140-496: The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to the convictions of General Motors (GM) and related companies that were involved in the monopolizing of the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and subsidiaries, as well as to the allegations that the defendants conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act . This suit created lingering suspicions that
280-666: A bench trial . In 1948, the San Diego Electric Railway was sold to Western Transit Company, owned by J. L. Haugh, for $ 5.5 million. Haugh was also president of the Key System, and later was involved in Metropolitan Coach Line's purchase of the passenger operations of the Pacific Electric Railway . The last San Diego streetcars were converted to buses by 1949. Haugh sold the bus-based San Diego system to
420-514: A 15% stake in AeroVironment . In 1989, GM acquired half of Saab Automobile 's car operations for $ 600 million. In August 1990, Robert Stempel became CEO of the company, succeeding Roger Smith . GM cut output significantly and suffered losses that year due to the early 1990s recession . In 1990, GM debuted the General Motors EV1 (Impact) concept, a battery electric vehicle , at
560-534: A 24-page "expose" on the ownership of National City Lines addressed to "The Mayors; The City Manager; The City Transit Engineer; The members of The Committee on Mass-Transportation and The Tax-Payers and The Riding Citizens of Your Community". It began, "This is an urgent warning to each and every one of you that there is a careful, deliberately planned campaign to swindle you out of your most important and valuable public utilities–your Electric Railway System". His activism may have led Federal authorities to prosecute GM and
700-521: A British producer of high-performance sports cars . In 1987, in conjunction with AeroVironment , GM built the Sunraycer , which won the inaugural World Solar Challenge and was a showcase of advanced technology. Much of the technology from Sunraycer found its way into the Impact prototype electric vehicle (also built by Aerovironment) and was the predecessor to the General Motors EV1 . In 1988, GM acquired
840-504: A breakthrough in heat treating still in use today as ASTM A255. GM established Detroit Diesel the next year. In 1939, the company founded Motors Insurance Corporation and entered the vehicle insurance market. The same year, GM introduced the Hydramatic , the first affordable and successful automatic transmission , for the 1940 Oldsmobile. During World War II , GM produced vast quantities of armaments, vehicles, and aircraft for
980-519: A brief time, a scholar with the Brookings Institution , prepared a controversial and disputed paper titled "American ground transport: a proposal for restructuring the automobile, truck, bus, and rail industries." The paper, which was funded by the Stern Fund, was later described as the centerpiece of the hearings. In it, Snell said that General Motors was "a sovereign economic state" and said that
1120-640: A complicated stock and bond transaction, Huntington conveyed his 50% of Pacific Electric to the Southern Pacific, while he acquired SP's 45% interest in the Los Angeles Railway. In addition, Huntington conveyed the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway to the Southern Pacific. Huntington retained control of the Los Angeles Railway , the narrow gauge street car system known locally as "Yellow Cars," until
1260-472: A continuation of its diversification plans, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage in 1985. This acquisition included an $ 11 billion mortgage portfolio. The same year, GM acquired the Hughes Aircraft Company for $ 5 billion in cash and stock and merged it into Delco Electronics . The following year, GM acquired 59.7% of Lotus Cars ,
1400-900: A controlling interest in North American Aviation and merged it with the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation . The GM labor force participated in the formation of the United Auto Workers labor union in 1935, and in 1936 the UAW organized the Flint Sit-Down Strike , which initially idled two key plants in Flint, Michigan, and later spread to 6 other plants including those in Janesville, Wisconsin and Fort Wayne, Indiana . In Flint, police attempted to enter
1540-554: A controlling interest in this company was sold off by Huntington's estate in 1944. In what was called the "Great Merger" of September 1, 1911, the Southern Pacific created a new Pacific Electric Railway Company, with all electrical operations now under the Pacific Electric name. The constituent railroads were: Following these acquisitions, PE was the largest operator of interurban electric railway passenger service in
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#17328488253331680-550: A franchise plan with three-cent fare plan to the Los Angeles City Council, a plan which, if accepted, would have handicapped the other railways severely. Huntington countered with a ticket book which gave the rider 500 miles (800 km) of travel for $ 6.25 (equivalent to $ 212 in 2023), which undercut the Harriman strategy. The Council vetoed the franchise idea, unable to believe adequate service could be provided for such
1820-469: A line from Monrovia to Glendora . The system reached La Habra in 1908. By 1910 PE operated nearly 900 miles (1,400 km) of track. Routes had been built into or passed through areas just beginning to grow. 1905 was the Pacific Electric's most profitable year, when the road made $ 90,711 (equivalent to $ 3.08 million in 2023). Profits from the Huntington Land and Improvement Company made up for
1960-481: A low fare. Then, on April 14, 1903, Harriman bought Hook's Los Angeles Traction Company, which ran lines within the downtown area and, through its California Pacific subsidiary, was constructing a line from Los Angeles to San Pedro . The final confrontation came over a bidding war for the 6th Street franchise, in which the franchise (thought to be worth maybe $ 10,000), finally went to the top bidder for $ 110,000 (equivalent to $ 3.73 million in 2023), with Harriman
2100-510: A more extensive regional mass-transit system. In 1957, it was given the authority to operate transit lines. In 1958, the California state government through its Public Utility Commission took over the remaining and most popular lines from Metropolitan Coach Lines. The MTA also purchased the remaining streetcar "Yellow Car" lines of the successor of the Los Angeles Railway , then called Los Angeles Transit Lines. LARy/LATL had been purchased from
2240-517: A namesake defense vehicles division which produces military vehicles for the United States government and military, the vehicle safety, security, and information services provider OnStar , the auto parts company ACDelco , a namesake financial lending service , and majority ownership in the self-driving cars enterprise Cruise LLC . The company originated as a holding company for Buick established on September 16, 1908, by William C. Durant ,
2380-748: A number of transit companies, forming a transportation monopoly " and "conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines" In 1948, the venue was changed from the Federal District Court of Southern California to the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois following an appeal to the United States Supreme Court (in United States v. National City Lines Inc. ) which felt that there
2520-418: A professor of economics at UCLA and noted transit scholar rejected Snell's view, stating, "I would argue that these [Snell's] interpretations are not correct, and, further, that they couldn't possibly be correct, because major conversions in society of this character—from rail to free wheel urban transportation, and from steam to diesel railroad propulsion—are the sort of conversions which could come about only as
