[milwaukee-electric] Re: National City Lines.

[Gary Schnabl]

I believe that there is a fair amount of urban legends among some 
traction folk, accusing GM and whatever other devils of taking away 
their "jewels"--a common term here in Detroit--spoken by blacks accusing 
those in the suburbs (or elsewhere in the country) of "taking away" 
their crumbling infrastructure that those living in Detroit chose not to 
fix up themselves. IOW, a sense of entitlement where taxpayers elsewhere 
are supposed to support those who choose to receive rather than to ive...
Detroit, like Milwaukee, has its proponents of traction. But one thing 
that both cities have in common is a lack of capital funds to build such 
expensive systems. That is why Milwaukee will have to satisfy itself 
with three BRT routes: National, Greenfield, and Fondulac. And those 
three BRT routes are outright gifts also, paid for by taxpayers living 
far from Milwaukee.

AFAIK, the traction in Detroit was not affected by NCL, as the city of 
Detroit acquired the streetcars in the early 1920s ( 
http://www.detroittransithistory.info/TheDURYears.html ). Nor in 
Milwaukee, which Ken accurately states.

Many of the SE Michigan interurbans went out of business (or were 
bleeding ca$h) during the earliest days of the automobile, around 
1910ish. I saw early photos of some major Detroit streets leading out to 
the burbs that paralleled the interurbans into the suburbs that were six 
or eight lanes wide nearly a century ago. Those streets were not built 
that wide back then to accommodate streetcars or interurbans! And they 
were not built by the feds either.

The final interuban serving Detroit was centered in Farmington, NW of 
Detroit, and went broke during 1934. I visited its remaining buildings, 
which today serve as offices and some stores. It was once the 
coal-burning power plant and office.

Gary

On 3/28/2011 11:43 PM, Ken and Tracie wrote:
> Don, an interesting red. Thanks. I have a friend in Florida who wants to
> believe National City Lines dismantled the Milwaukee rail transit system.
> But we know the company decided to divest itself of the interurban lines and
> switch its urban operations to rubber tires during the 1930s.
>
> If KMCL or Greyhound had any ties to NCL, the point was moot by the 1940s.
> TMER&L started abandoning interurban line segments in 1938 and TMER&T
> continued the policy until they wound up having to sell the interurban lines
> to get rid of them after Pearl Harbor.
>
> K.


-- 

Gary Schnabl
Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is...

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