Not sure the Belgian coastal tram has tramway connections any more, though it does have main line railway ones at De Panne, Oostende Blankenberg and Knokke.
You are correct. The costal tram was part of a vast interurban network that was as extensive as the standard gauge railway system. The costal tram line is one remainder, the now re-expanding network centered on the tram subway in Charleroi is another. The Ghent and Antwerp tram systems still exist and are even expanding. But these were all connected by cross-country lines that have vanished. Including a very few that were never electrified and went from small steam dummy engines, like the early elevated locomotives, to diesel railcars. The whole “Vicinel” systen was meter gauge, and so are these survivors. The system did have its own lines into Brussels, where there was dual-gauge track with the still operating Brussels tram system that used PCCs and now articulated LRVs. This latter has most of the center-city lines replaced by heavy raill subways, evolved from “Pre-Metro” trolley subways, but expansion in suburbs as feeders to the heavy rail continues, including putting new standard gauge track on abandoned Vicinel lines.
NJ transit Riverline Camden to Trenton NJ…Connects 2 mid sized citys with green space in between.
The 2.7 mile “Dinky” line operated by New Jersey Transit between Princeton University and Princeton Junction features single cars running under catenary.
http://www.njtransit.com/rg/rg_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=LineDetailsTo&selLine=PRIN
Worth a look whenever you are in the area.
Kevin
It was much more interurban-like when it ran with MP54s instead of air-conditioned 100mph Silverliners, and so much of the surrounding countryside hadn’t been developed.
Personally, I think some of the Philadelphia suburban lines, particularly the one to West Chester that I used to ride to Swarthmore in the early '70s, had more interurban character than the PJ&B, at least in places. Again, that was much more pronounced with the old MP54s with their symphony of sounds and smells letting you know, a bit like a drive in an English car, all the adventure involved in moving you.
Has not the Dinky gotten shorter? If it were up to Princeton it would cease to exist
It keeps getting shorter and shorter, but not by that much overall.
Up to about WW1 it ran up to a station at the bottom of Blair Arch steps; there is still a milepost a bit south between two of the ‘new’ (well, newer than that station) dorm buildings. When Spelman Hall was built in the early '70s it neatly established end of track right at the “new” station (from 1927 if I remember right, built in the then-current Ralph Adams Cram Collegiate Gothic).
The recent cutback is from that station to a point south of the old freight house (which was in use, when I was there, as part of the Irish taxi service company). The old station was repurposed as a kind of overpriced restaurant. At one point I had the detailed NJT construction maps for the project, but can’t get to them now.
Both the University and the town ‘love’ the Dinky … it would have been converted to a dedicated busway long ago if not. (I was involved in at least two feasibility studies considering just that, one of which was to use ‘dual-mode’ rail/road buses.) It’s just the location of the Princeton-end stop that’s in question.
I don’t think it will be cut back any further than the Ridge Road crossing even in the distant future.
[quote user=“daveklepper”]
And also doen’t the New Jersey Transit River Line between Trenton and Camden?
Again with diesel MUs.
And lets give credit for a railroad that actually runs on the minute. You can set your watch by that service. Never even one minute late over a fairly long route with lots of stations. Imakes no sense to drive with that kind of reliability and very inexpensive.
Morrisburg?
Not quite the ‘classic interurbans’ I think the OP had in mind, but…
Like the Princeton Junction and Back, the Stamford - New Canaan braanch of ConnDOT-Metro-North looks like an interurban. And indeed it was electrified in 1901 at 550V or 600VDC with interurban-like trolleycars, and then converted to 11000V AC around 1914 to integrate with the main-line electrification. The Gladstone branch of trhe ex-Lackawana lines is another, and Brass Penny restaurant, if it still is open, is worth the trip to Gladstone on its own.