2660-529: A program to develop a lightweight two-stroke diesel engine for possible usage in automobiles. Soon after, GM acquired Electro-Motive Company and the Winton Engine Co. , and in 1941, it expanded EMC's realm to locomotive engine manufacturing. In 1932, GM acquired Packard Electric (not to be confused with the Packard car company, which merged with Studebaker years later). The following year, GM acquired
2800-420: A result of public preferences, technological change, the relative abundance of natural resources, and other impersonal phenomena or influence, rather than the machinations of a monopolist." GM published a rebuttal the same year titled "The Truth About American Ground Transport". The Senate subcommittee printed GM's work in tandem with Snell's as an appendix to the hearings transcript. GM explicitly did not address
2940-572: A staff member. At the hearings in April 1974, San Francisco mayor and antitrust attorney Joseph Alioto testified that "General Motors and the automobile industry generally exhibit a kind of monopoly evil ", adding that GM "has carried on a deliberate concerted action with the oil companies and tire companies...for the purpose of destroying a vital form of competition; namely, electric rapid transit". Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley also testified, saying that GM, through its subsidiaries (namely PCL), "scrapped
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#17328488253333080-422: A strategy by CEO Roger Smith to derive at least 10% of its annual worldwide revenue from non-automotive sources. GM also intended to have EDS handle its bookkeeping, help computerize factories, and integrate GM's computer systems. The transaction made Ross Perot the largest shareholder of GM; however, disagreements with Roger Smith led the company to buy all shares held by Ross Perot for $ 750 million in 1986. In
3220-537: Is at hand when we should commence building suburban railroads out of the city." Hellman added that he had already tasked engineer Epes Randolph to survey and lay out the company's first line which would be to Long Beach. In that same year, Huntington and Hellman incorporated a new entity, the Pacific Electric Railway of California, formed to construct new electric rail lines to connect Los Angeles with surrounding cities. Hellman and his group of investors owned
3360-564: Is most known for owning and manufacturing four automobile brands: Chevrolet , Buick , GMC , and Cadillac . By total sales, it has continuously been the largest automaker in the United States, and was the largest in the world for 77 years before losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008. General Motors operates manufacturing plants in eight countries. In addition to its four core brands, GM also holds interests in Chinese brands Baojun and Wuling via SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile . GM further owns
3500-606: The Fortune 500 and 50th on the Fortune Global 500 . In 2023, the company was ranked 70th in the Forbes Global 2000 . In 2021, GM announced its intent to end production of vehicles using internal combustion engines by 2035, as part of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. By 1900, William C. Durant 's Durant-Dort Carriage Company of Flint, Michigan , had become the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in
3640-579: The 2-mode hybrid system in the Chevrolet Tahoe , GMC Yukon , Cadillac Escalade , and pickup trucks . Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company , nicknamed the Red Cars , was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars , interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in
3780-813: The Allies of World War II . In 1940, GM's William S. Knudsen served as head of U.S. wartime production for President Franklin Roosevelt , and by 1942, all of GM's production was to support the war. GM's Vauxhall Motors manufactured the Churchill tank series for the Allies, instrumental in the North African campaign . However, its Opel division, based in Germany, supplied the Wehrmacht with vehicles. Politically, Sloan, as head of GM at
3920-515: The Cadillac V8-6-4 variable-cylinder engines. GM sold Frigidaire in 1979. Although Frigidaire had between $ 450 million and $ 500 million in annual revenues, it was losing money. Robert Lee of GM invented the neodymium magnet , which was fabricated by rapid solidification, in 1984. This magnet is commonly used in products like a computer hard disk. The same year, GM acquired Electronic Data Systems for $ 2.5 billion from Ross Perot as part of
4060-730: 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 Avenue Coach Company in New York. The same year,
4200-505: The General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), which provides financing to automotive customers, was formed. In 1920, du Pont orchestrated the removal of Durant once again and replaced him with Alfred P. Sloan . At a time when GM was competing heavily with Ford Motor Company , Sloan established annual model changes, making previous years' models "dated" and created a market for used cars . He also implemented
4340-707: The Great Depression , antitrust action, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , labor unrest , market forces including declining industries' difficulty in attracting capital, rapidly increasing traffic congestion , the Good Roads Movement , urban sprawl , tax policies favoring private vehicle ownership, taxation of fixed infrastructure, consumerism , franchise repair costs for co-located property, wide diffusion of driving skills, automatic transmission buses, and general enthusiasm for
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4480-515: The Key System , which operated electric trains and streetcars in Oakland, California . The attempt was temporarily blocked by a syndicate of Key System insiders, with controlling interest secured on January 8, 1941. By 1946, PCL had acquired 64% of the stock in the Key System. Beginning in the 1940s, NCL and PCL slowly took control of Los Angeles' two streetcar systems: Pacific Electric Railway (known as
4620-611: The LA Auto Show . It was the first car with zero emissions marketed in the US in over three decades. The Impact was produced as the EV1 for the 1996 model year and was available only via lease from certain dealers in California and Arizona. In 1999–2002, GM ceased production of the vehicles and started to not renew the leases, disappointing many people, allegedly because the program would not be profitable and would cannibalize its existing business. All of
4760-596: The Los Angeles Motor Bus Company . A public referendum chose the latter in May 1923. The first service began in August 1923, and by 1925 had 53 miles of bus routes, the second-most in the nation after Chicago . PE operated frequent freight trains under electric power throughout its service area (as far as 65 miles [105 km]) to Redlands , including operating electrically powered Railway Post Office routes, one of
4900-405: The Los Angeles Railway . When his uncle Collis died, Henry lost a boardroom battle for control of the Southern Pacific to Union Pacific President E. H. Harriman . Huntington then decided to focus his energies on Southern California. In May 1901, Hellman, who had been Southern California's leading banker for almost three decades (and owned much property down there), wrote Huntington that "the time
