A few small towns in Illinois still have "railroad tracks" running down the center of their main streets. These seem strangely out of place in the 1970s until one recalls that between 1900 and 1930 electric interurban fines provided additional links between Illinois towns and the countryside, competed for financing and patronage with the newly developed automobile, and furnished short-haul competition for steam railroads.

Receiving its power from a third rail or from an overhead catenary, the interurban provided two thirds the speed of railroads but four to five times the frequency of service at half the fare. Conveniently, the interurbans followed streetcar fines after entering the larger cities. The major burst of interurban promotion and construction occurred between 1901 and 1908.

The state developed two systems of interurban lines. One stretched outward from Chicago to its suburbs and the other spread across the center of the state, with one arm pushing from St. Louis to Peoria and the other from Springfield through Decatur to Champaign-Urbana. A great number of smaller, isolated lines were scattered throughout the remainder of the state; but none connected with interurbans in Ohio and Indiana, and few major efforts were made to relate the lines within the state to one another. For a time, however, a traveler willing to make the necessary transfers was able to ride from Chicago to St. Louis on electric interurbans.

Although Illinois ranked fourth among the states in interurban mileage, it boasted the largest and longest-lived company, the Illinois Traction System. The ITS provided fast and frequent service over more than 400 miles of track from St. Louis to Peoria and Danville through Springfield, and from Decatur and Bloomington to Peoria. The company prospered because in some areas it was unchallenged by railroads and because the Illinois Utilities Commission checked the development of bus lines by regulating rates more rigorously than in other states, thus controlling the growth of the interurban's chief rival for passenger traffic.

In 1910 the company built its own bridge across the Mississippi River to obtain a high-speed entry into St. Louis, and in the twenties it the began to attract freight traffic from major railroads. In 1948 ITS ordered the last interurban cars built in the country from the St. Louis Car Company. Passenger service was finally discontinued in April, 1956, when ITS removed the overhead cables and converted into a diesel-powered freight carrier. Between 1900 and 1930, 38 other smaller companies in Illinois struggled for solvency; but only a few survived the competition of the automobile, buses, and improved highways.

Two of the interurban lines spreading outward from Chicago competed with the automobile for many years by giving service to heavily populated areas. Samuel Insul, for a time one of the most successful promoters in the world, took over and revitalized both the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin and the Chicago, Northshore and Milwaukee, both of which terminated in Chicago's Loop. it was not until the 1960s that these interurbans surrendered to the pressures provided by private automobiles, and then only in the face of protests from their loyal users.

Given the present concern for energy conservation, it is regrettable that some of the more visionary electric interurban projects never materialized. For example, the Chicago and St. Louis Electric Railway project of 1892 proposed to cover the distance between the two cities in two and a half to three hours at 100 miles per hour. The Chicago-New York Electric Airline promised 10-hour service between the two cities at an average speed of 75 miles per hour for $10 per passenger. Work was actually begun on the project, but unfortunately the scheme went bankrupt before it got far into Northern Indiana.

Recalled only by the unlikely rails shining in the asphalt of prairie town main streets and the occasional agonized cries of environmentalists, the electric interurban age in Illinois passed swiftly.