A typically poorly researched LA Times "nostalgia" article, complete with shallow generalizations, and some of the more famous (infamous?) old wives tales about the demise of the PE.....

PE ridership levels were actually still quite high after the way, that is until 1950, when the State Department of Highways cut off the Northern District. After that PE ridership fell, in a downward spiral, as the system was "dismembered" as true "system", slowly dying line by line.

A very good graduate paper I read in the mid 80's showed very conclusively, using schedule and ridership data, that travel times by bus increased significantly, and that patronage usually fell by around 50% immediately, when buses replaced those rail lines.

As to the "conspiracy" theories and Roger Rabbit, well..... Yes, there was a "conviction" and there was questionable influence from certain sectors promoting their self interest. And no, this was not the sole factor for the demise of LARY or the PE passenger systems. RR's both PE and LARY were losing money, and had an aging infrastructure, in need of a massive and costly upgrades to continue operating, which would produce no direct benefit to private investors.

The voters had several chances to take ownership and spend taxpayer money to modernize the LARY and PE passenger rail systems, from which there would have been clear "public" benefits. These attempts failed miserably at the polls in the 40's, 50's and 60's. And yes, some of those same special interests, who benefitted from selling cars, gas, tires, and asphalt, spent a lot of money to defeat those local measures, too.

Finally, we came to our senses, in 1980, nearly twenty years after tearing out the last lines, after realizing that we would be looking at exponentially increasing gridlock and delay from over dependence on an "auto only" system of individual transportation. As a result of that change in public attitudes we have successfully recycled some of the very same lines and routes that we lost...

Always remember, Pogo was right......