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117-592: In the first half of the 20th century, Southern California had an extensive privately owned rail transit network with over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of track at its peak, used by the interurban cars of the Pacific Electric ("Red Cars") and streetcars of the Los Angeles Railway ("Yellow Cars"). Many of these routes were constructed by real estate developers looking to lure people into their " streetcar suburbs ". In Downtown Los Angeles, train cars operated in

234-499: A high-occupancy vehicle lane ). After the defeat, the RTD and Bradley attempted to find existing sources of funding to build a less ambitious "starter line", an underground rapid transit line (also known as a subway) from Downtown to the west under Wilshire Boulevard . They saw this line as the "cornerstone" of any future system, due to population density of the Wilshire corridor, at the time

351-469: A state senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes , means "between cities". The interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F. Due identified four characteristics of an interurban: The definition of "interurban" is necessarily blurry. Some town streetcar lines evolved into interurban systems by extending streetcar track from town into

468-529: A "Subway Rapid Transit Association" and spent $ 3.5 million ($ 83.2 million in 2023 adjusted for inflation) to buy a partial right-of-way for one through the Wilshire Center area. None of the other subway tunnels ever came to fruition. The 1920s brought two important changes to Southern California: private automobiles became more affordable and were being purchased en masse and the region saw enormous population growth. Ultimately these changes would doom

585-689: A "boondoggle", leaving that city's transit system unfinished. Los Angeles would have to pull back from its initial proposal. The most glaring omission from the initial plan due to the pullback in federal support was and is the future Sepulveda line connecting the Valley to the Westside and eventually LAX and the South Bay. Funding was divided between RTD, which built heavy rail, and the LACTC, which focused on light rail along former Pacific Electric corridors. The initial plan for

702-467: A boom in agriculture which lasted through the First World War , but transportation in rural areas was inadequate. Conventional steam railroads made limited stops, mostly in towns. These were supplemented by horse and buggies and steamboats , both of which were slow and the latter of which were restricted to navigable rivers. The increased capacity and profitability of the city street railroads offered

819-520: A massive public relations and advertising campaign. Several agencies were awarded contracts to supply information, create signage and billboards, and produce radio, newspaper and television advertising. Coronado Communications, in alliance with sub-contractor Pangea Corporation , worked out a creative strategy to communicate to the Latino, Korean and Chinese communities. Under the direction of Coronado Communications' Fernando Oaxaca and Pangea's Cheryl Ann Wong ,

936-656: A noisy and exhaust-ridden freeway. As construction on the Red Line subway continued in 1995, a sinkhole appeared on Hollywood Boulevard , barely missing several workers and causing damage to buildings on the street. Subway construction was halted until the situation could be resolved. The contractor, Shea-Kiewit-Kenny, was replaced with a new contractor, Tutor Saliba . MOS-2 opened in two segments. Three new stations between Westlake/​MacArthur Park and Wilshire/Western opened in 1996; and five new stations from Wilshire/Vermont to Hollywood/Vine opened in 1999. At this point

1053-520: A rapid transit system for Southern California. The agency proposed building a 62-mile rail transit system across the county. The RTD brought the plan to voters, asking for a half-cent sales tax to fund the projects, but in 1968 it was voted down. With the shift from electric rail transit to private automobiles, air quality in the Los Angeles Basin declined precipitously from the 1940s to the 1960s, and left Los Angeles residents especially vulnerable to

1170-465: A sales proposal to voters in 1974, but once again a proposed sales tax increase failed. Bradley would later say the proposal was a victim of "bad timing", an eight-day RTD bus driver strike crippled the county's transit system in 1974 and property tax bills arrived the weekend before the election. The RTD did get one "win" in 1974: the El Monte Busway was opened, a bus-only lane (later converted to

1287-498: A small part of their extensive business empires, which often include real estate, hotels and resorts, and tourist attractions. For example, the Keikyu network has changed unrecognizably from its early days, operating Limited Express services at up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph) to compete with JR trains, and inter-operating with subway and Keisei Electric Railway trains on through runs extending up to 200 kilometres (120 mi);

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1404-436: A substantial amount of freight. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made more frequent stops, and it was oriented to passenger rather than freight service. The development of interurbans in the late nineteenth century resulted from the convergence of two trends: improvements in electric traction, and an untapped demand for transportation in rural areas, particularly in

1521-539: A team of 28 scientists during construction of the Metro Rail Red Line. Fossil evidence showed that tens of thousands of years ago, ground sloths , horses , elephants and camels roamed among redwood trees in what is now Los Angeles, according to an MTA summary of the 300-page report. The scientists also found evidence of a great flood in the San Fernando Valley 9,000 years ago that swept away trees. Among

1638-620: Is now owned by the state of Indiana and uses mainline-sized electric multiple units . Its last section of street running, in Michigan City, Indiana , was finally closed in 2022 for conversion to a grade-separated double-track line. SEPTA operates two former Philadelphia Suburban lines: the Norristown High Speed Line (Route 100) as an interurban heavy rail line, and the Media–Sharon Hill Line (Routes 101 and 102) as

