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There is considerable uncertainty and variability amongst sources as to where National City Lines operated. |
"Forty-four cities in sixteen states are included. The states are as widely scattered as California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Washington. The larger local transportation systems include those of Baltimore, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Oakland. The largest concentrations of smaller ... |
This table attempts to bring together the many sources detailing the cities in which, at one time or another, National City Lines owned or controlled transit companies. A star (*) indicates that NCL is understood to have had significant control but not ownership: |
In Los Angeles the Los Angeles Railway (Yellow Cars) was controlled by NCL but not Pacific Electric Railway (Red Cars) |
Montgomery City Lines and the Montgomery bus boycott. |
Montgomery City Lines was the National City Lines subsidiary that operated the municipal transit system for Montgomery, Alabama. |
On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a Montgomery City Lines bus. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott. Montgomery City Lines was placed in the middle of a dispute between Montgomery's black citizenry and Montgomery city laws. In a letter published in the Montgomery Advertis... |
After Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Improvement Association wired a letter to National City Lines on 8 December 1955, the company's vice president, Kenneth E. Totten, traveled to Montgomery the following week. |
The boycott lasted for just over a year, and cost the company $750,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). The boycott ended only after the United States Supreme Court affirmed Browder v. Gayle, a ruling that black bus passengers had a right to sit anywhere they wanted. |
National City Lines acquired the trucking company Los Angeles-Seattle Motor Express (LASME) in 1959. In 1968, LASME merged with DC International and T.I.M.E. to form T.I.M.E.-DC. |
National City Lines was later acquired by Harold C. Simmons early in 1981. T.I.M.E.-DC ceased operations in 1988. The company continued as a fully controlled subsidiary of Simmon' Contran operation until December 31, 2007, when it was dissolved. |
Taken for a Ride is a documentary film by Martha Olson and Jim Klein about the Great American Streetcar Scandal. The 55-minute film was first broadcast on August 6, 1996 on the PBS television series "POV". |
"Taken for a Ride" was described by Caryn James as "an uneven documentary" whose "nostalgia for the streetcar system as a glorious, clean model of efficiency seems addled rather than convincing". Academic Sara Sullivan gave the film a mixed rating in her 2010 review: "("Taken for a Ride") presents a compelling history ... |
List of streetcar systems in the United States |
This is an all-time list of streetcar (tram), interurban and light rail systems in the United States, by principal city (or cities) served, and separated by political division, with opening and closing dates. It includes all such systems, past and present; cities with currently operating systems, and those systems them... |
The use of the diamond (♦) symbol indicates where there were (or are) two or more independent streetcar (or light rail) systems operating concurrently within a single metropolitan area. Usually, this refers either to interurban lines connecting the area's principal city with other cities or to cases where separate citi... |
Unless otherwise noted in the "Type" column, all systems listed were/are conventional streetcar (tram) systems (although some past systems might have been termed "light rail" if that 1970s-introduced term had existed at the time they were in operation). Interurban and light rail systems are noted in that column for con... |
For lists of existing systems only, see the following: |
Peschkes (Part Four, 1998, Page 59) states that, despite various evidence, the following town did not have a tramway: |
Peschkes (Part Four, 1998, Page 44) states that, despite the assumption of another historian, there is no evidence for tramways in the following towns: |
United States v. National City Lines, Inc. |
The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies that were involved in monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and its subsidiaries, and to allegations that the defendants conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation o... |
Between 1938 and 1950, National City Lines and its subsidiaries, American City Lines and Pacific City Lines—with investment from GM, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California (through a subsidiary), Federal Engineering, Phillips Petroleum, and Mack Trucks—gained control of additional transit systems in about 25 cities... |
The story as an urban legend has been written about by Martha Bianco, Scott Bottles, Sy Adler, Jonathan Richmond, and Robert Post. It has been explored several times in print, film, and other media, notably in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Taken for a Ride", "Internal Combustion", and "The End of Suburbia." |
Only a handful of U.S. cities, including San Francisco, New Orleans, Newark, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Boston, have surviving legacy rail urban transport systems based on streetcars, although their systems are significantly smaller than they once were. Other cities are re-introducing streetcars. In some ... |
In the latter half of the 19th century, transit systems were generally rail, first horse-drawn streetcars, and later electric powered streetcars and cable cars. Rail was more comfortable and had less rolling resistance than street traffic on granite block or macadam and horse-drawn streetcars were generally a step up f... |
Streetcars paid ordinary business and property taxes, but also generally paid franchise fees, maintained at least the shared right-of-way, and provided street sweeping and snow clearance. They were also required to maintain minimal service levels. Many franchise fees were fixed or based on gross (v. net); such arrangem... |
