interurban

Of, pertaining to, involving or joining two or more urban centres.

One of the commercial attachés of the Department of Commerce in South America transmits the name and address of an engineer who desires to receive full information relative to an automotor for an interurban railway.

An electric railway carrying mainly passengers between two or more urban centres.

interurban car, interurban line, interurban railroad

On the steam roads, the engine, representing with its tender an enormous weight, is required to generate enough power not only for its own propulsion, but drag after it a train of cars. Several important consequences result from this difference between steam and electric traction. First, on the electric railway single cars may be used, taking their power as required under such headway as may be required to accommodate the traffic, while the steam engine must for the sake of economy be loaded somewhere near its capacity, so that the service is necessarily less frequent than that offered by the interurban.