Re: Melbourne Trams

[chris@icos.net.nz ("chris 'fufas' grace")]

David McLoughlin wrote in message <374CE845.335E@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz>...
>MarkBau1 wrote:
>>
>> <<<<<> I thought this had been debunked as an "urban myth" a long, long
time
>> > ago.>>>>>>>
>>
>> Not a myth at all, in fact in one the latest US railmags there is a
review of a
>> book on this very subect. There have also been a few TV documentaries on
PBS,
>> (kinda like Australia's Aunty) describing this conspiricy in great
detail.
>>
>> GM even got fined over it but it was a paltry sum such is the power of GM
in
>> the US and all around the world.
>
>Part of the myth is that GM *was* fined. GM was fined (in 1948) for
>trying to dominate the US bus industry, not for conspiring to replace
>trams with its buses. And the fine was only a few thousand dollars, a
>pittance even then.


GM was fined under anti-trust for making secret pricing deals with its own
associate companies. That's all. It had nothing to do with the replacement
of trams, except peripherally in that they were selling buses.

Considering how much GM makes out of Railroad Locomotive manufacture, it
would be a reasonable assumption that if there was a quid to be made from
tramcar manufacture they'd have been right into it..

The problem faced by tramway owners was simple. They had to maintain the
road surface occupied by their tracks and also for a distance of (I think)
18 inches either side of the outermost rails. This was a very expensive
operation and of no benefit to them whatsoever, since they didn't need a
road
surface. In fact, they were providing a road surface for other road users -
their competition.

If I owned a tramway and had to pave roads for other users, much as I like
trams, I would probably close them down and buy buses as well, thuis saving
a fortune.


>
>The reason the "conspiracy" is a myth is that US trams were on their way
>out without GM's help, just as almost all the trams in the UK, Australia
>and NZ were replaced by buses without any intervention or conspiracy on
>the part of a bus company.
>

It's an interesting sidebar that the privately owned tramways in the UK,
(Mexborough and Swinton, Potteries, Hastings Tramways)(and possibly LUT -
can't remember if they ran trams or not) all converted to bus or trolleybus
before their neighbouring municipalities did, even if they had interworking
with them. That was, of course, because the municipalities did not have
to pay for road upkeep since all that was done from the rates...