We desperately need to bring back interurbans. They are such good ways of moving people between urban centers and suburbs and like were just good at being transit. I mean there may only be one left, the Soutb shore Line, but despite the challenges the Right of Ways of these old magnificent transit systems manage to continue to be used in transit almost a century after their decline.
Now, photos of that last old girl.
If you want proof of the lasting impact of the interurbans, both LA metro lines A and E use previous Interurban tracks
The Yellow Line in Chicago is part of the original ROW for the North Shore Line which went to Milwaukee
The Norristown High-speed Line, as well as Routes 101 and 102 light rail lines in the SEPTA system in Philadelphia are repurposed interurbans
The Baltimore Lightrail was built using the ROW of old Interurbans as well
Also almost every Interurban was electrified by overhead wires, something that is incredibly impressive given how rare electrified rail is now
@zeug-not-zoog not much honestly, the main thing is they were electrified, had streetrunning in places and went between cities while most commuter rails go to suburbs. You could make an argument that things like the Sounder, T and LIRR are Interurbans, but the thing is basically interurbans were historical commuter railroads and are actually seen by some as the first commuter railroads.
One other key difference between an Interurban and a commuter railroad is that Interurbans were one single line while a commuter railroad should ideally be a larger system with multiple lines
