On Mar 4, 3:40*pm, wrote:
On Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:29:29 -0500, Harryk
wrote:

The Amtrak trains to Florida pass through lots of "back yards."

GM was instrumental in "bribing" many cities into giving up their light
rail and trolley routes in favor of GM buses. That's what happened in my
hometown of New Haven. We had a pretty decent trolley system when I was
a small kid, but suddenly it began to be ripped up when the new buses
appeared. This was in the early to mid 1950's. The trollies were at
street level, in the middle of the wider roads. The buses showed up, no
doubt to help keep our industrial base going.

Yep that happened in DC too. O Roy Chalk, the owner of DC transit got
a whole fleet of new, air conditioned busses if he would rip out the
street car tracks.
For him it was a mo brainer. The street cars had very limited
coverage, they would not let him lay any new track and people were
moving to the suburbs (circa 1962 or so).
When the public was polled, they said they would rather ride an air
conditioned bus that stopped near their house than to have to transfer
to an un air conditioned street car.

Harry the conspiracy theorist.
Huh, Why go back to a trolley system that clogs the roads? I've seen
em in NO and they are a PITA blocking traffic. I suspect the real
reason they are gone is that buses can go more places and not some
silly conspiracy idea. Look into it and you will find that light rail
is the least energy efficient/passenger mile because most of the time
they are empty but they have to run anyway because people want to go
places all the time, not just on the trolley schedule.