 PCC streetcar 1504 operated by National City Lines' El Paso City Lines subsidiary leaves the U.S.-Mexico border in 1960, headed to Ciudad Juárez | |
| Industry | public transportation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936 |
| Defunct | 2007 |
| Fate | Acquired by Contran |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, USA[1] |
| Products | holding company for streetcar and bus lines |
National City Lines, Inc. (NCL) was a public transportation company[dubious ]. The company grew out of the Fitzgerald brothers' bus operations, founded in Minnesota, United States, in 1920 as a modest local transport company operating two buses. Part of the Fitzgerald's operations were reorganized into a holding company in 1936, and later expanded about 1938 with equity funding from General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum for the express purpose of acquiring local transit systems throughout the United States in what became known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy.[2] The company formed a subsidiary, Pacific City Lines in 1937 to purchase streetcar systems in the western United States. National City Lines, and Pacific City Lines were indicted in 1947 on charges of conspiring to acquire control of a number of transit companies, and of forming a transportation monopoly for the purpose of "conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines." They were acquitted on the first charge and convicted on the second in 1949.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
MLKlettertoNCLwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Paving the Way for Buses – The Great GM Streetcar Conspiracy Part II - The Plot Clots". Archived from the original on 2004-07-02. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
In any event, the Utility Act now put a large number of transit companies on the market. In 1936, GM formed National City Lines and aggressively began to buy transit companies and substitute diesel buses for streetcars.