Interurbans
The Northwest Indiana Times has a review of a new book, Central Indiana Interurban.
The interurbans, which connected small cities and towns with metropolitan areas, were so commonplace that most large cities had were connected to one by the early 1920s. However, by the late 1930s virtually all of the interurban services were extinct. Many fell victim to GM and other auto-industrial companies, as did the street cars in Los Angeles. Others simply became redundant as the automobile proved more flexible and versatile modes of transportation across and around America's vast interior.
The book argues that the interurbans represented much of the first mass transit in middle America and points out that Chicago's South Shore railroad (which connects South Bend, Indiana with Chicago's South Shore) is among the lone survivors of the Interurban era.
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cs | 1:21 PM |
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Dumb question, I know, but what's an "interurban"?
An interurban is a city-to-city train, as opposed to an intracity mass transit or suburban commuter line.
To be more specific, they were city-to-city and town to city electric trains that connected towns that were ignored by traditional rail to the surrounding towns and cities in an age when, in much of the US, the alternative was primarily horse drawn carriages.