Many electric lines—especially in the West—were tied into other real estate or transportation enterprises. The Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Railway were especially so, in essence loss leaders for property development and long haul shipping. |
By 1918, half of US streetcar mileage was in bankruptcy. |
By 1930, most streetcar systems were aging and losing money. Service to the public was suffering; the Great Depression compounded this. Yellow Coach tried to persuade transit companies to replace streetcars with buses, but could not persuade the power companies that owned the streetcar operations to motorize. GM decide... |
The New York Railways Corporation began conversion to buses in 1935, with the new bus services being operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation, which shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. During this period GM worked with Public Service Transportation in New Jersey to develop the "All-Service Vehicle"... |
Opposition to traction interests and their influence on politicians was growing. For example, in 1922, New York Supreme Court Justice John Ford came out in favor of William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper magnate, for mayor of New York, complaining that Al Smith was too close to the 'traction interests'. In 1925, Hearst c... |
The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, which made it illegal for a single private business to both provide public transport and supply electricity to other parties, caused great difficulties for the streetcar operators which were frequently also generators of electricity. |
National City Lines, Pacific City Lines, American City Lines. |
From 1939 through 1940, NCL or PCL attempted a hostile takeover of the Key System, which operated electric trains and streetcars in Oakland, California. The attempt was temporarily blocked by a syndicate of Key System insiders, with controlling interest secured on Jan 8, 1941. By 1946, PCL had acquired 64% of the stock... |
In 1945, NCL acquired the Los Angeles Railway (also known as the "Yellow Cars"), which had been in financial trouble for some time. The new owner slowed the closure of streetcar lines and converted others to trackless trolleys, some of which used equipment initially intended for Oakland, others being purchased specific... |
He also questioned who was behind the creation of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, which had caused such difficulty for streetcar operations, He was later to write a history of North Jersey Rapid Transit. |
On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were indicted in the Federal District Court of Southern California on counts of "conspiring to acquire control of a number of transit companies, forming a transportation monopoly" and "conspiring to... |
The San Diego Electric Railway was sold to Western Transit Company, which was in turn owned by J. L. Haugh in 1948 for $5.5 million. Haugh was also president of the Key System, and later was involved in Metropolitan Coach Line's purchase of the passenger operations of the Pacific Electric Railway. The last San Diego st... |
The Baltimore Streetcar system operated by the Baltimore Transit Company was purchased by NCL in 1948 and started converting the system to buses. Overall Baltimore Transit ridership then plummeted by double digits in each of the following three years. The Pacific Electric Railway's struggling passenger operations were ... |
Urban Mass Transportation Act and 1974 Antitrust hearings. |
The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 (UMTA) created the Urban Mass Transit Administration with a remit to "conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas" noting that "our national welfare therefore requires the provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and mod... |
In 1970, Harvard Law student Robert Eldridge Hicks began working on the Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Land Use in California, alleging a wider conspiracy to dismantle U.S. streetcar systems, first published in "Politics of Land: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California". |
In 1972, Senator Philip Hart introduced into congress the 'Industrial Reorganization Act', with an intention to restructure the U.S. economy to restore competition and address antitrust concern. |
During 1973, Bradford Snell, an attorney with Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro and formerly, for a brief time, a scholar with the Brookings Institution, prepared a controversial and disputed paper titled "American ground transport: a proposal for restructuring the automobile, truck, bus, and rail industries." The paper, wh... |
This paper was distributed in Senate binding together with an accompanying statement in February 1974, implying that this contents were the considered views of the Senate. The chair of the committee later apologized for this error. Adding to the confusion, Snell had already joined the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subco... |
However, George Hilton, a professor of economics at UCLA and noted transit scholar rejected Snell's view, stating, "I would argue that these [Snell's] interpretations are not correct, and, further, that they couldn't possibly be correct, because major conversions in society of this character—from rail to free wheel urb... |
GM published a rebuttal the same year titled "The Truth About American Ground Transport". The Senate subcommittee printed GM's work in tandem with Snell's as an appendix to the hearings transcript. GM explicitly did not address the specific allegations that were "sub judice". |
Quinby and Snell held that the destruction of streetcar systems was integral to a larger strategy to push the United States into automobile dependency. Most transit scholars disagree, suggesting that transit system changes were brought about by other factors; economic, social, and political factors such as unrealistic ... |
The accuracy of significant elements of Snell's 1974 testimony was challenged in an article published in "Transportation Quarterly" in 1997 by Cliff Slater. |
