treedancer
Commander
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Messages
- 2,216
<< The electric streetcar, contrary to Van Wilkin's incredible na?ve whitewash, did not die a natural death: General Motors killed it. GM killed it by employing a host of anti-competitive devices which, like National City Lines, debased rail transit and promoted auto sales.>>
<< This is not about a "plot" hatch by wild-eyed corporate rogues, but rather about a consummate business strategy crafted by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the MIT-trained genius behind General Motors, to expand auto sales and maximize profits by eliminating streetcars. In 1922, according to GM's own files, Sloan established a special unit within the corporation which was charged, among other things, with the task of replacing America's electric railways with cars, trucks and buses.>>
<<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, owner of the New York State Railways, 600 miles of street railways and interurban lines in upstate New York; and the New Haven, owner of 1,500 miles of trolley lines in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.>>
http://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm
If GM hadn?t did this, I wonder if we would be so hooked on oil now? Also it would be nice to have some of the money going into subsidizing the farmers with their corn crops for the production of ethanol, just maybe, having a little of that money going into some form of public transportation.
<< This is not about a "plot" hatch by wild-eyed corporate rogues, but rather about a consummate business strategy crafted by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the MIT-trained genius behind General Motors, to expand auto sales and maximize profits by eliminating streetcars. In 1922, according to GM's own files, Sloan established a special unit within the corporation which was charged, among other things, with the task of replacing America's electric railways with cars, trucks and buses.>>
<<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, owner of the New York State Railways, 600 miles of street railways and interurban lines in upstate New York; and the New Haven, owner of 1,500 miles of trolley lines in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.>>
http://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm
If GM hadn?t did this, I wonder if we would be so hooked on oil now? Also it would be nice to have some of the money going into subsidizing the farmers with their corn crops for the production of ethanol, just maybe, having a little of that money going into some form of public transportation.
Just take a trip to Portland, we have light rail everywhere. I do not relish the ideal of ever sending my children (13-15 yr old girls) on the light rail. While there is a commute of business people in the morning and evening from the burb's other than that i would not take my family on them.