5040-545: The Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan , and the Reliance Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan (predecessors of GMC ) in 1909. Durant, with the board's approval, also tried acquiring Ford Motor Company , but needed an additional $ 2 million. Durant over- leveraged GM in making acquisitions, and was removed by the board of directors in 1910 at the order of the bankers who backed
5180-536: The San Fernando Valley , La Habra , Redlands and Riverside , with branches to Colton and San Bernardino . He simultaneously created the Los Angeles Land Company. Huntington owned almost all the stock in the companies, with token amounts allotted to company directors. Although the company allowed Huntington to proceed with construction plans unencumbered by outside interference, the poor state of
5320-588: The Santa Fe Railway . In July 1908, Huntington leased all the lines of the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway to Harriman. In 1909 he sold the systems in Fresno and Santa Clara County to the Southern Pacific. Talks paused after the death of Harriman on September 9, 1909, but resumed in early 1910. On September 27, 1910, Huntington and Southern Pacific management came to a final agreement. In
5460-724: The Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company the same year, and its president, John D. Hertz , joined the board of directors of GM; it acquired the remainder of the company in 1943. In 1926, the company introduced the Pontiac brand and established the General Motors Group Insurance Program to provide life insurance to its employees. The following year, after the success of the 1927 model of the Cadillac LaSalle designed by Harley Earl , Sloan created
5600-472: The corporate spin-off of Electronic Data Systems . In 1997, GM sold the military businesses of Hughes Aircraft Company to Raytheon Company for $ 9.5 billion in stock and the assumption of debt. In February 2000, Rick Wagoner was named CEO, succeeding Smith. The next month, GM gave 5.1% of its common stock, worth $ 2.4 billion, to acquire a 20% share of Fiat . In December 2000, GM announced that it would begin phasing out Oldsmobile . The brand
5740-520: The " Wig-Wag " crossing signals. A Christmas tree lot was operated in the small stub yard at the northwest corner of Willow Street and Long Beach Boulevard – the stock arrived in and was stored in a steel sided box car until the Christmas trees were prepared for sale – the busy intersection was where dual trackage departed Long Beach Boulevard and joined the private right-of-way from Huntington Beach and Seal Beach towards Los Angeles. The crossing signal there
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5880-532: The "Art and Color Section" of GM and named Earl as its first director. Earl was the first design executive to be appointed to leadership at a major American corporation. Earl created a system of automobile design that is still practiced today. At the age of 24, Bill Mitchell was recruited by Earl to the design team at GM, and he was later appointed as Chief Designer of Cadillac. After Earl retired in December 1958, Mitchell took over automotive design for GM. Also in 1926
6020-584: The "Red Cars") and Los Angeles Railway (known as the "Yellow Cars"). In 1940, PCL acquired Pacific Electric's operations in Glendale, Burbank, and Pasadena. Lines to San Bernardino were phased out in 1941 and the Hollywood Subway , which ran lines from Burbank , Glendale , and the San Fernando Valley, closed in 1955. In 1945, ACL acquired Los Angeles Railway at a price of about $ 13,000,000. Soon after,
6160-509: The "Yellow Cars" and carried more passengers than the PE's "Red Cars" since they ran in the most densely populated portions of Los Angeles, including south to Hawthorne and along Pico Boulevard to near West Los Angeles to terminate at the huge Sears Roebuck store and distribution center (the L.A. Railway's most popular line, the " P " line). The Yellow Cars' unusual narrow gauge PCC streetcars , by now painted MTA two-tone green, continued to operate until
6300-604: The 1920s profits were good and the lines were extended to the Pasadena area, to the beaches at Santa Monica, Del Rey, Manhattan/Redondo/Hermosa Beach and Long Beach in Los Angeles County, and to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach in Orange County. Extra service beyond the normal schedules was provided on weekends, particularly in the late afternoon when passengers wanted to return simultaneously. Comedian Harold Lloyd highlighted
6440-529: The 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino , it connected cities in Los Angeles County , Orange County , San Bernardino County and Riverside County . The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway , "Yellow Car," or "LARy" system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of
6580-518: The 1940s, NCL raised funds for expansion from Firestone Tire , Federal Engineering, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California (now Chevron Corporation), Phillips Petroleum (now part of ConocoPhillips ), GM, and Mack Trucks (now a subsidiary of Volvo ). Pacific City Lines (PCL), formed as a subsidiary of NCL in 1938, was to purchase streetcar systems in the western United States. PCL merged with NCL in 1948. American City Lines (ACL), which had been organized to acquire local transportation systems in
6720-587: The 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance. The system had four districts: Electric trolleys first appeared in Los Angeles in 1887. In 1895 the Pasadena & Pacific Railway was created from a merger of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railway and the Los Angeles Pacific Railway (to Santa Monica.) The Pasadena & Pacific Railway boosted Southern California tourism, living up to its motto "from
6860-575: The EV1s were eventually returned to General Motors, and except for around 40 which were donated to museums with their electric powertrains deactivated, all were destroyed. The documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car? covered the EV1 story. In November 1992, John F. Smith Jr. became CEO of the company. In 1993, GM sold Lotus Cars to Bugatti . In 1996, in a return to its automotive basics, GM completed
7000-562: The Fifth Avenue Coach Company acquired a majority of the stock in the struggling New York Railways Corporation (which had been bankrupted and reorganized at least twice). In 1926, General Motors acquired a controlling share of the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company and appointed Hertz as a main board director. Hertz's bus lines, however, were not in direct competition with any streetcars, and his core business
7140-399: The Hellman group sold the rest of their shares and bonds in PE and LAIU to Huntington and Harriman for $ 1.2 million (equivalent to $ 40.7 million in 2023). Huntington and Harriman were now equal partners in ownership of the Pacific Electric. The Hellman syndicate retained their 45% interest in the Los Angeles Railway , which they thought would eventually declare dividends. By 1905,
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#17328488253337280-502: The Huntington estate by National City Lines in 1945. The MTA started operating all lines as a single system on March 3, 1958. The Los Angeles-to-Long Beach passenger rail line served the longest, from July 4, 1902, until April 9, 1961. It was both the first and last interurban passenger line of the former Pacific Electric system. It was replaced by the Motor Coach 36f ("F" representing Freeway Flyer) route. The line, which used long stretches of open country running on private right-of-way,
