Re: Taken For A Ride

["Richo" <richardc@tpg.com.au>]

Fiction hey?
the ownership issues may well be disputable but the conspiracy to build
freeways was certainly genuine
Western European countries like Germany certainly also went mad building
freeways (and other crazy things like invading Eastern Europe...) but did
not neglect their rail systems.
Why were road users charges never levied at full-cost recovery rates?
Why - as I've indicated in a previous thread- is that whole urbanised mass
of NE USA not covered in high-speed rail lines like similarly densely
populated parts of Europe and Asia are?
Why did we follow suit - we had government ownership and weren't obliged to
follow this supposed English-speaking trend. Why has Melbourne still got
trams when no-one else has - and if I hear the "melbourne has wide streets"
argument again...I'll show someone Victoria St N Richmond in peak hour.
The post WWII land use planning was and is a political issue, manipulated by
pollies for short-term gain. Their cronies in building and real estate, the
gullible working class who buy on the outskirts and the rail unions who dug
their own graves can also be thanked for the mess we are in.

Dave McL <davemcl@AXE*THISiprolink.co.nz> wrote in message
37efec70@news.iprolink.co.nz">news:37efec70@news.iprolink.co.nz...
> canetram59 wrote:
>
> > However, best parts  were the historic scenes of  streetcars in many
> > American cities especially the scenes of Pacific Electric in California.
>
> Like much of the programme, this was fiction. National City Lines never
> owned Pacific Electric. As many US streetcar systems were closed by
> their municipal owners as under NCL ownership. For example, NCL never
> had shares in such major, modern systems as Pittsburgh (a fleet of 666
> PCC trams) or Washington DC (also an all-PCC fleet). A local authority
> took over the Pittsburgh system from its former private owner in 1964
> and shut down all but a few lines (the South Hills tunnel ones) by 1967.
> The maginificent DC system was closed in 1961 by order of Congress.
>
> NCL did own the Los Angeles city streetcar system, but sold out in 1959
> to the present LA MTA. The MTA closed the system in 1963. Similarly, NCL
> owned the Philadelphia system for a time and did indeed close many
> lines, but SEPTA, the local authority which took over Philadelphia's
> transit in 1967 has been doing its best to finish the job ever since.
>
> The facts are that tramway systems in every English-speaking country
> were being systematically closed in the 25 years after WWII and almost
> all of them were municipally owned. In the US, where there were also
> private systems, these too closed, whether they were bought out by NCL
> or not. It was the fashion of the day.
>
> David McLoughlin
> Auckland New Zealand




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