Recent journalistic revisitings question the idea that GM had a significant impact on the decline of streetcars, suggesting rather that they were setting themselves up to take advantage of the decline as it occurred. Guy Span suggested that Snell and others fell into simplistic conspiracy theory thinking, bordering on ... |
Other factors have been cited as reasons for the decline of streetcars and public transport generally in the United States. Robert Post notes that the ultimate reach of GM's alleged conspiracy extended to only about 10% of American transit systems. Guy Span says that actions and inaction by government was one of many c... |
Some regulations and regulatory changes have been linked directly to the decline of the streetcars: |
Different funding models have also been highlighted: |
Other issues which made it harder to operate viable streetcar services include: |
Some of the specific allegations which have been argued over the years include: |
Northeast Maglev or The Northeast Maglev, LLC, is a private U.S. company proposing a Superconducting Maglev (SCMAGLEV) train system in the Northeastern United States. Using technology developed by the Central Japan Railway Company, the Northeast Maglev would provide 15-minute service between Baltimore and Washington, D... |
In 2003, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in cooperation with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) on a proposal to build a Maglev project linking downtown Baltimore to BWI Marshall Airport and Union Station in Washington, D.C. German maglev technology, ... |
The Northeast Maglev, LLC, was founded on March 25, 2010, to promote a revived effort to bring a maglev train to the Northeast Corridor. Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, LLC, was founded in October 2011 and is the developer of the Northeast Maglev's first leg from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. |
In March 2015, the FRA issued notice of available funding under the Maglev Deployment Program (MDP). In April 2015, acting on behalf of Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail (BWRR), the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) submitted an application to FRA for the funds to perform preliminary engineering (PE) and Natio... |
In 2015 BWRR announced that the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) approved BWRR's application to acquire a passenger railroad franchise previously held by the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad Company. The railroad franchise was abandoned in 1935. In granting the railroad franchise to BWRR, t... |
In 2016, the FRA awarded $27.8 million to MDOT to prepare preliminary engineering and NEPA analysis for an SCMAGLEV train between Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC, with an intermediate stop at Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Airport. |
In a Purpose and Need Statement, the NEPA Team for the SCMAGLEV Project, led by FRA and coordinated by MDOT, said the project's purpose was to increase capacity, reduce travel time, and improve both reliability and mobility options between Baltimore and Washington. "The population in the Baltimore-Washington area makes... |
The project has received endorsements of support from organizations including North America's Building Trades Unions, Greater Baltimore Urban League, Maryland State Conference NAACP and four of its local branches, and four Baltimore–Washington corridor chambers of commerce including Prince George's Chamber of Commerce,... |
On June 9, 2020, it was released that Northeast Maglev and B&O Railroad Museum created an alliance to bring educational support to the museum. |
The first leg of the Northeast Maglev would connect Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, with a stop at Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Airport. |
The first leg would be approximately 75 percent underground, and require a guideway (track) and three stations, a rolling stock storage depot, maintenance facility, power substations, ventilation plants, and an operations facility. |
In December 2018, the Federal Railroad Administration released an Alternatives Report that identified two alignments that run along Baltimore-Washington Parkway to be carried forward as part of the more detailed Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) assessment process. The DEIS is a detailed analysis of the remai... |
While two specific routes are under consideration for the line's first leg from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, routes from Baltimore to New York have yet to be designed. In all, the Northeast Maglev is planned to have eight stops, including: |
The Northeast Maglev will use the technology developed by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), who developed the world's fastest train, the Superconducting Maglev (SCMAGLEV). |
JR Central has been developing SCMAGLEV technology since 1962. The Japanese government fully approved the technology for passenger service in 2014, and JR Central began offering public rides on its Yamanashi test track that year. The train holds the world record for fastest maglev train. JR Central is now extending its... |
The line is planned to use a variation of the L0 Series that is used for the SCMAGLEV in Japan. |
The American High-Speed Rail Act is a proposed bill in the United States Congress. The bill would invest $205 billion into high-speed rail over five years. |
The bill was reintroduced by congressman Seth Moulton. |
The Panama Limited was a passenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of the Illinois Central Railroad, it took its name from the Panama Canal, which in 1911 was three years from completion. For most of its career, the train was "all-Pullman", carr... |
Today, overnight service between Chicago and New Orleans is provided by Amtrak's "City of New Orleans", another former Illinois Central train that was originally the daytime counterpart of the "Panama Limited." |
In the early 1900s, the Illinois Central's premier train on the Chicago-New Orleans route was the "Chicago and New Orleans Limited". On February 4, 1911, the Illinois Central renamed this train the "Panama Limited", in honor of the anticipated opening of the Panama Canal. The train included a St. Louis, Missouri, secti... |