7420-439: The Los Angeles MTA until the agency was reorganized and relaunched as the Southern California Rapid Transit District in September 1964. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the merger of Pacific Electric into the Southern Pacific Railroad on August 12, 1965. Prior to the merger, PE's lucrative freight service had been by Southern Pacific diesel-electric locomotives on the heavy-duty PE rail-bed and rails and tripping
7560-426: The Los Angeles River was in streets shared with automobiles and trucks. Virtually all street crossings were at-grade, and increasing automobile traffic led to decreasing Red Car speeds on much of its trackage. At its nadir, the busy Santa Monica Boulevard line, which connected Los Angeles to Hollywood and on to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, had an average speed of 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) Traffic congestion
7700-482: The Los Angeles and Pacific Railway. Moses Sherman, Harry Chandler , Hobart Johnstone Whitley , and others bought the entire southern San Fernando Valley in 1910. The electric railway and a $ 500,000 boulevard called Sherman Way connected the three townsites they were selling. These included Van Nuys , Marion (now Reseda ), and Owensmouth (now Canoga Park ). Parts of Sherman Way are now called Chandler Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard . The railway company "connected all
7840-401: The Motor Transit Company, which operated intercity bus service within Southern California. In the pre-automobile era, electric interurban rail was the most economical way to connect outlying suburban and exurban parcels to central cities. Although the railway owned extensive private roadbeds, usually between urban areas, much PE trackage in urban areas such as downtown Los Angeles west of
7980-412: The Newport and Santa Ana lines were completed. In 1906, the Newport line was extended to Balboa, and in late 1906, lines to Sierra Madre and Oak Knoll in Pasadena were finished. The two firms controlled 449 miles (723 km) of track, with the Pacific Electric at 197 miles (317 km) and the LAIU, 252 miles (406 km). Huntington purchased the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway in July 1905, along with
8120-489: The Northern District interurban lines to Pasadena, Monrovia/Glendora, and Baldwin Park versus the alternative of converting to buses, and found in favor of the latter. Remaining PE passenger service was sold off in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, which was given two years of rent-free usage of rail facilities. Jesse Haugh, of Metropolitan Coach Lines, was a former executive of Pacific City Lines which together with National City Lines acquired local streetcar systems across
8260-402: The Northern District's Pasadena's Oak Knoll line, and the Sierra Madre line. The Western District's last line to Venice and Santa Monica also ended. The Pasadena and Monrovia/Glendora lines ended in 1951. The various public agencies—city, county, and state—agreed with PE that further abandoning service was necessary and PE happily complied. PE management had earlier compared costs of refurbishing
8400-526: The PE. Large-scale land acquisition for new freeway construction began in earnest in 1951. The original four freeways of the area, the Hollywood , Arroyo Seco (formerly Pasadena) , Harbor , and San Bernardino , were in use or being completed. Partial completion of the San Bernardino Freeway to Aliso Street near downtown Los Angeles led to traffic chaos when inbound automobiles left the freeway and entered city streets. The Southern District's passenger service to Santa Ana and Baldwin Park ended in 1950 as did
8540-445: The Pacific Electric and Los Angeles streetcar systems leaving the electric train system totally destroyed". Neither mayor, nor Snell himself, pointed out that the two cities were major parties to a lawsuit against GM which Snell himself had been "instrumental in bringing"; all had a direct or indirect financial interest. (The lawsuit was eventually dropped, the plaintiffs conceding they had no chance of winning.) However, George Hilton ,
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#17328488253338680-464: The President of the Nevada Bank, San Francisco's largest, became one of the largest bond holders for these lines and he and the younger Huntington developed a close business relationship. The success of their San Francisco trolley adventure and Hellman's experience in financing some early Los Angeles trolley lines led them to invest in the purchase of some existing downtown Los Angeles lines which they began to standardize and organize into one network called
8820-497: The Redondo Land Company, which owned 90% of the land in the beach community. This announcement precipitated a land boom in the area which resulted in a quick return of Huntington's entire investment in the area and in the railway. On March 19, 1906, an agreement was reached to sell control of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad lines, owned by Moses Sherman and Eli P. Clark , for a reported $ 6 million to Harriman (equivalent to $ 203 million in 2023); this turned over all
8960-539: The United States. Durant was averse to automobiles, but fellow Flint businessman James H. Whiting , owner of Flint Wagon Works , sold him the Buick Motor Company in 1904. Durant formed the General Motors Company in 1908 as a holding company , borrowing a naming convention from General Electric . GM's first acquisition was Buick , which Durant already owned, then Olds Motor Works on November 12, 1908. Under Durant, GM went on to acquire Cadillac , Elmore , Welch , Cartercar , Oakland (the predecessor of Pontiac ),
9100-418: 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. John D. Hertz , better remembered for his car rental business, was also an early motorbus manufacturer and operator. In 1917 he founded
9240-465: The automobile. The accuracy of significant elements of Snell's 1974 testimony was challenged in an article published in Transportation Quarterly in 1997 by Cliff Slater. A significant rebuttal to Slater's article was published about one year later in the 1998 Transportation Quarterly finding that, without GM and other companies' efforts, the streetcar would not "have been driven to the verge of extinction by 1968". Recent journalistic analysis question
9380-535: The basis of their limited return on investment. In 1936, National City Lines (NCL), which had been started in 1920 as a minor bus operation by E. Roy Fitzgerald and his brother, was reorganized "for the purpose of taking over the controlling interest in certain operating companies engaged in city bus transportation and overland bus transportation" with loans from the suppliers and manufacturers. In 1939, Roy Fitzgerald, president of NCL, approached Yellow Coach Manufacturing, requesting additional financing for expansion. In
9520-459: The bond market meant that he had to turn to stockholders to finance expansion. In 1904 he acquired and finished the Los Angeles and Glendale Railway. In June, LAIU assumed control of the Riverside and Arlington Railway and the Santa Ana and Orange Motor Railway, and soon after, PE and LAIU finished their extension to Huntington Beach and began building a line to Covina . Huntington continued to expand and not declare profits. On December 7, 1904,
9660-406: The center margin of each freeway but the plan was never implemented. There was one exception that was within the Hollywood Freeway through Cahuenga Pass. The San Fernando Valley line from Hollywood took to the center of the Freeway over the pass and exited at Lankershim Boulevard. When that service was terminated, the freeway was expanded onto the former PE roadbed. The Whittier & Fullerton line