1755-845: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (the Pasadena Subdivision ), along which inter-city passenger trains like the Southwest Chief and the Desert Wind had operated until Amtrak service was re-routed along the Southern Transcon to San Bernardino via Fullerton in the early 1990s. Initial plans were to tunnel the Blue Line north and east from its terminus at 7th Street/Metro Center through Downtown Los Angeles to Union Station, from where it would continue onward to Pasadena. But with

1872-625: The Badner Bahn , operates a classic interurban passenger service, in addition to some freight services. Some interurban lines survive today a local railways in Upper Austria are such as the Linzer Lokalbahn , Lokalbahn Vöcklamarkt–Attersee and Lokalbahn Lambach–Vorchdorf-Eggenberg . While others operate as extension of as local city tramways such as the Traunseebahn which is now connected to

1989-489: The Federal Aviation Administration that the overhead lines of the rail line would interfere with the landing paths of airplanes. In addition, citizens of neighboring communities to LAX opposed the expansion of the airport. Taxi and limousine drivers and owners of parking lots surrounding LAX feared that a train operating to LAX would create competition, as there is ample free parking at numerous points along

2106-466: The Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County were rapidly losing their population of middle-class aerospace workers (primarily whites and blacks), a process that radically accelerated in the early 1990s. The working-class and poor Hispanics who filled the vacuum generally had no connection to the aerospace sector. This rationale for Green Line construction was a principal argument cited by

2223-506: The Gmunden Tramway . Today, two surviving interurban networks descending from the vicinal tramways exist in Belgium. The famous Belgian Coast Tram , built in 1885, traverses the entire Belgian coastline and, at a length of 68 kilometres (42 mi), which is the longest tram line in the world. The Charleroi Metro is a never fully completed pre-metro network upgraded and developed from

2340-581: The Gold Line , opened between Union Station and Sierra Madre Villa on July 26, 2003. Interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway , with tram -like electric self-propelled railcars 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

2457-560: The Green Line , began service in 1995 at the cost $ 718 million ($ 1.44 billion in 2023 adjusted for inflation). One of its purposes when plans for it were drawn up in the 1980s was to serve the aerospace and defense industries in the El Segundo area. But by 1995, the Cold War was over, and the aerospace sector was hemorrhaging jobs. Furthermore, during the 1980s, the bedroom communities in

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2574-511: The Hardt Railway . Other examples include: Milan operates one remaining interurban tramway to Limbiate with another interurban route to Carate Brianza / Giussano suspended since 2011. These two lines were once part of large network of interurbans surrounding Milan that were gradually closed in the 1970s. In Japan, the vast majority of the major sixteen private railways have roots as interurban electric railway lines that were inspired by

2691-583: The Hollywood/Highland station and tunnels took more time to resolve than the actual construction. During construction, 2,000 fossils were discovered, including 64 extinct species of fish, the tusk of an Ice Age elephant and the bones of an ancient longhorn bison , a report funded by the MTA found. The report was authored by paleontologist Bruce Lander of Paleo Environmental Associates in Irvine . Lander worked with

2808-730: The Japan Railways Group along highly congested corridors is a hallmark of suburban railway operations in Japan. For example, on the Osaka to Kobe corridor, JR West competes intensely with both Hankyu Kobe Line and Hanshin Main Line trains in terms of speed, convenience and comfort. However, a number of urban lines in Japan did close as late as the 2000s, with networks in Kitakyushu and Gifu being shut down. Between Vienna and Baden bei Wien

2925-639: The Japanese National Railways network at the time. The (former JNR) Hanwa Line was a wartime acquisition from Nankai, operating 'Super Express' trains on the line at an average speed of 81.6 kilometres per hour (50.7 mph), a national record at the time. The old Sendai station terminus of the Miyagi Electric Railway (the predecessor of the JR Senseki Line ) was situated in a short single-track underground tunnel built in 1925; this

3042-908: The Long Beach Line in Long Beach and Los Angeles, California (this was the last remaining part of the Pacific Electric system). The Long Beach Line was cut in 1961, the North Shore Line in 1963; the Philadelphia Suburban's route 103 and the NYS&;W in New Jersey both ended passenger service in 1966. Today, only the South Shore Line, Norristown High Speed Line (SEPTA Route 100), and SEPTA Routes 101/102 remain. Some former interurban lines retained freight service for up to several decades after

3159-819: The Meitetsu opened their first interurban lines in 1912, what today form parts of the Meitetsu Inuyama Line and Tsushima Line . In 1913, the first section of what will become the Keiō Line opened connecting Chōfu to just outside Shinjuku with street running on what is today the Kōshū Kaidō or National Route 20 . Kyushu Electric Railroad, predecessor to Nishitetsu opened its first interurban line in 1914 serving Kitakyushu and surrounding areas, taking heavy inspiration from Hanshin Electric Railway . The fortunes of

3276-542: The Midwestern United States . The 1880s saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems. Most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague , who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup. Sprague's work led to widespread acceptance of electric traction for streetcar operations and end of horse-drawn trams. The late nineteenth-century United States witnessed

3393-558: The Pacific Electric system in 1953, as well as the bus and streetcar lines of the Los Angeles Transit Lines, successor to the Los Angeles Railway . Both companies were acquired for $ 34 million (equivalent to $ 387 million in 2023). The MTA began operating the lines on March 3, 1958. Despite the MTA's mission to create a regional transit system, the agency continued to abandon the old streetcar lines and replace them with bus service. The last former Pacific Electric line

