![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable car (railway)</span> Cable-hauled mass transit system](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/11_Cable_Car_on_Powell_St_crop%2C_SF%2C_CA%2C_jjron_25.03.2012.jpg/320px-11_Cable_Car_on_Powell_St_crop%2C_SF%2C_CA%2C_jjron_25.03.2012.jpg)
A cable car is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interurban</span> Type of electric railway which runs within and between cities or towns](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/PennsLanding.jpg/320px-PennsLanding.jpg)
The interurban is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms used outside it. They were very prevalent in many parts of the world before the Second World War and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. 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, when most roads between towns, many town streets were unpaved, and transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Key System</span> Former local electric railway service in the East Bay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Key_System_logo.svg/320px-Key_System_logo.svg.png)
The Key System was a privately owned company that provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany, and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when it was sold to a newly formed public agency, AC Transit. The Key System consisted of local streetcar and bus lines in the East Bay, and commuter rail and bus lines connecting the East Bay to San Francisco by a ferry pier on San Francisco Bay, later via the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. At its height during the 1940s, the Key System had over 66 miles (106 km) of track. The local streetcars were discontinued in 1948 and the commuter trains to San Francisco were discontinued in 1958. The Key System's territory is today served by BART and AC Transit bus service.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer Valley Transit Authority</span> Pioneer Valley (Springfield, MA Metro Area & UMASS Amherst) Fixed Bus Route Service](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/PVTA_Springfield_Union_Station.jpg/320px-PVTA_Springfield_Union_Station.jpg)
The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) oversees and coordinates public transportation in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, offering fixed-route bus service, paratransit service, and senior van service. PVTA was created by Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Laws in 1974. Based in Springfield, Massachusetts, PVTA serves Hampden and Hampshire counties, and provides connecting service to CTtransit in Hartford County, Connecticut, to FRTA in Franklin County, and to WRTA in Worcester County. It is the largest regional transit authority, and second largest public transit system in Massachusetts after the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, providing service to over 11 million riders annually across 24 municipalities in the region, with about 70% of all riders using the system as their primary mode of transit.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market Street Railway (transit operator)</span> California transit operator](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Market_Street_Railway_brass_logo.JPG/320px-Market_Street_Railway_brass_logo.JPG)
The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network. Over the years, the company was also known as the Market Street Railroad Company, the Market Street Cable Railway Company and the United Railroads of San Francisco. Once the largest transit operator in the city, the company folded in 1944 and its assets and services were acquired by the city-owned San Francisco Municipal Railway. Many of the former routes continue to exist into the 2020s, but served by buses.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central California Traction Company</span> Class III railroad in San Joaquin County](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e3/Central_California_Traction_Company_%28logo%29.png)
The Central California Traction Company is a Class III short-line railroad operating in the northern San Joaquin Valley, in San Joaquin County, California. It is owned jointly by the Union Pacific and BNSF Railway.
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. As with standard rail tracks, tram tracks have two parallel steel rails, the distance between the heads of the rails being the track gauge. When there is no need for pedestrians or road vehicles to traverse the track, conventional flat-bottom rail is used. However, when such traffic exists, such as in urban streets, grooved rails are used.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacramento Northern Railway</span> Former electric railway in California](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/654_on_Plumas_-_Flickr_-_drewj1946.jpg/320px-654_on_Plumas_-_Flickr_-_drewj1946.jpg)
The Sacramento Northern Railway was a 183-mile (295 km) electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the state capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Chico, and Woodland. This involved multiple car trains making sharp turns at street corners and obeying traffic signals. Once in open country, SN's passenger trains ran at fairly fast speeds. With its shorter route and lower fares, the SN provided strong competition to the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad for passenger business and freight business between those two cities. North of Sacramento, both passenger and freight business was less due to the small town agricultural nature of the region and due to competition from the paralleling Southern Pacific Railroad.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elgin and Belvidere Electric Company</span>](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/E%26B_Belvidere_Terminal.jpg/320px-E%26B_Belvidere_Terminal.jpg)
The Elgin and Belvidere Electric Company was a 36-mile (58 km) interurban line that connected Belvidere, Illinois and Elgin, Illinois. It was the central link in the interurban network connecting Freeport, Rockford, Elgin, and Chicago which included the Rockford and Interurban Railway to the west and the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad to the east. The line was operational from 1907 until 1930. In 1927, the line was extended to Rockford over a line of the Rockford and Interurban.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streetcars in North America</span> History of street cars](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/New_Flexity_LR_vehicles_approach_Spadina_and_King%2C_2016_07_21_%2816%29.JPG_-_panoramio.jpg/320px-New_Flexity_LR_vehicles_approach_Spadina_and_King%2C_2016_07_21_%2816%29.JPG_-_panoramio.jpg)
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewett Car Company</span> Early 20th-century American industrial company that manufactured streetcars and interurban cars](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Pacific_Electric_1001.jpg/320px-Pacific_Electric_1001.jpg)
The Jewett Car Company was an early 20th-century American industrial company that manufactured streetcars and interurban cars.
The San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway (SF&SM) was the first electric streetcar company in San Francisco, California. The company was only in business for ten years, starting from 1892 until it was merged into the United Railroads of San Francisco (URR) in 1902.
Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943 until 1993. It was based in the Los Angeles area, and specifically in Glendale, California after 1976. Although its primary focus was on books, it also published three magazines starting in the 1980s, along with videos and calendars. At its peak, the company employed 10 people and generated about $2 million in business annually.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holyoke Street Railway</span>](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Holyoke_Street_Railway_PVTA_Logo.svg/320px-Holyoke_Street_Railway_PVTA_Logo.svg.png)
The Holyoke Street Railway (HSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Holyoke, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee, Easthampton, Granby, Northampton, Pelham, South Hadley, Sunderland, Westfield, and West Springfield. Throughout its history the railway system shaped the cultural institutions of Mount Tom, being operator of the mountain's famous summit houses, one of which hosted President McKinley, the Mount Tom Railroad, and the trolley park at the opposite end of this funicular line, Mountain Park.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springfield Street Railway</span>](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Springfield_Street_Railway_circa_1940.svg/320px-Springfield_Street_Railway_circa_1940.svg.png)
The Springfield Street Railway (SSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Springfield, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Agawam, Blandford, Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Monson, Palmer, Russell, Ware, Westfield, and West Springfield. With the first modern streetcars appearing in 1891, by 1905 the system had more miles of electrified track than New York City with its fledgling subway.