9800-446: The city in 1966. The Baltimore Streetcar system operated by the Baltimore Transit Company was purchased by NCL in 1948 and started converting the system to buses. Overall Baltimore Transit ridership then plummeted by double digits in each of the following three years. The Pacific Electric Railway 's struggling passenger operations were purchased by Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953 and were taken into public ownership in 1958 after which
9940-399: The company acquired Fisher Body , its supplier of automobile bodies. GM acquired Allison Engine Company and began developing a 1,000 horsepower liquid-cooled aircraft engine in 1929. The same year, GM acquired 80% of Opel , which at that time had a 37.5% market share in Europe, for $ 26 million. It acquired the remaining 20% in 1931. In the late-1920s, Charles Kettering embarked on
10080-401: The company announced it would scrap all but three of the existing Yellow Car lines. In 1953, the remainder of Pacific Electric's network was sold to Metropolitan City Lines, a subsidiary of PCL. Subsequently, the remaining assets of the original Pacific Electric system and the original Los Angeles Railway system were sold by Metropolitan City Lines and Los Angeles Transit Lines, respectively, to
10220-526: The company in 1915 after a disagreement with Durant. GM was reincorporated in Detroit in 1916 as General Motors Corporation and became a public company via an initial public offering . By 1917, Chevrolet had become successful enough that Durant, with the backing of Samuel McLaughlin and Pierre S. du Pont , reacquired a controlling interest in GM. The same year, GM acquired Samson Tractor . Chevrolet Motor Company
10360-630: The company played a major role in the displacement of rail and bus transportation by buses and trucks. This paper was distributed in Senate binding together with an accompanying statement in February 1974, implying that the contents were the considered views of the Senate. The chair of the committee later apologized for this error. Adding to the confusion, Snell had already joined the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly as
10500-463: The controlling majority of stock (double that of Huntington's) and the newspapers of the time referred to it as the Huntington-Hellman syndicate. Using surrogates, the syndicate began purchasing property and rights-of-way. The company's first main project, the line to Long Beach , opened July 4, 1902. Huntington experienced periods of opposition from organized labor with the construction of
10640-702: The conversion of streetcar systems to buses in small cities. The new subsidiary made investments in small transit systems in Kalamazoo and Saginaw, Michigan , and in Springfield, Ohio , where they were successful in conversion to buses. UCMT then approached the Portland, Oregon , system with a similar proposal. The UCMT was censured by the American Transit Association and dissolved in 1935. The New York Railways Corporation began conversion to buses in 1935, with
10780-403: 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
10920-774: The country with the intention of shutting them down and converting them to bus operation in what became known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal . Several lines operating to the north and the west which used the Belmont Tunnel from the Subway Terminal Building downtown ceased operation – the Hollywood Boulevard and Beverly Hills lines were shut down in 1954 and service to the San Fernando Valley, Burbank and Glendale using newly acquired PCC streetcars lasted only to 1955. The Bellflower line to
11060-441: The decline of the streetcars: Different funding models have also been highlighted: Other issues which made it harder to operate viable streetcar services include: Some of the specific allegations which have been argued over the years include: General Motors General Motors Company ( GM ) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit , Michigan, United States. The company
11200-656: The defendants had in fact plotted to dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation. 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
11340-698: The diesel-hybrid market, the Opel Astra diesel engine hybrid concept vehicle was rolled out in January 2005. Later that year, GM sold its Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive division to private equity firms Berkshire Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group. GM paid $ 2 billion to sever its ties with Fiat in 2005, severing ties with the company due to an increasingly contentious dispute. GM began adding its " Mark of Excellence " emblem on all new vehicles produced and sold in North America in mid-2005. However, after
11480-786: The dots on the map and was a leading player itself in developing all the real estate that lay in between the dots". Huntington's involvement with urban rail was intimately tied to his real estate development operations. Real estate development was so lucrative for Huntington and SP that they could use the Red Car as a loss leader . However, by 1920, when most of the company's holdings had been developed, their major income source began to deplete. Many rural passenger lines were unprofitable, with losses offset by revenue generated from passenger lines in populated corridors and from freight operations. The least-used Red Car lines were converted to cheaper bus routes as early as 1925. In 1936, Pacific Electric acquired
11620-470: The end of rail service in 1963. Large profits from land development were generated along the routes of the new lines. Huntington Beach was incorporated in 1909 and developed by the Huntington Beach Company, a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington, which still owns both land in the city and most of the mineral rights. There are other local streetcar suburbs . Angelino Heights
11760-456: The enterprise. Revenue from passenger traffic rarely generated a profit, unlike freight. The real money for the investors was in supplying electric power to new communities and in developing and selling real estate. To get the railways and electricity to their towns, local groups offered the Huntington interest opportunities in local land. Soon Huntington and his partners had significant holdings in
11900-473: The few U.S. interurbans to do so. This provided important revenue. The PE was responsible for an innovation in grade crossing safety: the automatic electromechanical grade crossing signal, nicknamed the wigwag . This device was quickly adopted by other railroads. A few wigwags continue in operation as of 2006 . During this period, the Los Angeles Railway provided local streetcar service in central Los Angeles and to nearby communities. These trolleys were known as
12040-532: 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 . 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 Washington DC , and Norfolk , have re-introduced streetcars. In
12180-502: The final few miles from private right-of-way to reach the 6th and Main PE terminal and were bogged down within this jammed traffic. Schedules could not be met, plus former patrons were now driving. The San Bernardino line, Pomona branch, Temple City branch via Alhambra's Main Street, San Bernardino's Mountain View local to 34th Street, Santa Monica Boulevard via Beverly Hills, and all remaining Pasadena local services were all cut in 1941. Permission
12320-482: The first hydrogen fuel cell car ever produced. Though fuel cells have existed since the early 1800s, General Motors was the first to use a fuel cell, supplied by Union Carbide , to power the wheels of a vehicle with a budget of "millions of dollars". In the 1960s, GM was an early proponent of V6 engines , but quickly lost interest as the popularity of muscle cars increased. GM demonstrated gas turbine vehicles powered by kerosene , an area of interest throughout
