GM had nothing to do with the conversion of the Pacific Electric Red Car lines to buses.

Electric trolleys disappeared because everyone started driving cars on new roadways and freeways; because new trolleys and tracks and wiring cost far more than new motor buses; because the courts decided that electrical utilities owning electric-traction transit systems were a violation of antitrust laws; and because motor-bus franchises never had the historical street-maintenance requirements that were common in electric rail franchises.

As most transportation shifted to cars and trucks on roadways, the remaining “public transit” function was largely converted to buses. GM and some other transportation-industry companies formed several holding companies, the most important of which was National City Lines (NCL), for the express purpose of buying up financially-failing transit systems and converting them to buses.

There was nothing secret or conspiratorial about this – lots of trolley systems were being converted to buses even where GM et al weren’t involved – NCL was just GM’s way of making money from that trend.

But neither NCL, GM, or any other GM-related holding company had anything to with the Pacific Electric Red Cars.

NCL did buy the LARy “Yellow Cars”, the streetcar system – i.e. electric trains that ran in the street in mixed traffic, like buses – from the Huntington interests, but it was never involved with the heavy-rail interurban PE Red Cars at all.

It makes perfect economic sense to replace mixed-traffic streetcar trolleys with buses.

Interurban rail transit like the Red Cars disappeared because it was a money-losing business, and taxpayers – most of whom drove cars, anyway – refused to subsidize it for many years.

And most of the need for it was obviated by freeways.

It was only in 1978, when taxpayers finally agreed to subsidy, that plans for interurban rail transit reappeared, and that didn’t bear fruit until 1990.

The demise of the Red Cars and the subsequent absence of interurban rail transit in LA had nothing to do with GM.