3510-571: The Panorama City district in the San Fernando Valley , including a two-mile (3.2 km) tunnel beneath Downtown Los Angeles. That report was delivered in 1954, and the agency's powers were expanded, authorizing it to study and propose an extensive regional transit system. In 1957, another expansion of the MTA's powers authorized it to operate transit lines, and it subsequently purchased the bus and streetcar lines then being operated by Metropolitan Coach Lines, which had taken over passenger service of

3627-653: The Urban Mass Transportation Act , offering federal funding of up to 2/3 of rail project costs. On August 18, 1964, the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) was created from the merger of the MTA with eleven other failing bus companies and services in the Southern California region with an intention of pursuing the newly-available federal funding. As the name implied, the agency was also placed in charge of creating

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3744-521: The gas price spikes in the 1970s. These forces helped fuel a growing movement to build some sort of rapid transit system for the Los Angeles area, but the efforts would be slowed by the political realities of the region. Los Angeles County includes 88 cities in an enormous county (with its own powerful government), along with the state and federal government, all which had sometimes competing visions of what rapid transit should look like. The RTD, under

3861-596: The 1950s. Outside of the US, other countries built large networks of high-speed electric tramways that survive today. Notable systems exist in the Low Countries , Poland and Japan , where populations are densely packed around large conurbations such as the Randstad , Upper Silesia , Greater Tokyo Area and Keihanshin . Switzerland, particularly, has a large network of mountain narrow-gauge interurban lines. In addition, since

3978-580: The 1970s, the remaining interurban tramways have enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in the form of the Sneltram , a modern light rail system that uses high floor, metro-style vehicles and could interoperate into metro networks. Various other interurbans in Europe were folded into local municipal tramway or light rail systems. Switzerland retained many of its interurban lines which now operate as tramways, local railways, S-Bahn, or tram-trains. Milan's vast interurban network

4095-631: The 5th most dense area in the nation. The small Los Angeles-centric system frustrated the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors , particularly Baxter Ward , who wanted to build a sprawling system of less expensive light rail lines across the county. In 1976, the State of California formed the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to coordinate the Southern California Rapid Transit District 's efforts with

4212-469: The 64 extinct species of marine fish 39 had never before been discovered, the report said. The scientists found bones of an American mastodon , a western camel and a Harlan's ground sloth . They found wood and pollen of land plants including incense cedar and coast redwood trees, and bones of birds, shrews , cottontail rabbits , gophers , mice and kangaroo rats . Some of the fossils are as much as 16.5 million years old. In 1998, in part in response to

4329-483: The Bus Riders Union when it contended that the MTA was focusing its efforts on serving middle-class whites and not working-class minorities. As a result, ridership has been below projected estimates. The Green Line was designed to be fully grade separated in order to allow fully automated driverless train control, leading to low operating costs that could justify the line's relatively low projected ridership. As such,

4446-535: The C Line, in 2024, to the new LAX/Metro Transit Center station, a transfer station to the LAX Automated People Mover . One of the lessons learned from the line, and the Harbor Transitway built at the same time, was that freeway median stations offer a poor rider experience, requiring customers to descend from bridges or climb stairs from dimly lit underpasses to isolated stations in the middle of

4563-628: The El Segundo section running along the Harbor Subdivision freight rail corridor was built on viaducts rather than at-grade. Although driverless technology was safe and proven, the line opened with driver-controlled trains. The opportunity to construct the Green Line in tandem with the Century Freeway meant prioritizing the project over others that would have higher ridership, and the pullback from

4680-483: The Green Line was never extended to the Metrolink Santa Fe Springs station , as initially planned. The Green Line's western alignment was originally planned and partially constructed to connect with LAX, but the airport was planning a major renovation during the line's construction. Los Angeles World Airports wanted the connection to LAX to be integrated with this construction, but there were concerns from

4797-541: The Green Line. As a compromise, a free shuttle from Aviation/LAX station transports riders to LAX terminals. Today, passengers on the Green Line can see the provision for the LAX extension—two concrete ramp stubs west of the Aviation/LAX station. Today, passengers on the Green Line (now the C Line) can see the provision for the LAX extension—two concrete ramp stubs west of the Aviation/LAX station. These stubs will eventually connect

History of Los Angeles Metro Rail and Busway - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-589: The Netherlands a line from The Hague to Delft. Which opened as horse-tramway in 1866. Nowadays the line operates as Line 1 of The Hague Tramway . Line E, run by Randstadrail , was an interurban line connecting Rotterdam to The Hague and in the past also to Scheveningen. It now interoperates with the Rotterdam Metro . A large interurban network called the Silesian Interurbans still exists today connecting

5031-564: The Netherlands in earnest with the founding of the Tramweg Stichting (Tramway Foundation). Many systems, such as the Hague tramway and the Rotterdam tramway , included long interurban extensions which were operated with larger, higher-speed cars. In close parallel to North America, many systems were abandoned from the 1950s after tram companies switched to buses. Instigated by the oil crisis in

