It’s not too much to say that the streetcar industry was on life support by the 1930s, when the combination of a new federal law and an illegal corporate conspiracy administered the coup de grâce.
7. Streetcars which were subsidiaries of public power were allowed to run at loss. Consolidation of the power industry led to Rayburn-Wheeler Act. Now Trolley & public companies were limited to geographic area and can't subsidize unregulated transit.
