Re: Chicago Loop in the 1940s and 50s

Posted by su8overdrive On 2023/5/2 15:06:09

Thanks for this. Most cities and even big towns had trolleys, streetcars. In the upper Midwest, there were overnight interurbans with sleeping berths racing beneath the singing wires at 70-80 mph.

However, bus routes could be changed overnight. Which is why in 1949, a Chicago federal jury convicted General Motors of having criminally conspired with Standard Oil of California, Firestone Tire, and others to replace electric trolleys with Diesel buses, monopolizing the sale of buses to local transportation companies in 45 cities throughout the nation including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore and Los Angeles, imposing a sanction of $5,000 on GM,
and, for his role in dismantling the $100 million electric interurban system serving Los Angeles, San Fernando, San Bernardino and Santa Ana, fined GM's treasurer H.C. Grossman the sum of

one dollar.