[OT] Public Transit

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

> Neither. In Canada GM's lobbying has to compete with that of Bombardier, a
> prominent maker of subway and LRT cars which has received plenty of
> government assistance (most notably in its global commuter-plane
> competition
> with Brazil's Embraer). And before Bombardier there was Hawker Siddley,
>
> (Remember the recent mini-controversy about Toronto's replacement subway
> cars? One bidder claimed they could do them a little cheaper if built
> offshore, but the contract went to Bombardier and single-handedly breathed
> new life into its Thunder Bay factory.
>
> - Evan
>
I think we're talking about two different periods of history. I'm
referring to something much earlier.
=========================================
Indeed, in the 1920s automaker General Motors (GM) began a covert campaign
to undermine the popular rail-based public transit systems that were
ubiquitous in and around the country’s bustling urban areas. At the time,
only one in 10 Americans owned cars and most people traveled by trolley
and streetcar.

Within three decades, GM, with help from Standard Oil, Firestone Tire,
Mack Truck and Phillips Petroleum, succeeded in decimating the nation’s
trolley systems, while seeing to the creation of the federal highway
system and the ensuing dominance of the automobile as America’s preferred
mode of transport.
==========================================
-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

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