Originally Posted by
bcbcbc
I've heard that one of the seminal events in the 'victory' of the auto over mass transit was car or oil companies buying up the public transit in order to shut it down or minimalise it. Henry Ford hisself maybe? Probably some people here know the details better than I.
The early auto-makers certainly, although most of the blame can be put on the nascent tyre and trucking industry that destroyed the railroads. Even today, the trucking industry fights strongly against development of modern efficient public trains like you see in Europe.