In Minneapolis, one of the most efficient, well-liked and fully-utilized transit systems in the US was literally stolen out from underneath the city's collective nose in the 50s when the rolling stock, i.e. trolleys, were sold to slimeball investors with a hidden agenda and ties to General Motors, who then proceeded to dismantle the system, tearing up the tracks and replacing Minneapolis' trolleys with GM-manufactured buses - against the wishes of the populace at large. This phenomenon was by no means tied exclusively to Minneapolis, though the loss was especially painful here as the city (as well as St. Paul across the river) was ideally suited to trolleys as a means of public transport.
The following paragraphs describing the film TAKEN FOR A RIDE are from the Minnesotans for Light-Rail Transit page at:
<http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2288/mnlrt.htm>
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Looking Back: The Economic Crime of the Century
In 1922, most Americans relied on the efficient trolley networks that crisscrossed the cities. Only one in 10 owned an automobile. General Motors (GM) president Alfred Sloan recognized a huge marketing opportunity in the remaining nine. Under his auspices, according to TAKEN FOR A RIDE, GM spearheaded a plan to systematically eviscerate the nation's streetcar companies, replacing them with bus lines that would eventually make way for the ever growing number of private cars. Over the next 30 years, thanks to the automotive industry's energetic public relations campaign, motorization became synonymous with modernization. The great American love affair with the automobile was off and running.
Weaving together vintage propaganda films, colorful archival footage, and interviews with former and current transportation executives and government officials, activists, historians, and critics, filmmakers Jim Klein and Martha Olson uncover a major force that brought America's rapid transit system to a screeching halt in an astonishingly short amount of time. TAKEN FOR A RIDE is a chilling commentary on GM's infamous slogan: "What's good for General Motors is good for America."
Starting in the 1920's, the film charges, General Motors executives -- placing their profit motives ahead of the public interest -- masterminded the purchase and destruction of the nation's trolley companies. Tracks were taken up, destroying a mass transit infrastructure that would cost billions to replace. Trolley cars were torched and replaced with GM-manufactured diesel-fueled buses. Some citizens fought to keep their streetcar systems, but to no avail. The citizens of Los Angeles and Minneapolis/St. Paul, for example, wanted to keep their beloved car trolleys, but before long the GM-controlled trolley company had switched to buses, dramatically increasing pollution in Los Angeles. By 1946, National City Lines, a bus company funded and controlled by GM, Standard Oil, and the Firestone tire company, operated public transit in over 80 cities. The ascendancy of the car was soon to follow. Minneapolis' streetcars are still being used to this day --- in Mexico City.
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/ dave /