5148-459: The RTD's rapid transit line settled on a route that would travel west from Downtown Los Angeles along Wilshire Boulevard to Fairfax Avenue , then turn north along Fairfax to the San Fernando Valley . The route was controversial, with many residents and business owners in the Fairfax District publicly worried about gentrification, traffic congestion, and parking, but observers believed that

5265-555: The Red Line operated in two branches, with shared service between MacArthur Park and Union Station; the branch to Wilshire/Western was eventually designated as the "Purple Line" in 2006, and in 2019, as the D Line , with the North Hollywood Red Line branch redesignated as the B Line . MOS-3, which added new stations and extended the Red Line from Hollywood/Vine to its current terminus at North Hollywood , opened in 2000. Litigation over an illegally awarded contract to build

5382-599: The SCRTD and the LACTC were merged into the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), now branded as Metro. That year, the new agency finally opened its underground subway, dubbed the Red Line . The first segment was designated MOS-1, consisted of five stations from Union Station to Westlake/MacArthur Park , and opened on January 30, 1993. Ridership on the short line

5499-409: The US during their heyday. While most interurbans in Japan have been upgraded beyond recognition to high-capacity urban railways, a handful have remained relatively untouched, with street running and using 'lighter-rail' stock. To this day they retain a distinct character similar to classic American interurbans. These include: The only surviving interurban line is also the oldest regional tramway in

5616-739: The US. But instead of demolishing their trackage in the 1930s, many Japanese interurbans companies upgraded their networks to heavy rail standards, becoming today's large private railways. To this day, private railway companies in Japan operate as highly influential business empires with diverse business interests, encompassing department stores, property developments and even tourist resorts. Many Japanese private railway companies compete with each other for passengers, operate department stores at their city termini, develop suburban properties adjacent to stations they own, and run special tourist attractions with admission included in package deals with rail tickets; similar to operations of large interurban companies in

5733-454: The United States, particularly in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah, and California. In 1900, 2,107 miles (3,391 km) of interurban track existed, but by 1916, this had increased to 15,580 miles (25,070 km), a seven-fold expansion. At one point in time beginning in 1901, it was possible to travel from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin , to Little Falls, New York , exclusively by interurban. During this expansion, in

5850-406: The area's municipal transit systems and take over planning of countywide transportation systems. The SCRTD planned for a heavy rail subway, while the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) developed plans for a light rail system. In 1980 voters passed Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax for a regional transit system. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was the author of

5967-417: The border of the neighbouring City of Mississauga , unlike other Toronto radial lines which were all abandoned outside of the 1960s boundary of the City of Toronto . In Germany various networks have continued to operate. Karlsruhe revitalized the interurban concept into the Karlsruhe model by renovating two local railways Alb Valley Railway , which already had interoperability with local tram trackage, and

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6084-414: The campaign reached the target audience months before the Metro opened by utilizing traditional media and hosting special minority community events. As plans for the subway line were underway, two intersecting light rail lines were also under construction: One largely along disused north-south Pacific Electric right-of-way through South Los Angeles , and, beginning in 1987, another built in conjunction with

6201-404: The closure of the last Pacific Electric line in 1961. It was first opened to the public on July 14, 1990, running largely along an abandoned Pacific Electric right-of-way. The initial light rail segment cost US$ 877 million ($ 2.05 billion in 2023 adjusted for inflation). Design and construction was managed by the Rail Construction Corporation, now a subsidiary of Metro. The initial segment

6318-519: The country's railway infrastructure and cater to the post-war baby boom. The companies continued their policies of improvement they had followed before the war; lines were reconstructed to allow higher speeds, mainline-sized trains were adopted, street-running sections were rebuilt to elevated or underground rights-of-way, and link lines to growing metro systems were built to allow for through operations. Many of these private railway companies started to adopt standards for full-blown heavy rail lines similar to

6435-414: The countryside to link adjacent towns together and sometimes by the acquisition of a nearby interurban system. Following initial construction, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines. Other interurban lines effectively became light rail systems with no street running whatsoever, or they became primarily freight-hauling railroads because of a progressive loss of their initial passenger service over

6552-446: The dense vicinal tramway network around the city. Similar to the United States, in Canada most passenger interurbans were removed by the 1950s. One example of continuous passenger service still exists today, the Toronto Transit Commission 501 Queen streetcar line. The western segment of the 501 Streetcar operates largely on what was the T&YRR Port Credit Radial Line, a radial line that remains intact through Etobicoke and up to

6669-412: The discontinuance of passenger service. Most were converted to diesel operation, although the Sacramento Northern Railway retained electric freight until 1965. After World War II , many interurbans in other countries were also cut back. In Belgium, as intercity transport shifted to cars and buses; the large sections of the vicinal tramways were gradually shut down by the 1980s. At their peak in 1945,

6786-426: The early 1900s with some assistance from Thomas Edison . By the 1930s a vast network of interurbans, the Società Trazione Elettrica Lombarda , connected Milan with surrounding towns. In the first half of the 20th century, an extensive tramway network covered Northern England , centered on South Lancashire and West Yorkshire . At that time, it was possible to travel entirely by tram from Liverpool Pier Head to

