By the time the case was brought, it was too late for olde-style rail transit anyway. But having a big bus maker, a big tire maker, and a big fuel company essentially sponsoring a company whose business model was to buy up rail transit for near-scrap value (almost always a failing company anyway, or soon to be based on deferred maintenance and cratering ridership) and convert the system to buses, does wave all sorts of red flags even if it was never adjudicated as a conspiracy. Really, it was just business, and things are still done much the same way if you look below the carefully PR-polished surface.

Perhaps the bus people (NCL was certainly an 800# gorilla in that group) did us a favor - cleaned out the old stuff that had no chance, providing a large inventory of old stuff for museums that started up in the same era (the most appropriate use for much of it, really), and leaving the way clear for something new when times became more favorable. Contrary to the opinion of some frequent contributors here, holding on to old stuff in public service is NOT inexpensive - ask Muni - and works best in a tourist-oriented situation that only incidentally (though perhaps successfully) provides ordinary transit.

The fact that some of the new lines (like parts of the LA Expo and Long Beach lines) follow earlier interurban lines is historical accident: a rail line (for freight) was still there when the new transit organization with actual money came around, and an old rail line in the right place was a good, relatively cheap target for r/w preservation and future use. That happened in many places, not just LA.

Nobody ever said Roger Rabbit was a documentary (I hope)! Fun movie, though. And yes, technically, a Disney movie given their ownership of Touchstone, though a lot of non-Disney characters were used. [www.imdb.com]