Interurban railway

The interurban (or radial railway) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between nearby cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding communities. The interurban still exists in Europe, particularly in Switzerland, and Asia. Interurban, as a term, refers to the companies, their infrastructure, and the passenger cars that ran on the rails.

The interurban, especially in the United States, in the early 1900s was a valuable cultural institution. Most roads and even town streets were unpaved dirt: deep rutted mud in winter and heavy dust in summer. Transportation was by horse-drawn passenger carriages and freight carts. The interurban provided a new vital and reliable transportation link between the city and countryside regardless of weather. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States. As an industry, it was the fifth-largest industry in the United States.

By 1930, most interurbans were gone. A few survived into the 1950s. Oliver Jensen, author of American Heritage History of Railroads in America, wrote "...the automobile doomed the interurban whose private tax paying tracks could never compete with the highways that a generous government provided for the motorist."

The term "interurban" was coined by Charles L. Henry, a state senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes, means "between cities". The interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F. Due identified four characteristics of an interurban:

The definition of "interurban" is necessarily blurry. Some town streetcar lines evolved into interurban systems by extending streetcar track from town into the countryside to link adjacent towns together, and sometimes by the acquisition of a nearby interurban system. There was a large amount of consolidation of lines following initial construction. Other interurban lines became, effectively, light rail systems with no street running whatsoever, or they became primarily freight-hauling railroads due to a progressive loss of their initial passenger service over the years.

In 1905 the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as "a street railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits." It drew a distinction between "interurban" and "suburban" railroads. A suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic. A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to another city center and also moved a substantial amount of freight. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made more frequent stops, and it was oriented to passenger rather than freight service.

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