General Motors streetcar conspiracy

(Redirected from United States v. National City Lines Inc. )

General Motors (GM) and related companies were convicted of monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and subsidiaries, and are alleged to have conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act . This suit created lingering suspicions that the defendants had in fact plotted to dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation.

streetcar conspiracy Between 1938 and 1950, National City Lines and its subsidiaries, American City Lines and Pacific City Lines —with investment from GM, Firestone Tire , Standard Oil of California (through a subsidiary), Federal Engineering, Phillips Petroleum , and Mack Trucks —gained control of additional transit systems in about 25 cities. Systems included St. Louis , Baltimore , Los Angeles , and Oakland . NCL often converted streetcars to bus operations in that period, although electric traction was preserved or expanded in some locations. Other systems, such as San Diego 's, were converted by outgrowths of the City Lines. Most of the companies involved were convicted in 1949 of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce in the sale of buses, fuel, and supplies to NCL subsidiaries, but were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the transit industry.

The story as an urban legend has been written about by Martha Bianco, Scott Bottles, Sy Adler, Jonathan Richmond, Cliff Slater, and Robert Post. It has been depicted several times in print, film, and other media, notably in the fictional film _Who Framed Roger Rabbit _, documentary films such as _Taken for a Ride _ and The End of Suburbia _ and the book Internal Combustion.[not verified in body
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Only a handful of U.S. cities, including San Francisco , New Orleans , Newark , Cleveland , Philadelphia , Pittsburgh , and Boston , have surviving legacy-rail urban transport systems based on streetcars, although their systems are significantly smaller than they once were. Other cities, such as Norfolk , have re-introduced streetcars.

Contents

• 1 History

  • 1.1 Background

  • 1.2 Early years

  • 1.3 National City Lines, Pacific City Lines, American City Lines

  • 1.4 Edwin J. Quinby

  • 1.5 Court cases, conviction, and fines

  • 1.6 Urban Mass Transportation Act and 1974 Antitrust hearings

  • 1.7 Role in decline of the streetcars

• 2 Other factors

• 3 Counterarguments

• 4 See also

• 5 Notes

• 6 References

  • 6.1 Bibliography

• 7 Further reading

• 8 External links

History

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: History")

Background

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Background")

Left to right: Horse-drawn, electric, and cable street cars in the United States

In the latter half of the 19th century, transit systems were generally rail, first horse-drawn streetcars , and later electric powered streetcars and cable cars . Rail was more comfortable and had less rolling resistance than street traffic on granite block or macadam and horse-drawn streetcars were generally a step up from the horsebus . Electric traction was faster, more sanitary, and cheaper to run; with the cost, excreta, epizootic risk, and carcass disposal of horses eliminated entirely. Streetcars were later seen as obstructions to traffic, but for nearly 20 years they had the highest power-to-weight ratio of anything commonly found on the road, and the lowest rolling resistance.

Streetcars paid ordinary business and property taxes, but also generally paid franchise fees, maintained at least the shared right-of-way, and provided street sweeping and snow clearance. They were also required to maintain minimal service levels. Many franchise fees were fixed or based on gross (v. net); such arrangements, when combined with fixed fares, created gradual impossible financial pressures. Early electric cars generally had a two-man crew, a holdover from horsecar days, which created financial problems in later years as salaries outpaced revenues.

Many electric lines—especially in the West—were tied into other real estate or transportation enterprises. The Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Railway were especially so, in essence loss leaders for property development and long haul shipping.

By 1918, half of US streetcar mileage was in bankruptcy.

Early years

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Early years")

The Menace of the Hour, 1899 illustration by George Luks depicting the new electric subway system in New York City as an octopus ("the menace")

John D. Hertz , better remembered for his car rental business, was also an early motorbus manufacturer and operator. In 1917 he founded the Chicago Motor Coach Company , which operated buses in Chicago, and in 1923, he founded the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company , a manufacturer of buses. He then formed The Omnibus Corporation in 1926 with "plans embracing the extension of motor coach operation to urban and rural communities in every part of the United States" that then purchased the [Fifth A

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