6903-400: The early 21st century many tram-train lines are being built, especially in France and Germany but also elsewhere in the world. These can be regarded as interurbans since they run on the streets, like trams, when in cities, while out of them they either share existing railway lines or use lines that were abandoned by the railway companies. The term "interurban" was coined by Charles L. Henry ,

7020-419: The east at 339 miles (546 km) and had provided Pittsburgh-area coal country towns with hourly transportation since 1888. By the 1960s only five remaining interurban lines served commuters in three major metropolitan areas: the North Shore Line and the South Shore Line in Chicago, the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in northern New Jersey, and

7137-445: The eight-acre MacArthur Park Lake. With a Wilshire/Fairfax corridor alignment prohibited, a new route was chosen north up Vermont, the next-highest projected ridership corridor, to Hollywood . The route north from Vermont Avenue was originally proposed to be elevated, and would have required the purchase and demolition of one or more of the hospitals located near the corner of Vermont and Sunset Boulevard , in order for trains to make

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7254-417: The first minimum operating segment (MOS-1) of the subway was held on September 29, 1986, on the site of the future Civic Center/Grand Park station . Construction of the short 4.5-mile (7.2 km) starter line would cost US$ 1.43 billion (US$ 3.02 billion in 2023 dollars). The federal government covered 48 percent of the cost, with the remaining 52 percent coming from local and state sources, including

7371-447: The funding from Prop A. Construction was challenging, with crews discovering artifacts under Union Station, 15.5 million year old fossils, and old fuel oil tanks, all which needed to be delicately removed before proceeding with tunnel boring machines. One of the most ambitious parts of the project involved building a cut-and-cover tunnel with a "pocket track" to store subway cars, under MacArthur Park , which involved completely draining

7488-400: The heavy rail subway Red Line. The route was a success, and from 1999 to 2001, the Blue Line underwent an US$ 11 million project to lengthen 19 of its platforms so that they could accommodate three-car trains. Plans were also made to extend the Blue Line north to Pasadena, but the connection across downtown was deferred, and the northern portion opened as the Gold Line in 2003. In 1993,

7605-408: The industry in the US and Canada declined during World War I , particularly into the early 1920s. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Electric Railways Commission to investigate the financial problems of the industry. The commission submitted its final report to the President in 1920. The commission's report focused on financial management problems and external economic pressures on

7722-522: The industry, and recommended against introducing public financing for the interurban industry. One of the commission's consultants, however, published an independent report stating that private ownership of electric railways had been a failure, and only public ownership would keep the interurbans in business. Many interurbans had been hastily constructed without realistic projections of income and expenses. They were initially financed by issuing stock and selling bonds. The sale of these financial instruments

7839-407: The initial plan to use the Harbor Subdivision as the right of way that would connect all the way up to the San Fernando Valley as a heavy rail corridor paralleling Interstate 405 - now the future Sepulveda line - meant the Harbor Subdivision would be built out for passenger service as light rail. The City of Norwalk also sued to stop the construction of the Century Freeway beyond Interstate 605, meaning

7956-597: The interurban whose private tax paying tracks could never compete with the highways that a generous government provided for the motorist." William D. Middleton , in the opening of his 1961 book The Interurban Era , wrote: "Evolved from the urban streetcar, the Interurban appeared shortly before the dawn of the 20th century, grew to a vast network of over 18,000 miles in two decades of excellent growth, and then all but vanished after barely three decades of usefulness." Interurban business increased during World War II due to fuel oil rationing and large wartime employment. When

8073-446: The interurbans were the fifth-largest industry in the United States. In Belgium , a sprawling, nation-wide system of narrow-gauge vicinal tramways have been built by the NMVB / SNCV to provide transport to smaller towns across the country; the first section opened in 1885. These lines were either electrically operated or run with diesel tramcars, included numerous street-running sections, and inter-operated with local tram networks in

8190-448: The larger cities. Similar to Belgium, Netherlands constructed a large network of interurbans in the early 1900s called streektramlijnen . In Silesia, today Poland, an extensive interurban system was constructed, starting in 1894 with a narrow-gauge line connecting Gliwice with Piekary Śląskie through Zabrze , Chebzie , Chorzów and Bytom , another connected Katowice and Siemianowice . After four years, in 1898, Kramer & Co.

8307-480: The late 1940s. Facing financial difficulties, the Los Angeles Railway was sold off to a subsidiary of National City Lines , a holding company that was purchasing transit systems across the country. National City Lines, which had major investments from Firestone Tire and Rubber Company , Standard Oil of California (now Chevron Corporation ) and General Motors , began to dismantle the electric Yellow Car system, in favor of rubber-tired, diesel-powered buses (of which GM

8424-518: The leadership of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley , came up with an ambitious proposal to get buy-in from all of the county: bus improvements across the region along with a sprawling system of 145 miles of rail transit. At the time, the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration was offering cities up to 90% of federal funding for mass transit projects if they agreed to come up with a local match and operating funds. The RTD took

8541-598: The line was legally defined as a tramway and included street running at the two ends, but was based on American interurbans and operated with large tramcars on mostly private right-of-way. In the same year, the Keihin Express Railway , or Keikyu, completed a section of what is today part of the Keikyū Main Line between Shinagawa , Tokyo and Kanagawa , Yokohama . This line competes with mainline Japanese National Railways on this busy corridor. Predecessors of

