General Motors streetcar conspiracy

The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to a contention that General Motors (GM), acting in conjunction with several other companies and through the National City Lines (NCL) holding company, illegally acquired many streetcar systems in various cities around the United States, dismantled and replaced them with buses for the express purpose of promoting the automobile.

Framing the arguments

Part of the controversy is contained in the fact that popular articles on this subject have been framed by describing the issue as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy, and by the contention that GM's motivation was to promote automobile purchases by destroying streetcar systems. The problem arises because:

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• General Motors did not act alone. It combined with Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and two other companies to form National City Lines, which actually purchased streetcar systems. Therefore, if "conspiracy" is a proper description, it would rightly be the National City Lines, or the "General Motors-Firestone-Standard Oil-National City Lines Conspiracy. This is a minor point as to be a conspiracy whatsoever, more than one entity needs to be involved. As GM was the most prominent of the companies, and engaged in similar behavior before the actual conspiracy, the name fits. Standard Oil is a name unknown to many present-day Americans and Firestone is now a mere subsidiary of Japanese-owned Bridgestone Tire Company.
• Streetcar systems failed for other reasons than National City Lines: System deterioration during World War II; politically or socially motivated opponents of streetcar systems, such as Robert Moses and Fiorello LaGuardia; federal subsidy of competing systems; competition with automobiles for road space; and suburbanization all played roles. None of that means that "National City Lines" (and, by extension, GM) was not a significant player in demise of the urban streetcar.
• A central part of the argument concerns motivation—that GM and its business partners wanted to discontinue streetcar lines to increase automobile demand. It is undisputed that all the corporations involved wanted to grow their businesses.