Interurban

An interurban is a specialized type of electric railway system. The name comes from Latin words meaning "between cities." These railways occupy a middle ground on a continuum. They sit between urban street railways and full-fledged heavy railroads.

An interurban system includes the companies, the infrastructure, and the electric railcars themselves. These vehicles are designed to move people between cities and their surrounding suburban or rural areas. They provide a vital link for communities that are not directly connected by major steam railroads.

To understand how an interurban functions, we must look at its mechanical characteristics. Engineers identified four main features that define these systems. First, they use electric power for propulsion to move the cars. Second, their primary business is providing passenger service. Third, the equipment is heavier and faster than standard urban streetcars. Finally, they use a hybrid track system.

In city centers, they operate on tracks embedded in the streets. In rural areas, they run on roadside tracks or private rights-of-way.

The development of this technology relied on breakthroughs in electric traction. In the 1880s, the first successful electric streetcar systems began to appear. Much of this progress was based on the work of Frank J. Sprague. He developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor. He also perfected the use of a trolley pole for power pickup. This allowed electric cars to move reliably and efficiently. This innovation helped end the era of horse-drawn trams.

In the United States, the interurban became a massive economic force during the early 1900s. The first interurban was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. While that specific line was not a major success, it paved the way for a boom. Between 1900 and 1916, interurban trackage in the U.S. expanded from 5,000 miles to 25,000 miles. This represents a seven-fold expansion in only sixteen years. At its peak, the interurban industry was the fifth-largest industry in the United States.

The scale of these networks was truly immense. In 1926, the Indianapolis Traction Terminal showed just how busy these systems could be. The terminal featured nine roof-covered tracks and loading platforms. It scheduled 500 trains to move in and out every single day. That year alone, the terminal moved 7 million passengers. In the Midwest, interurbans were so efficient they almost destroyed local passenger service provided by steam railroads.

Global networks also emerged in Europe and Asia. In Belgium, a system of narrow-gauge vicinal tramways began in 1885. Italy saw a vast network around Milan, which even received assistance from Thomas Edison. In Japan, the Hanshin Electric Railway was completed in 1905 to compete with steam trains. Other Japanese lines, like the Keikyu, opened shortly after in 1906. Many of these international systems were built to serve densely packed populations.

Despite their success, the industry faced a sharp decline in North America. The widespread use of automobiles changed how people traveled. Most North American interurbans had stopped operating by 1930, though a few survived into the 1950s. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson even created the Federal Electric Railways Commission to investigate their financial struggles. Today, the legacy of the interurban lives on through modern tram-trains. These systems in France and Germany run on streets in cities and on rails in the countryside, much like the original interurbans.