In 1912, the train was replaced with an all-steel, all-electric consist. The Illinois Central relaunched the train on November 15, 1916, with new equipment and a new schedule: 23 hours from Chicago to New Orleans. The new train carried only sleeping cars along its entire route. Its old equipment and schedule became a n... |
The Great Depression led the Illinois Central to discontinue the luxurious "Panama Limited" between May 28, 1932, and December 2, 1934. When it returned, it had new air-conditioned equipment and a faster, 20-hour schedule between Chicago and New Orleans. |
The "Panama Limited" was dieselized and streamlined in 1942, during World War II. The Illinois Central had ordered two lightweight sets of equipment before to the attack on Pearl Harbor; after an appeal, the War Production Board allowed their delivery. The first diesel/electric-powered streamlined run of the "Panama Li... |
For the duration of WWII, the Illinois Central dropped the extra fare. In June 1946, the schedule dropped to 17 hours; later the schedule was reduced to 16 hours, 30 minutes, again with the extra fare. In 1947, the Illinois Central introduced the "City of New Orleans" as a daytime, all-coach companion to the "Panama Li... |
The "Panama Limited" maintained a high level of service until the Amtrak era. It was noted for its dining car service, with a first-rate culinary staff and creole fare in the "Vieux Carre"-themed dining cars, a service which the Illinois Central marketed heavily. A well-known multi-course meal on the "Panama Limited" w... |
On October 29, 1967, the Illinois Central added coaches to the "Panama Limited", although it attempted to save face by designating the coaches the "Magnolia Star". The Illinois Central dropped this separate designation on December 13, 1968. The Illinois Central petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to end the t... |
The Illinois Central Railroad last ran the "Panama Limited" on April 30, 1971. On May 1, Amtrak took over, dropping the "Panama Limited" in favor of its former daytime counterpart, the "City of New Orleans." This train made no connections with other trains at New Orleans or Chicago, so Amtrak moved the train to an over... |
Amtrak restored the "City of New Orleans" name, while retaining the overnight schedule, on February 1, 1981. Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the eponymous song written by Steve Goodman and recorded in 1972 by Arlo Guthrie. |
In 1923 Esther Bigeou recorded as song she is credited as composing, "The Panama Limited Blues". |
A different song of the same name was composed by Richard M. Jones. Jones recorded his "Panama Limited Blues" with singer Bertha "Chippie" Hill in 1926. The same year it was covered by Ada Brown. It was later covered by Georgia White in 1940. |
Another blues song "The Panama Limited" is credited to blues singer Bukka White, who recorded it in the 1930. "The Panama Limited" was popularized by folk singer Tom Rush on his self-titled debut album in 1965 and was recorded later by folk musicians Mike Cross and Doug MacLeod. |
A British band of the late 1960s and early 1970s called itself Panama Limited Jug Band, later shortened to Panama Limited. |
The Office of High-Speed Ground Transportation was established in the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) to administer the requirements of the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-220, 79 Stat. 893) to "undertake research and development in high-speed ground transportation, including, but... |
The office was transferred to DOT and assigned to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) in 1967. The office was terminated in 1972, with functions transferred to the FRA's newly established Office of the Associate Administrator for Research, Development, and Demonstrations. |
One notable product of the office was report commissioned from National Analytics on "The Needs and Desires of Travelers in the Northeast Corridor: A Survey of the Dynamics of Mode Choice Decisions." |
Texas Central or Texas Central Partners, LLC is a private railroad company that is proposing a high-speed rail line between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. It plans to use technology based on that used by the Central Japan Railway Company and trains based on the N700 Series Shinkansen. The company has indicated that the... |
Lone Star High-Speed Rail LLC was founded in 2009, changing its name to Texas Central Railway in 2012. Texas Central Partners, LLC (TCP) was founded on September 24, 2013 as the company to build and operate the service, with the rail line itself owned by the separate Texas Central Railway (TCR). Texas Central Partners ... |
The President and CEO of Texas Central Partners is Carlos F. Aguilar, and he is responsible for the company's finance, development, construction and eventual operations. In December 2015 the company announced that it had appointed two new executives to help develop the project, both reporting to the CEO. The appointmen... |
On August 10, 2015 the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a report that supported the so-called utility corridor for the line. In December 2017, the FRA further released their draft environment impact statement for the High-Speed Rail that proposed the preferred route. |
The line was expected to use a variation of the N700 Series Shinkansen modified for export, referred to as the N700-I. However, following the launch of the N700S in Japan, focus has shifted onto this newer model. Its modular buildup makes it easier to change the train length from the 16 cars used in Japan and it is tes... |
The signalling of the line is likely to be a replica of the digital ATC system used on Tokaido Shinkansen. |
In January 2017, President Donald Trump's administration listed the project as a national transportation infrastructure priority. |
In June 2017, it was stated that construction would begin in 2019 and would support 10,000 jobs during each year of the construction process and 1,500 permanent jobs once operations begin. In May 2018, Texas Central announced that global engineering firm Bechtel will work with bullet train developer Texas Central on pr... |
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