8658-588: The long Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad (C&LE), and in Indiana with the very widespread Indiana Railroad . Both had limited success up to 1937–1938 and primarily earned growing revenues from freight rather than passengers. The 130-mile (210 km) long Sacramento Northern Railway stopped carrying passengers in 1940 but continued hauling freight into the 1960s by using heavy electric locomotives. Oliver Jensen, author of American Heritage History of Railroads in America , commented that "...the automobile doomed

8775-646: The middle of city streets , and the introduction of cars on to lanes previously dedicated to pedestrians, horses, and public transit, created traffic jams. By 1917, city leaders started discussing the need for a system of subway tunnels for the Red Cars to use under and around downtown. Tunnels would connect Downtown in two directions: north to Glendale and Burbank, Hollywood, and the San Fernando Valley; and west to Vineyard Junction from where trains continued to Santa Monica on one line, and to Venice and Redondo Beach on

8892-526: The mileage of vicinal tramways reached 4,811 kilometres (2,989 mi) and exceeded the length of the national railway network. Sprawling tram networks in the Netherlands extended to neighbouring cities. The vast majority of these lines were not electrified and operated with steam and sometimes petrol or diesel tramcars. Many did not survive the 1920s and 30s for the same reasons American interurbans went bust, but those that did were put back into service during

9009-650: The mountain spa resort of Hakone. Many private lines were nationalised during the Second World War. The handful that remained in the hands of JNR after the end of the war – including the Hanwa Line, Senseki Line and the Iida Line  – remain outliers on the national JR network, with short station distances, (in the case of the Iida Line) lower-grade infrastructure, and independent termini (such as Aobadori Station and

9126-560: The national rail network, and, like JR commuter routes, are operated as 'metro-style' commuter railways with mainline-sized vehicles and metro-like frequencies of very few minutes. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway introduced the Odakyu 3000 series SE , the first in a line of luxurious tourist Limited Express trains named ' Romancecars '. These units set a narrow-gauge speed record of 145 kilometres per hour (90 mph) on its runs to

9243-505: The new east–west Century Freeway . The freeway had been planned—and fiercely opposed—for more than a decade. As part of the consent decree signed by Caltrans in 1972 to allow construction, provisions were made for a transit corridor (without designating the type) in the freeway's median. In the original Metro Rail master plan of the early 1980s, this corridor was designated as a light rail line. Though Mayor Tom Bradley and other politicians intended this east–west line to be fully automated,

9360-540: The original narrow gauge network was converted to standard, which allowed a connection with the new system in Sosnowiec. By 1931, 47,5% of the narrow-gauge network was reconstructed, with 20 kilometres (12 mi) of new standard-gauge track built. A large network of interurbans started developing around Milan in the late 1800s; they were originally drawn by horses and later powered as steam trams. These initial interurban lines were gradually upgraded with electric traction in

9477-417: The other. In 1923, the city proposed a large central subway station under Pershing Square , to be the hub of a system with tunnels to the north, west, south and east, thus removing all Red Cars (but not the intra-city Yellow Cars) from downtown streets. The proposed system was further worked out in a comprehensive transit plan by Kelker, DeLeuw & Co. commissioned by the city and county. The northern tunnel

9594-459: The perceived mismanagement of Red Line construction, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky sponsored Los Angeles County Proposition A, the MTA Reform and Accountability Act of 1998, to ban the use of Los Angeles County revenue from existing sales taxes for subway tunneling, which voters approved. Yaroslavsky stated that local money could be used to cover subway-related costs, as long as it

9711-662: The possibility of extending them into the countryside to reach new markets, even linking to other towns. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. It was not a major success, but others followed. The development of the automobile was then in its infancy, and to many investors interurbans appeared to be the future of local transportation. From 1900 to 1916, large networks of interurban lines were constructed across

9828-459: The project only around 11% complete, the 1998 passage of the ballot measure banning the use of sales tax revenue for subway tunnelling denied Metro the funding necessary for the underground portion of the project. Congressman Adam Schiff subsequently authored a bill that created a separate authority to continue work on the mostly above-ground section connecting Union Station to Pasadena, and construction began again in 2000. The first segment, dubbed

9945-548: The proposition, declaring, "I'm going to put the trains back." The ballot named seven transit corridors: Caltrans surveyed the condition of former Pacific Electric lines in 1982. This proposal envisioned a continuation of the Federal 90/10 match for transit construction. Unfortunately, 1980 also saw the election of the Reagan Administration, which pulled the plug on federal funding. President Reagan called Miami's metrorail

10062-513: The rail business altogether ran afoul of state commissions which required that trains remain running "for the public good", even at a loss. Many financially weak interurbans did not survive the prosperous 1920s, and most others went bankrupt during the Great Depression . A few struggling lines tried combining to form much larger systems in an attempt to gain operating efficiency and a broader customer base. This occurred in Ohio in year 1930 with

10179-507: The rail system, as the streetcars were slower and less convenient than private automobiles. As the systems started losing money, city leaders and voters directed public funding to improving automobile infrastructure, instead of the rail system. During World War II (1941–1945), the system briefly returned to profitability due to gasoline rationing and troop movements, but after the war, ridership again quickly declined, especially as Southern California's freeway system started to be built out in

