Talk:List of interurban railways in North America

Trains Portal

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. See also: WikiProject Trains to do list and the Trains Portal.TrainsWikipedia:WikiProject TrainsTemplate:WikiProject Trainsrail transport articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Associated projects or task forces:
/
	This article is supported by WikiProject Streetcars.

An editor has requested that an image or photograph be added to this article.

North America

	North America portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject North AmericaNorth America articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

Untitled

I am still working on these and the list is not yet complete for the US. Most listings are taken from Hilton & Due. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 23:55, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've finished working through Hilton & Due. Maybe not a complete list yet, but closer. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 12:37, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Type

It's unclear from the intro if these are passenger or freight, existing or defunct. -- Beland 04:59, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added to the intro. The definition of 'Interurban' requires passenger use as the primary intended purpose of the system. Some remained in operation as freight lines after passenger service ceased. Most of these lines are defunct; of the remaining, the vast majority are now freight-hauling shortlines. I am going to progressively add operating dates to these; these will generally be taken from Hilton&Due. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 22:12, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Terminology and other matters

The use of the term "interurban" needs to be clarified - both on the Interurban page and here.

First, some clarity about what this list "should be" is needed. Is this to be:

1.) A list of electric railways having an overall "character" that was very much confined to the U.S. and Canada - listing only U.S. and Canadian systems, or

2.) Same as 1.), but with other countries included.

If the answer is 1.) then OK, this is a "List of interurbans in the U.S. and Canada, and should be retitled as such.

If the answer is 2.) then:

a.) is the intent to apply a U.S./Canadian perspective in an arbitrary manner, ignoring formal (i.e. legal) and "real-world" distinctions between countries, or

b.) to make some effort to take these into account ?

The list as it exists shows distinct signs of "a.)" - which is unfortunate. Two examples: The Katowice (Poland) tramway system, despite the large area it serves, is not an "interurban" system and the use of this term is not appropriate. Even more flagrantly, the Kowloon Canton Railway light rail system in Hong Kong is by no stretch of imagination "interuban." This is an egregious misuse of an "Americanism" to describe something far away from the U.S.

I would also advise against the use of the term "defunct." Although popular among U.S. enthusiasts, this word is a rather flagrant Americanism and should be avoided. Ldemery 21:41, 4 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if it makes sense to include systems outside the U.S. and Canada. For those countries we have a good source listing interurbans, but elsewhere the term was apparently not used, and it's a bunch of original research. I'm not sure what you mean about "defunct", however; are you saying this has a different meaning elsewhere? --NE2 09:31, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on List of interurban railways in North America. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071019032250/http://sfmuseum.org/hist10/interurban.html to http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/interurban.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:40, 21 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"to" and "from" dates reflect...

I think that these terms need just the smallest bit of clarity. Do they refer to the dates of passenger operation, or operation in general? I think that it should probably be the former, as most people I think equate "interurban" with "passenger". whatever it is, all data should represent the same thing. -MJ (talk) 19:32, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]