12460-497: The gasoline was harmful to various biological organisms including humans. Evidence shows that corporate executives understood the health implications of tetraethyllead from the beginning. As an engineer for GM, Midgley also developed chlorofluorocarbons , which have now been banned due to their contribution to climate change . Under the encouragement of GM President Alfred P. Sloan Jr., GM acquired Vauxhall Motors for $ 2.5 million in 1925. The company also acquired an interest in
12600-408: The idea that GM had a significant impact on the decline of streetcars, suggesting rather that they were setting themselves up to take advantage of the decline as it occurred. Guy Span suggested that Snell and others fell into simplistic conspiracy theory thinking, bordering on paranoid delusions stating, Clearly, GM waged a war on electric traction. It was indeed an all out assault, but by no means
12740-637: The industry, but abandoned the alternative engine configuration due to the 1973 oil crisis . In partnership with Boeing , GM's Delco Defense Electronics Division designed the Lunar Roving Vehicle , which traversed the surface of the Moon, in 1971. The following year, GM produced the first rear wheel anti-lock braking system for two models: the Toronado and Eldorado. In 1973, the Oldsmobile Toronado
12880-408: The influence of the '"traction interests". The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , which made it illegal for a single private business to both provide public transport and supply electricity to other parties, forced electricity generator companies to divest from trolley, streetcar, electric suburban, and interurban transit operators that they used to cross-subsidize in order to increase
13020-418: The land companies developing Naples , Bay City (Seal Beach) , Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Redondo Beach. Harriman, who controlled the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad , was concerned with the competition that these new electric lines gave his steam railroad traffic, and had been prodding Huntington for joint ownership of the lines but Huntington refused to negotiate. In early 1903, Harriman proposed
13160-416: The larger metropolitan areas in various parts of the country in 1943, was merged with NCL in 1946. The federal government investigated some aspects of NCL's financial arrangements in 1941 (which calls into question the conspiracy myths' centrality of Quinby's 1946 letter). By 1947, NCL owned or controlled 46 systems in 45 cities in 16 states. From 1939 through 1940, NCL or PCL attempted a hostile takeover of
13300-591: The largest seller of horse-drawn vehicles at the time. The first half of the 20th century saw the company grow into an automotive behemoth through acquisitions; going into the second half, the company pursued innovation and new offerings to consumers as well as collaborations with NASA to develop the earliest electric vehicles . The current entity was established in 2009 after the General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization . As of 2024 , General Motors ranks 25th by total revenue out of all American companies on
13440-534: The last routes were converted to bus operation. The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 (UMTA) created the Urban Mass Transit Administration with a remit to "conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas" noting that "our national welfare therefore requires the provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and modern mass transport to help shape as well as serve urban growth". Funding for transit
13580-420: 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
13720-478: The lines in downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica and down the coast to Redondo Beach to the Southern Pacific. In January 1907, the Hellman syndicate, after seeing that Huntington ran the Los Angeles Railway similarly to PE, continually expanding and not declaring dividends, sold their 45% stake in the Los Angeles Railway to Harriman and the Southern Pacific. The Covina line was completed in 1907, as well as
13860-556: The loans to keep GM in business. The action of the bankers was partially influenced by the Panic of 1910–1911 that followed the earlier enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 . In 1911, Charles F. Kettering of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) and Henry M. Leland invented and patented the first electric starter in America. In November 1911, Durant co-founded Chevrolet with race car driver Louis Chevrolet , who left
14000-569: The mountains to the sea." The Pacific Electric Railway was created in 1901 by railroad executive Henry E. Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman . As a Vice President of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), operated by his uncle, Collis P. Huntington , Huntington had a background in electric trolley lines in San Francisco where he oversaw SP's effort to consolidate many smaller street railroads into one organized network. Hellman,
14140-606: The new bus services being operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation , which shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. During this period, GM worked with Public Service Transportation in New Jersey to develop the "All-Service Vehicle", a bus also capable of working as a trackless trolley, allowing off-wire passenger collection in areas too lightly populated to pay for wire infrastructure. Opposition to traction interests and their influence on politicians
14280-406: The new railways. Tensions between union leaders and like-minded Los Angeles businessmen were high from the early 1900s up through the 1920s. Strikes and boycotts troubled the Pacific Electric throughout those years until they reached the height of violence in the 1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles . The efforts of organized labor simmered with the onset of World War I . Railroads were one part of
14420-704: The newly formed Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority . Under the new public authority, the final remaining streetcars in Los Angeles were phased out, with the final Red Car (Los Angeles to Long Beach Line) making its last service on April 9, 1961 and the last Yellow Car (V Line) on March 31, 1963. In 1946, Edwin Jenyss Quinby, an activated reserve commander , founder of the Electric Railroaders' Association in 1934 (which lobbied on behalf of rail users and services), and former employee of North Jersey Rapid Transit (which operated into New York State), published
14560-488: The other companies. He also questioned who was behind the creation of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 , which had caused such difficulty for streetcar operations, He was later to write a history of North Jersey Rapid Transit. On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were indicted in the Federal District Court of Southern California on counts of " conspiring to acquire control of
14700-482: The plant to arrest strikers, leading to violence; in other cities, the plants were shuttered peacefully. The strike was resolved on February 11, 1937, when GM recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for its workers and gave workers a 5% raise and permission to speak in the lunchroom. Walter E. Jominy and A.L. Boegehold of GM invented the Jominy end-quench test for hardenability of carbon steel in 1937,
14840-462: The poor earnings of the interurban system, with profits of $ 151,000 in 1905 rising to $ 402,000 in 1907 (equivalent to $ 5.12 million and $ 13.1 million in 2023). However, in 1909, earnings were only $ 75,000. Huntington had begun long negotiations with Harriman about consolidating the Los Angeles electric railways beginning in 1907. There had always been a difference between the two men as to
