New Hampshire and Vermont Spingrield Terminal was similar but also handled freight.
INTERURBAN n. A railroad connecting cities or towns.
- Webster’s Student Dictionary, 1996.
Most of CA&E’s territory was and is adequately served by existing suburban operations: the UP West Line to Wheaton, BNSF to Aurora and MILW West Line to Elgin. Even if through service over CTA continued, CA&E probably would not have lasted much longer than it did, also see CNS&M.
What is so archaic about diesel-electric motive power??
This might be a dictionary definition of an “interurban” but it’s definitely not the common usage of the term in the rail industry. After all, under this definition, the Union Pacific would be an “interurban”, something which Mr. Harriman would have found pretty amusing.
Earlier replies have already discussed this at some length. Many years ago, a famous Supreme Court justice commented on the definition of “obsenity”. I can’t quote him exactly, but he said something to the effect that he couldn’t define the term, but he know it when he saw it. The term “interurban” in railroading is in somewhat the same boat. But, in general, it referred to a “trolley” railroad between cities. As another commentor already mentioned, interurbans were usually (but not always) built to lighter standards than conventional railroads and powered by overhead trolley wire. But there were many exceptions. The North Shore Line, the CA&E and the South Shore Line in the Chicago area were generally considered “interurbans” through the 1920’s, but were mostly built to conventional railroad standards (and the CA&E was mostly powered by 3rd rail).
But the answer to “what is an interurban” also depends on why the question is being asked. For example, the old Interstate Commerce Act, which gave the Interstate Commerce Commission extensive regulatory authority over the nation’s rail system, contained broad exclusions for electric interurban railroads not operated as part of the steam railroad transportation system (what we would call the "gen
In the unlikely event anyone wants to dig into this further, see the court decision in State of Illinois v. United States, 273 F. Supp 83 (1962), upholding the ICC decision authorizing abandonement of the North Shore, which has an extensive discussion of the “interurban” issue. Unfortunately, I can’t attach my copy to this note (probably because of my lack of computer skills), but it should be availabe on a non-subscription public legal research site (like “Findlaw”) at 213 F. Supp. 83 (1962). It was affirmed per curiam (i.e., without a written opinion) by the Surpeme Court in Illinois v. United States, 373 U.S. 378. Just some more light bedtime reading.
Ask and ye shall receive.
Previous three posts are just great. Thanks
Have you recently ridden the UP West or BNSF lines at rush hour? Often packed, SRO. Beyond Wheaton, the CA&E (with an intact ROW all the way to Quincy St.) would provide service to communities either not currently directly served by Metra that have grown tremendously since 1955 or areas in towns served that are now quite distant from the Metra stations.
Electric is simply better in many ways, IMO: noise, pollution, acceleration, to name three.
Needless to say I don’t live in that part of the country, but if commuter rail is as overcrowded there as you say it is it and the CA&E right-of-way is still intact it would make perfectly good sense to re-establish light rail service along it.
And all-electrified, certainly.
Mind you, watch the NIMBYs and BANANAs come shrieking out of the woodwork if it’s tried. Hopefully, I’d be absolutely wrong on that.
Overcrowded (rush hour) on many trains and given the amount of freight on both UP-West and BNSF, there’s little chance of additional peak trains.
It could serve places that now are commuter suburbs, such as Warrenville, Batavia, Geneva and Wayne, not served by Metra. Of course the CA&E has been the Prairie Path for years and it could not revert to railroad status. But we can dream!!
In today’s world where there is sufficient traffic for a form of rail transportation it is urban. With the sprawl of today’s communities there is no ‘inter’. One community’s leaving sign is the next community’s welcome sign.
I think you will find genuine rural areas between St. Louis and Bellville with farms. And Pacific Electric’s LA - Long Beach line, the last to be bussed and the first to be revived as light rail, traversed only settled communities without real rural areas by the time the USA entered WWII.
Settled areas are one thing, but a business core and many opportunities for employment are another. If two or more such are connected by light rail, especially if not contiguous, then i would judge the line to be an interurban line.
Of course up to about 1939, there were still farms abutting both the Brighton and the Culver Brooklyn BMT lines, now the B & Q and the F. And my relatives did not say “We will take the subway to Manhattan.” They said “We will take the train to the City.” If they did not remember the days of steam engines, they did remember suface operation of gate elevated cars with traps and steps and trolleypoles and entrance to Manhattan either via the Brooklyn Bridge or the Fulton Ferryboat.
And you are entitled to your definition. As I am with mine.
CTA’s proposal in 1958 to operate third-rail equipped PCC’s in local service on CA&E between Forest Park and Wheaton is rather well-known. However, it is questionable how serious this proposal was for a variety of reasons. The proposed operation extended beyond CTA’s legally established service area and would have required action by the General Assembly. The proposal did not include any method of funding the operation. Any kind of operation by CTA into Dupage County was politically unfeasible at the time.
Also, the Illinois Prairie Path was one of the first rail-to-trail conversions and came into existence shortly after the formal abandonment of CA&E in 1961. As an urban trail, it is quite popular and heavily used.