My background is in accounting and public transit. This business of the oil and auto interests’ conspiring to convert streetcar companies to buses is complete and total BS.
Not only is streetcar infrastructure not cheap (involving not only cars, but track, roadbed, surrounding pavement, copper wires (more like rods) above, steel support wires, support poles, substations, etc.), in many cases the private transit utilities were being outright screwed by the cities granting franchises...they were required to maintain not only their tracks, but the streets they used, along with contributing to related municipal utility repairs such as sewers, and often were required to provide amenities like street lighting as well.
What really served to kill streetcars in the US was the combined effects of the Great Depression and WW2. From about 1930 to 1945 they had been unable to do proper physical plant maintenance (often counting themselves lucky to make payroll every month...note that many such properties across North America did not survive the Depression), and from 1939-40 to 1945 they had been forced to put out 110% service for the war. By 1945, most streetcar companies’ physical plant was a virtual wreck...much of it had been built gradually decades before, and now all of it had to be rebuilt ALL AT ONCE. And banks weren’t willing to lend for the capital projects, because they (rightly) saw streetcars as a losing proposition.
As early as the 1920s, and in both electric and internal-combustion forms, along came the bus. As streets were paved, the advantages of the bus grew...no tracks in the streets (and no induced obligation to maintain streets), maybe no wires overhead, no wires and support poles or substations to maintain....
For any private (and quite a few municipal) transit providers, putting a “new” face on the streets (and shedding loads of financial obligations) by converting to bus was the most logical option.
Granted, rail does still have its place in urban/regional transit (and, really, major cities do need it to survive)...but the passenger loads need to be really high to merit that level of physical plant investment.
I used streetcars for years-—and then came the busses,which I loved.
When a streetcar broke down we were ALL held up behind it——not so with the busses.
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As a generalist, it is gratifying to see what I deduced through common sense verified by an expert in the field.
Thank you.
Interesting - thank you!