Anyone been out interurban way today? How’s the road? I need to go to the Camosun campus out there but don’t have winter tires and don’t much feel like buying them for the 6-10 days a year I can just avoid driving. How does it look?
I had a hypothetical question about transit in the Chicagoland area.
What if the interurbans from the early 1900's didn't cease to exist and continued to provide service to this day. Would they have been absorbed by Metra as additional commuter lines? Or would they instead by managed by a separate agency/Service Board?
I couldn't imagine they'd continue to be operated by private companies.
I'm specifically talking about these interurbans (here's a map of them).
- Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Ry.
- Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Ry.
- Chicago & Joliet Electric Co.
- Chicago Interurban & Traction Co.
- Joliet & Eastern Traction Co.
- Joliet, Plainfield & Aurora RR.
- Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Co.
https://preview.redd.it/6w9ahqd9eqp71.png?width=1428&format=png&auto=webp&s=12164e8d197f1d138e43f6e4e4056f1dcbb15a21
I thought this was an interesting article, about the major electic rail infrastructure america used to have. I disagree w/the conclusion though, I don't think it was that interurbans were "tech for tech's sake" that killed them, it was that the Feds pointed the money cannon at roads, which weren't expected to turn a profit. It's the same problem the subway faces now!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-06/long-gone-interurban-trains-could-signal-a-rail-revival
Looking for mods that would assist I creating a “modern interurban”
