The Great Depression, and World War fueled the economy, millions of troops, trucks, tanks, bombs, bomber parts, explosives, oil & fuel, etc ... etc ... were the main wartime commodity of the railroads. Without major World War the railroads began to collapse, and the passenger and trolley systems were being sabotaged by Eisenhower's motley crew of henchmen, who promoted the massive Interstate Road System constructions cross country. His cronies in organized crime (Firestone, Ford & GM, oil and gas companies) all collectively conspired together, and bought up all the nationwide shares of railroad and trolley stocks they could, with the sole purpose so as to bankrupt the railroads and trolley systems, and began methodically tearing them up. At one time there was a slow old trolley going up and down every other street in most cities ... Then there were none, as the tracks were torn out, and were paved over for passenger automobiles, taxis, trucks and bus's. Without major World War the struggling railroads and their infrastructure began to rot, decay, crumble, and collapse.
In many cities all across the US the trolley cars were piled 6 high, and set on fire in a huge bonfire, as dismantling them would be most complex, being that asbestos, PCB's, etc, was widely used in their construction.
