The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
The Interurban Railway in Chelsea
By Robert Shannon, Guest Writer
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
The Chelsea Area Historical Society has been trying for several years to get pictures of the two interurban railways that went through Chelsea early in the 20th century.
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Interurbans were essentially streetcars on steroids that would take passengers between towns as opposed to only within towns. The Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor & Jackson (a/k/a the "Ypsi Ann"). It became the Detroit United railway ("DUR") after about 1909.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the first cars from Ann Arbor to Chelsea made their initial round trip on Aug. 22, 1901. This line went along old US 12 and near the old fairgrounds, moved through Chelsea with service to the place where Federal Screw Works still stands.
According to time tables, a passenger could go from Ann Arbor to Chelsea with one stop in 24 minutes! A competitor owned by the Boland group also got a franchise to go from Jackson to Ann Arbor. Its tracks were cheek by jowl to the Michigan Central's right of way. The Interurban was done in by taxpayer paid roads which the Interurbans could not compete with, since they had to finance their own right of ways and pay taxes on them. In addition, the production of at cost buses by Henry Ford and company drove the final nail into the coffin of the interurbans. By 1927, the Interurban was gone.
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