10296-629: The real fear revolved around minorities using the subway to travel into more affluent neighborhoods. A methane explosion at a Ross Dress for Less clothing store at Fairfax and 3rd Street on March 24, 1985, gave Rep. Henry Waxman , who represented the Fairfax District, a reason to derail the project that was opposed by his constituents by prohibiting tunneling in an alleged "methane danger zone" along Wilshire. This zone stretched on either side of Wilshire Boulevard from Hancock Park to west of Fairfax (through areas of his district where subway opposition

10413-457: The reasons for not building a station there. The FTA approved the all-underground route, turning from Vermont onto Hollywood Boulevard and then subsequently under the Cahuenga Pass towards North Hollywood , and funding was broken into two phases in order to spread the cost over time, making it more likely to be approved by Federal Congress. Building awareness of the new Metro Red Line required

10530-423: The regions where they operated, particularly in Ohio and Indiana, "...they almost destroyed the local passenger service of the steam railroad." To show how exceptionally busy the interurbans radiating from Indianapolis were in 1926, the immense Indianapolis Traction Terminal (nine roof covered tracks and loading platforms) scheduled 500 trains in and out daily and moved 7 million passengers that year. At their peak

10647-562: The repair costs. The rise of private automobile traffic in the middle 1920s aggravated such trends. As the interurban companies struggled financially, they faced rising competition from cars and trucks on newly paved streets and highways, while municipalities sought to alleviate traffic congestion by removing interurbans from city streets. Some companies exited the passenger business altogether to focus on freight, while others sought to buttress their finances by selling surplus electricity in local communities. Several interurbans that attempted to exit

10764-414: The technology was not fully implemented, and the two light rail lines ended up sharing common rolling stock . In 1988, the SCRTD and the LACTC formed a third entity under which all rail construction would be consolidated. While the subway was a highly anticipated project, the LACTC's light rail Blue Line (later renamed the A Line in 2019) became the first local rail transit line in Los Angeles since

10881-580: The town was launched. After World War I and the Silesian Uprisings, in 1922 the region (and the tram network) was divided between newly independent Poland and Germany, and international services appeared (the last one ran until 1937). In 1928 further standard gauge systems were established in Sosnowiec, Będzin and Dąbrowa Górnicza (the so-called Dabrowa Coal Basin - a region adjoining the Upper Silesian Coal Basin). Between 1928 and 1936 most of

10998-461: The trains retain a red livery based on the Pacific Electric's 'Red Cars', true to the company's interurban roots. The Keiō Line did not fully remove the street running section on the Kōshū Kaidō outside of Shinjuku Station until the 1960s, replacing it with an underground section. Similar to passenger railway conditions in early 1900s America, intense competition still exists today between private railways and mainline railways operated by

11115-437: The transit agency was very confident that sufficient funding for an entirely underground line, now proposed to travel under Hollywood Boulevard to avoid conflicts with the studios on Sunset, could be secured. The line would then turn north along Highland Avenue to Universal City and North Hollywood. A stop at Hollywood Bowl was determined not to have enough year-round ridership to meet FTA formulas for Federal funding, just one of

11232-427: The turn west onto Sunset continuing on elevated tracks, a major impact upon the community. In addition, the owners of TV and radio stations, and recording studios, further west along Sunset (at that time KTLA , KTTV and KCBS were among several broadcast and post-production facilities and music recording studios located along the stretch of Sunset Boulevard) proposed as the route. They strongly protested, claiming that

11349-407: The upper level of Tennōji Station ). Today, trackage of the major sixteen private railways , in many places originally designed as American-style interurban railways, has been upgraded beyond recognition into high capacity urban heavy railways. Private railway companies that started out as interurbans such as Tokyu , Seibu , Odakyu , Hankyu and Tobu ; rail transportation now tends to form only

11466-471: The urban areas of the Upper Silesia . It is one of the largest interurban networks in Europe. In Łódź region, an interurban tram system connects Łódź, Pabianice, Zgierz and Konstantynów Łódzki, and formerly also Ozorków, Lutomiersk, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Rzgów and Tuszyn. Only three continuously operating passenger interurbans in the US remain with most being abandoned by the 1950s. The South Shore Line

11583-569: The vibrations and noise from passing trains would interfere with their sensitive microphones and recording equipment. The SCRTD later proposed to put trains underground along Sunset to mollify the media owners' concerns, but those same business interests strongly maintained that even underground trains would create sufficient vibrations to negatively impact their facilities, and vowed to file suit to prevent any rail line along their stretch of Sunset Boulevard. By then, new rounds of Federal money were available, and then-SCRTD CEO, Allen Pegg, announced that

11700-590: The village of Summit, outside Rochdale , a distance of 52 miles (84 km), and with a short 7 miles (11 km) bus journey across the Pennines, to connect to another tram network that linked Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds. The first interurban railway in Japan is the Hanshin Electric Railway , built to compete with mainline steam trains on the Osaka to Kobe corridor and completed in 1905. As laws of that time did not allow parallel railways to be built,