14980-422: The popularity and utility of the system in an extended sequence in his 1924 film Girl Shy , where, after finding one Red Car too crowded, he commandeered another and drove at high speed through the streets of Culver City and Los Angeles. In response to a proposal to establish the first bus company in Los Angeles by William Gibbs McAdoo , Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Railway proposed their own system,
15120-528: The pricing strategy used by car companies today. The pricing strategy had Chevrolet , Pontiac , Oldsmobile , Buick , and Cadillac priced from least expensive to most, respectively. In 1921, Thomas Midgley Jr. , an engineer for GM, discovered tetraethyllead (leaded gasoline) as an antiknock agent, and GM patented the compound because ethanol could not be patented. This led to the development of higher compression engines resulting in more power and efficiency. The public later realized that lead contained in
15260-424: The purpose of the railway, with Huntington seeing the PE as a means to facilitate his real estate efforts, and Harriman seeing it as part of the Southern Pacific's overall transportation system in Southern California . Harriman left Huntington alone until 1910, when the former refused to allow the latter to run a line to San Diego that would have interfered with a competitive arrangement Harriman had worked out with
15400-554: The region attracting millions of workers. There were several years when the company's income statement showed a profit when gasoline and rubber were rationed and much of the populace depended on mass transit. At peak operation toward the end of the war, the PE dispatched over 10,000 trains daily and was a major employer in Southern California. However, the equipment in use was old and suffered from deferred maintenance. The nation's last interurban Railroad post office (RPO) service
15540-602: The remaining 20%. Huntington could expand the PE as he saw fit, but he was not to compete with existing SP lines. A byproduct of this sale was that Harriman sold the banking unit of his Wells Fargo Company to Hellman who merged it with his Nevada Bank operations and established the Pacific Coast's largest, most powerful bank. On June 6, 1903, Huntington created the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway, capitalized at $ 10 million (equivalent to $ 339 million in 2023), with plans to extend lines to Santa Ana , Newport Beach ,
15680-487: The reorganization in 2009, the company no longer added the logo, saying that emphasis on its four core divisions would downplay the GM logo. In 2005, Edward T. Welburn was promoted to the newly created position of vice president, GM Global Design, making him the first African American to lead a global automotive design organization and the highest-ranking African American in the US motor industry at that time. On July 1, 2016, he retired from General Motors after 44 years. He
15820-485: The secret winner. In May 1903, Huntington made an overnight trip to San Francisco and worked out an arrangement with Harriman. The Pacific Electric would get the Los Angeles Traction Lines, SP's San Gabriel Valley Rapid Transit Railway line, the 6th Street franchise, and some downtown trackage. In return, Harriman got 40.3% of PE stock, an amount equal to Huntington's, with Hellman, Borel and De Guigne owning
15960-489: 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
16100-483: The single reason for the failure of rapid transit. Also, it is just as clear that actions and inactions by government contributed significantly to the elimination of electric traction." In 2010, CBS's Mark Henricks reported: There is no question that a GM-controlled entity called National City Lines did buy a number of municipal trolley car systems. And it's beyond doubt that, before too many years went by, those street car operations were closed down. It's also true that GM
16240-481: The south closed in 1958 as the Golden State/Santa Ana (Interstate 5) neared completion. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority was established in 1951 to study the possibility of establishing a publicly owned monorail line running north from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles and then west to Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley. In 1954, the agency's powers were expanded to allow it to propose
16380-467: The specific allegations that were sub judice . Quinby and Snell held that the destruction of streetcar systems was integral to a larger strategy to push the United States into automobile dependency . Most transit scholars disagree, suggesting that transit system changes were brought about by other factors; economic, social, and political factors such as unrealistic capitalization , fixed fares during inflation, changes in paving and automotive technology,
16520-499: The time, was an ardent opponent of the New Deal , which bolstered labor unions and public transport . Sloan admired and supported Adolf Hitler . Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer allegedly said in 1977 that Hitler "would never have considered invading Poland" without synthetic fuel technology provided by General Motors. GM was compensated $ 32 million by the U.S. government because its German factories were bombed by U.S. forces during
16660-481: The ultimate reach of GM's alleged conspiracy extended to only about 10% of American transit systems. Guy Span said that actions and inaction by government was one of many contributing factors in the elimination of electric traction. Cliff Slater suggested that the regulatory framework in the US actually protected the electric streetcars for longer than would have been the case if there was less regulation. Some regulations and regulatory changes have been linked directly to
16800-510: The war. Effective January 28, 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson , then GM president, was named by Dwight D. Eisenhower as United States Secretary of Defense . In December 1953, GM acquired Euclid Trucks , a manufacturer of heavy equipment for earthmoving , including dump trucks , loaders and wheel tractor-scrapers , which later spawned the Terex brand. Alfred P. Sloan retired as chairman and
16940-454: The world, with 2,160 daily trains over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track. It operated to many destinations in Southern California, particularly to the south and east. The Southern Pacific now began to emphasize freight operations. From 1911, when revenue from freight was $ 519,226 ($ 17 million adjusted for inflation), freight revenue climbed to $ 1,203,956 in 1915 (equivalent to $ 36.3 million in 2023), 13% of total revenue. During
17080-640: Was built around the Temple Street horsecar, which was later upgraded to electric streetcar as part of the Yellow Car system. Highland Park was developed along the Figueroa Street trolley lines and railroads linking downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. Huntington owned nearly all the stock in the Pacific Electric Land Company. West Hollywood was established by Moses Sherman and his partners of
17220-478: Was consolidated into GM on May 2, 1918, and the same year GM acquired United Motors , a parts supplier founded by Durant and headed by Alfred P. Sloan for $ 45 million, and the McLaughlin Motor Car Company , founded by R. S. McLaughlin , became General Motors of Canada Limited. In 1919, GM acquired Guardian Frigerator Company , part-owned by Durant, which was renamed Frigidaire . Also in 1919,
