How a corporate conspiracy, not natural market forces, killed Lincoln's streetcar system
By
Jeremy Turley
Master baker tier. Every paragraph earns its place on the tray.
Summary
This article investigates the decline of Lincoln, Nebraska's streetcar system in the 1940s. While conventional wisdom and contemporary newspaper editorials attributed the trolleys' demise to natural causes like the rise of automobiles and buses, the article reveals a corporate conspiracy behind the switch. It details how National City Lines, a holding company backed by General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone Tire, and others, systematically acquired and dismantled streetcar systems across the U.S., including Lincoln's, to replace them with buses — a scheme that later led to a landmark antitrust conviction in 1949.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe gas engine put them in the discard, just as railroads did the stagecoach.
In cities like Omaha, streetcars did, in fact, die naturally. A postwar surge in car ownership gave people new commuting options, and slow-moving trolleys gummed up traffic.
But the switch to buses in Lincoln was different.
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