11817-521: The war ended in 1945, riders went back to their automobiles, and most of these lines were finally abandoned. Several systems struggled into the 1950s, including the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad (passenger service ended 1950), Lehigh Valley Transit Company (1951), West Penn Railways (1952), and the Illinois Terminal Railroad (1958). The West Penn was the largest interurban to operate in

11934-602: The war years, or at least the remaining parts not yet demolished. One of the largest systems, nicknamed the Blue Tram , was run by the Noord-Zuid-Hollandsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij and survived until 1961. Another, the RTM ( Rotterdamse Tramweg Maatschappij ), which ran in the river delta south-west of Rotterdam , survived until early January 1966. Its demise sparked the rail-related heritage movement in

12051-454: 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

12168-496: The years. In 1905, the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as "a street railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits." It drew a distinction between "interurban" and "suburban" railroads. A suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic . A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to another city center and also moved

12285-461: Was a manufacturer) in what has become known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy . In 1953, Pacific Electric passenger services were sold to another subsidiary of National City Lines. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), a government agency was formed in 1951 to conduct a feasibility study for a 45-mile (72 km) monorail line which would have connected Long Beach with

12402-619: Was abandoned in April 1961, and the last former Los Angeles Railway lines in 1963. However, Pacific Electric freight service ended on August 12, 1965. Also, the Santa Monica Air Line used diesel-powered freight service until March 11, 1988. At the same time, across Southern California, privately owned bus companies were failing amid declining ridership; however, as part of the Great Society , on July 9th, 1964 President Lyndon Johnson signed

12519-533: Was built and opened in 1925 as the " Hollywood Subway " (officially the Belmont Tunnel) through which the Glendale–Burbank , Hollywood and Valley Red Car lines ran. The Subway Terminal Building was built as its downtown terminus, and envisioned as the hub of a much more extensive subway system. The western tunnel or "Vineyard Subway" was never built, but in 1917, Arthur Letts and other business leaders formed

12636-532: Was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between towns 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. But due to preference given to automobiles, by 1930, most interurbans in North America had stopped operating. A few survived into

12753-456: Was chosen to start electrification on Katowice Rynek (Kattowitz, Ring) - Zawodzie line, after which Schikora & Wolff completed electrification of four additional lines. In 1912, the first short 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge line was built in Katowice . In 1913, a separate standard gauge system connecting Bytom with suburbs and villages west of

12870-487: Was common. Receivership was a common fate when the interurban company could not pay its payroll and other debts, so state courts took over and allowed continued operation while suspending the company's obligation to pay interest on its bonds. In addition, the interurban honeymoon period with the municipalities of 1895–1910 was over. The large and heavy interurbans, some weighing as much as 65 tons, caused damage to city streets which led to endless disputes over who should bear

12987-539: Was largely at-grade, running between Pico station in Downtown Los Angeles to Anaheim Street station in Long Beach . A loop through downtown Long Beach opened on September 1, 1990. On February 14, 1991, the line was extended further to its (until 2023) northern terminus at the 7th Street/Metro Center station . In 1993, the 7th St/Metro Center station would become a transfer station, allowing riders to connect with

13104-482: Was not used directly for tunneling. During construction there were allegations of corruption and safety issues, including cost overruns and tunnel walls having thicknesses less than specified or required by law. Meanwhile, plans had been underway for some time for rail transit connecting Downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley . The initial route largely followed the former right-of-way of

13221-425: Was often local with salesmen going door to door aggressively pushing this new and exciting "it can't fail" form of transportation. But many of those interurbans did fail, and often quickly. They had poor cash flow from the outset and struggled to raise essential further capital. Interurbans were very vulnerable to acts of nature damaging track and bridges, particularly in the Midwestern United States where flooding

13338-642: Was progressively closed in the 1970s but parts of it were reused as the outer parts of the Milan Metro . Development of Japanese interurbans strayed from their American counterparts from the 1920s. The second boom of interurbans occurred as late as the 1920s and 1930s in Japan, with predecessors of the extensive Kintetsu Railway , Hankyu , Nankai Electric Railway and Odakyu Electric Railway networks starting life during this period. These interurbans, built with straighter tracks, electrified at 1500V and operated using larger cars, were built to even higher standards than

13455-605: Was slow at first, basically serving as a lunch-time shuttle for downtown workers, and connecting them with Metrolink trains at the beginning and end of the work day. Over time, the line, along with the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Staples Center at either end of downtown, helped transform the area, which was then thought of as a daytime work destination that one avoided at night, into a "live, work and play" area that continues to draw new residents, cultural venues and entertainment centers. The line along I-105, designated

13572-441: Was strongest). Congress passed the ban in 1986, but due in part to last-minute lobbying by RTD president Nick Patsaouras , a compromise was reached between Waxman and Rep. Julian Dixon . The deal allowed funding to go through as long as it did not fund construction that passed through the Wilshire corridor, although the compromise allowed a one-mile (1.6 km) stub on Wilshire between Vermont and Western. The groundbreaking for

13689-601: Was the first stretch of underground railway in all of Asia, predating the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line by two years. Meanwhile, existing interurbans like the Hanshin Electric Railway started to rebuild their street-running lines into grade-separated exclusive rights-of-way. After the war, interurbans and other private railway companies received large investments and were allowed to compete not only with mainline trains but also with each other, in order to rejuvenate

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