17360-435: Was convicted in a post-war trial of conspiring to monopolize the market for transportation equipment and supplies sold to local bus companies. What's not true is that the explanation for these events is a nefarious plot to trade private corporate profits for viable public transportation. Other factors have been cited as reasons for the general decline of streetcars and public transport in the United States. Robert Post notes that
17500-637: Was cut in 1938, Redondo Beach, Newport Beach, Sawtelle via San Vicente, and Riverside in 1940. When the San Bernardino Freeway opened in 1941 but was not yet connected to the Hollywood Freeway, while the "Four Way" overpass was being constructed, westbound car traffic from the SB freeway poured onto downtown streets near the present Union Station. PE's multiple car trains coming and going from Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and Monrovia/Glendora used those same streets
17640-560: Was eventually discontinued in 2004, seven years after it had become the first American car brand to turn 100. In May 2004, GM delivered the first full-sized pickup truck hybrid vehicles , the 1/2-ton Chevrolet Silverado / GMC Sierra trucks. These mild hybrids did not use electrical energy for propulsion, like GM's later designs. Later, the company debuted another hybrid technology, co-developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW , in diesel-electric hybrid powertrain manufactured by Allison Transmission for transit buses. Continuing to target
17780-432: Was evidence of conspiracy to monopolize the supply of buses and supplies. In 1949, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, GM, and Mack Trucks were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by NCL; they were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951. GM
17920-469: Was fined $ 5,000 (equivalent to $ 59,000 in 2023) and GM treasurer H.C. Grossman was fined $ 1. The trial judge said "I am very frank to admit to counsel that after a very exhaustive review of the entire transcript in this case, and of the exhibits that were offered and received in evidence, that I might not have come to the same conclusion as the jury came to were I trying this case without a jury," explicitly noting that he might not himself have convicted in
18060-419: Was growing. For example, in 1922, New York Supreme Court Justice John Ford came out in favor of William Randolph Hearst , a newspaper magnate, for mayor of New York, complaining that Al Smith was too close to the "traction interests". In 1925, Hearst complained about Smith in a similar way. In the 1941 film Citizen Kane , the lead character, who was loosely based on Hearst and Samuel Insull , complains about
18200-910: Was increased with the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970 and further extended by the National Mass Transportation Assistance Act (1974) which allowed funds to support transit operating costs as well as capital construction costs. In 1970, Harvard Law student Robert Eldridge Hicks began working on the Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Land Use in California, alleging a wider conspiracy to dismantle U.S. streetcar systems, first published in Politics of Land: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California . During 1973, Bradford Snell, an attorney with Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro and formerly, for
18340-593: Was later utilized when the Southern California RTD was designing and building the Metro Blue Line light rail line. The Blue Line, the first modern mass transit line in Los Angeles since the discontinuation of the Red Car service, was first opened in 1990. The few remaining trolley-coach routes and narrow gauge streetcar routes of the former Los Angeles Railway "Yellow Cars" were removed in early 1963. The public transportation system continued to be operated by
18480-459: Was of such great concern by the late 1930s that the influential Automobile Club of Southern California engineered an elaborate plan to create an elevated freeway-type Motorway System, a key aspect of which was the dismantling of the streetcar lines, replacing them with buses that could run on both local streets and on the new express roads. When the freeway system was planned in the 1930s the city planners planned to include interurban tracks in
18620-412: Was operated by PE on its San Bernardino Line. This was inaugurated comparatively late, on September 2, 1947. It left LA's new Union Station interurban yard on the west side of the terminal, turned north onto Alameda Street at 12:45 pm and reached San Bernardino at 4:40 pm, taking three hours for the trip while making postal stops en route as required. It did not operate on Sundays or holidays. This last RPO
18760-646: 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
18900-402: Was pulled off May 6, 1950. Aware that most new arrivals planned to stay in the region after the war, local municipal governments, Los Angeles County and the state agreed that a massive infrastructure improvement program was necessary. At that time politicians agreed to construct a web of freeways across the region. This was seen as a better solution than a new mass transit system or an upgrade of
19040-726: Was received in September 1942 to abandon the shuttle line to General Hospital which company officials said had been operating at a loss for several months. The Glendale line survived to the early 1950s due to the convenience of a subway into downtown Los Angeles and used the company's only modern equipment, a group of streamlined PCC cars. In 1940, Pacific Electric sold its Glendale , Burbank , and Pasadena operations to Pacific City Lines . San Bernardino operations were sold to San Bernardino Valley Transit. PE carried increased passenger loads during World War II, when Los Angeles County's population nearly doubled as war industries concentrated in
19180-557: Was replaced by Michael Simcoe . In 2006, GM introduced a bright yellow fuel cap on its vehicles to remind drivers that cars can operate using E85 ethanol fuel . They also introduced another hybrid vehicle that year, the Saturn Vue Green Line . In 2008, General Motors committed to engineering half of its manufacturing plants to be landfill-free by recycling or reusing waste in the manufacturing process. Continuing their environmental-conscious development, GM started to offer
19320-537: Was succeeded by Albert Bradley in April 1956. In 1962, GM introduced the first ever turbocharged production car in the world in the Oldsmobile Cutlass Turbo-Jetfire. Two years later, the company introduced its " Mark of Excellence " logo and trademark at the 1964 New York World's Fair . The company used the mark as their main corporate identifier until 2021. GM released the Electrovan in 1966,
19460-547: Was the first retail car sold with a passenger airbag . Thomas Murphy became CEO of the company, succeeding Richard C. Gerstenberg in November 1974. GM installed its first catalytic converters in its 1975 models. From 1978 to 1985, GM pushed the benefits of diesel engines and cylinder deactivation technologies. However, it had disastrous results due to poor durability in the Oldsmobile diesels and drivability issues in
19600-435: Was the higher-priced "motor coach". By 1930, most streetcar systems were aging and losing money. Service to the public was suffering; the Great Depression compounded this. Yellow Coach tried to persuade transit companies to replace streetcars with buses, but could not persuade the power companies that owned the streetcar operations to motorize. GM decided to form a new subsidiary—United Cities Motor Transport (UCMT)—to finance
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