by rail10
were interurban trolley linesfollow the same path as the sururban commuter trains?
Railroad Forums
Moderator: Nicolai3985
rail10 wrote:were interurban trolley linesfollow the same path as the sururban commuter trains?simple answer, yes they did. But however the vast interurban network in the midwest covered more passenger territory than the freight lines, an interurban line paralleling a suburban line may have more stops. What killed the interurbans was really the automobile.
Lucius Kwok wrote:The steam railroads with their suburban commuter lines and the electric interurban lines often competed for the same passengers, but they rarely exactly paralleled each other. Here are a few I can think of:Actually, the West Chester Trolley ( 69th Street-Upper Darby- West Chester) didn't really parallel the PRR Media-West Chester suburban Line. The PRR line "began" in Center City Phila., and ran over a route that came closer to paralleling the Baltimore Pike through Media,--- and the Southern Pennsylvania Traction Company's Angora -Media Line---- than it did the West Chester Pike & the West Chester Trolley. The West Chester Trolley was actually closely connected to its West Chester Pike route, as the Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company ( Red Arrow Lines predecessor) began its life as a subsidiary of the West Chester Turnpike Co. which built and owned the West Chester Pike. The closest the two lines came to each other was in West Chester, at the Market Street terminus of the railroad. The trolley entered West Chester on Gay Street which was one block north of Market, and the West Chester PRR Station was in the middle of the block on Market, east of Matlack, so the two lines were about a block and a half apart at that point. The eastbound run of the Red Arrow''s replacement Route W Bus actually passed the railroad terminus on its run over Market Street leaving West Chester, but the trolley never ran on Market.
- West Chester Trolley vs. PRR Newtown Square Line & PRR West Chester Line
- Liberty Bell Limited vs. Reading lines from Lansdale to Quakertown, Bethlehem, and Allentown
There's also many short trolley lines that were in competition, but they probably wouldn't be considered interurbans.