On 4/25/05, Frantisek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I heard that it was a big lobby of GM and other bus/gas makers for the > naphta buses against trolleys and streetcars... unfortunately > successful in most US cities. Glad it is a bit better in Canada. >
Yes. It started much earlier than that, in fact: "Between 1936 and 1950, National City Lines, a holding company sponsored and funded by GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil of California, bought out more than 100 electric surface-traction systems in 45 cities (including New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, and Los Angeles) to be dismantled and replaced with GM buses... In 1949 GM and its partners were convicted in U.S.district court in Chicago of criminal conspiracy in this matter and fined $5,000." (from "Year 501" by Chomsky, 1993) Oddly, the second Chomsky reference by me in 5 minutes <g>. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
