The Interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between 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 suburban and rural communities. The concept spread to countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Poland. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States, the early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution. Most roads between towns and many town streets were unpaved. Transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between the town and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States and, for a few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. By 1930, most interurbans in North America were gone with a few surviving into the 1950s.
The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in Southern California, United States, using 600 volt DC streetcars and buses.
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railway via lease and merger to become the city's primary mass transit provider. Its modern successor is the state-run Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which continues to operate in part on infrastructure developed by BERy and its predecessors.
Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962.
The Fort Collins Municipal Railway operated streetcars in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 1919 until 1951. Since 1984, a section of one of the former routes has been in operation as a seasonal heritage streetcar service, under the same name, running primarily on Spring and Summer weekends. The heritage service is operated by volunteers from the Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society (FCMRS). The streetcar in use on the heritage line, Birney "Safety" Streetcar No. 21, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Northern Virginia trolleys were the network of electric passenger rails that moved people around the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., from 1892 to 1941. They consisted of as many as three separate companies connecting Rosslyn, Great Falls, Bluemont, Mount Vernon, Fairfax City, Camp Humphries and Nauck to Washington, D.C., on six different lines.
The East Troy Electric Railroad is an interurban heritage railroad owned and operated by the East Troy Railroad Museum. Passenger excursions run on a 7-mile (11 km) stretch of track from East Troy to Mukwonago, Wisconsin.
The historic Subway Terminal, now Metro 417, opened in 1925 at 417 South Hill Street near Pershing Square, in the core of Los Angeles as the second, main train station of the Pacific Electric Railway; it served passengers boarding trains for the west and north of Southern California through a mile-long shortcut under Bunker Hill popularly called the "Hollywood Subway," but officially known as the Belmont Tunnel. The station served alongside the Pacific Electric Building at 6th & Main, which opened in 1905 to serve lines to the south and east. The Subway Terminal was designed by Schultze and Weaver in an Italian Renaissance Revival style, and the station itself lay underground below offices of the upper floors, since repurposed into the Metro 417 luxury apartments. When the underground Red Line was built, the new Pershing Square station was cut north under Hill Street alongside the Terminal building, divided from the Subway's east end by just a retaining wall. At its peak in the 20th century, the Subway Terminal served upwards of 20 million passengers a year.
Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8, also known as the Altadena Substation, is a former traction substation in Altadena, California. It operated under the Pacific Electric Railway and served as the substation for Pasadena area lines.
The Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway Power House is a historic building in Sebastopol, California, U.S., built to serve the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, an electric interurban railway of Sonoma County. It is also known as the Hogan Building and the P&SR Substation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The Plaza Substation was an electrical substation that formed a part of the "Yellow Car" streetcar system operated by the Los Angeles Railway from the early 1900s until 1963. After being threatened with demolition in the 1970s, the Plaza Substation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Quincy Electric Light and Power Company Station is a historic power station at 76 Field Street in Quincy, Massachusetts. Built in 1902, it is a well-preserved example of industrial Colonial Revival architecture executed in brick. It housed a coal-fired plant until 1920, and now serves as a local power substation. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Illinois Traction System Mackinaw Depot is a former in use 1909 to 1953 Illinois Terminal Railroad interurban passenger depot in Mackinaw, Illinois that still stands. The Illinois Terminal Railroad ran an over head trolley wire powered railroad from Peoria on the north to St.Louis on the south with branches to Champaign and Urbana. The brick depot and rotary converter "substation" was built in 1909 and designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The station served regularly scheduled electric interurban passenger trains and electric locomotive powered freight trains. The Illinois Power and Light Company also used the building as an electrical substation from 1927 until 1955. Very high voltage alternating current was converted to 600 volt direct current for use by the interurban line's locomotives and interurban cars. Wires entered and left through the large holes in the upper portions of the depot. The station was one of several properties owned by the IT at Mackinaw along with adjacent mainline track and a number of rail sidings, but the other buildings and the track have since been demolished leaving the depot as the only surviving landmark from the era of electric interurban trolley service in the central Illinois area.
Ivy Substation is a 99-seat theatre in Culver City, California which formerly housed power equipment for the nearby electric railways and Ivy station. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The Portland Railroad Company Substation, now the Scarborough Historical Museum, is a former power substation of the Portland Railroad Company, a trolley service provider, at 649 United States Route 1 in Scarborough, Maine. The station was built in 1911, and is one of the few trolley-related facilities surviving in the state. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 22, 1991.
The United Traction Company Building is located on Broadway in Albany, New York, United States. It is a brick building by local architect Marcus T. Reynolds in the Renaissance Revival architectural style, constructed at the end of the 19th century. In 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Four years later it was included as a contributing property when the Downtown Albany Historic District was listed on the Register.
The former Yonkers Trolley Barn is located on Main Street in Yonkers, New York, United States. It is a massive steel frame brick building in the Renaissance Revival style built at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the last remaining trolley barn in Westchester County and the only remnant of Yonkers' trolley system.
The Pacific Electric Sub-Station No. 14 is a former traction substation in Santa Ana, California. It was built by the Pacific Electric Railway to provide electricity to run the railway's streetcars in central Orange County, California. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Hartford Electric Light Company Maple Avenue Sub-Station is a historic industrial and commercial building at 686 Maple Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. Built in 1926, it is a fine example of Classical Revival architecture designed by noted local architects, and a reminder of the history of the area's electrification. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, and has been converted into commercial use.
The Georgetown Car Barn, historically known as the Capital Traction Company Union Station, is a building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Designed by the architect Waddy Butler Wood, it was built between 1895 and 1897 by the Capital Traction Company as a union terminal for several Washington and Virginia streetcar lines. The adjacent Exorcist steps, later named after their appearance in William Friedkin's 1973 horror film The Exorcist, were built during the initial construction to connect M Street with Prospect Street.
