Comparable developments in Western Europe show that even without the actions of General Motors a lot of tram lines due to lack of profit margins of the decommissioning were threatened and had started the decline of the streetcar. While the tram was replaced in European cities in part by subways, buses came mainly in the United States due to the interests of General Motors for use. The public transport was less attractive by declining supply and rising fares and lost in many cities of the former importance. In addition to the lack of public investment in the infrastructure of the Great American streetcar scandal is therefore a cause for the low incidence of urban public mass transit in the United States.
It was not until the 1980s were once again created new tram and light rail networks in the United States. So in San Diego ( 1981), Seattle (1982 ), Pittsburgh (1984 ), Portland (1986 ), Sacramento, San Jose (both 1987), Dallas (1989 ), Los Angeles (1990 ), St. Louis ( 1993), Denver ( 1994), Baltimore (1992 ), Salt Lake City (1999), Houston, Minneapolis (both 2004) and Phoenix (2008).