On 6/28/2014 2:07 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
AIRC this wasn't the case in Los Angeles where the auto industry deliberately
white anted the public transport system, did it not?
Many, many tram systems in the US were private companies early last century. Many fell on hard times at one time or
another. General Motors and, I believe, Firestone, went around buying them up, converting them to bus systems, tearing
out the train infrastructure.
If they then weren't or turned unprofitable operations, they then said they were going to shut them down, leaving the
cities without public transportation. They offered to sell them to public entities, who were essentially blackmailed by
circumstances into taking the systems public.
The point was not to make money running buses, but selling buses and tires.
When I was a kid, I could walk down to the end of the block, jump on an electric train/tram, and go directly to San
Francisco, across tracks on the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge. The private Key System trains, first by ferry, then across the
bridge, were the driving force for development of the inner East Bay. Wherever a new line was laid, development followed.
It seemed a shame when the trains were pulled out for buses, then the Key System became Alameda-Contra Costa Counties
Transit. But if I look now at my city and at the bridge traffic configuration, I think we are better off now.
Buses and cars feeding BART urban trains, which are underground through much of Berkeley, that provide higher capacity
cross bay transit without using bridge lane space is a better solution.
Dismantling of train transit systems was undoubtedly rapacious in one sense, although it wouldn't have been possible if
they had been healthy businesses. OTOH, private business paid to remove a huge infrastructure that had become
economically insupportable and functionally outdated.
With the usual tax base supplement and occasional hiccups of inept management, the buses are still running and BART gets
gazillions of people around for longer distances. That there are fewer bus routes and less frequent service on some of
them is down to individual choices of travelers.
The best route up to our hill is gone, although the roundabout one remains. But that's down to me and my neighbors, who
found the bus terribly awkward and time consuming, compared to running up and down the hill in our many cars.
Private Transit Moose
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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