And L.A. G.M. destroyed the rail line that existed in SoCal, after WWII. My step-Mom used to go from Oxnard to Santa Monica as a child. One of my teachers, Blase Bonpane http://www.officeoftheamericas.org/ , once described to our class how his Father, who had been a Judge had, to his subsequent regret been part of the judicial process that signed off on it. Maybe the early 70's book by Emma Rothschild on autos goes into this. She used to write for the NYRB but, haven't seen her byline anywhere in ages. And, I betcha, Eric Mann and his Community/Labor Strategy Center in L.A. used this to effective agitational purposes in the transit struggle a few yrs. ago. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=General+Motors +Los+Angeles+rail+line+&btnG=Google+Search Michael Pugliese