First interurban cars on the Detroit, Almont and Northern Railroad, Almont, Michigan, July 1, 1914

The Detroit United Railway was a transport company which operated numerous

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

and

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

lines in southeast

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Although many of the lines were originally built by different companies, they were consolidated under the control of the Everett-Moore syndicate, a Cleveland-based group of investors. The company incorporated on December 31, 1900, and continued to expand into the early 1920s through new construction and the acquisition of smaller concerns. After the DUR acquired the Detroit-Jackson line in 1907, it operated more than of interurban lines and of street city street railway lines. Beginning in 1922, however, the DUR began a process of devolution when it sold the local

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

streetcar system to the city, under the management of the

Department of Street Railways The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT, pronounced ) is the primary public transportation operator serving Detroit, Michigan. In existence since 1922, DDOT is a division of the city government, with headquarters in Midtown. Primarily ser ...

(DSR). The company continued to abandon or sell properties throughout the 1920s; on September 26, 1928, the remainder was reorganized as the Eastern Michigan Railways (EMR). The Eastern Michigan operated an interurban line from Detroit to Toledo where it connected with Ohio interurbans. With the Cincinnati and Lake Erie interurban connection at Toledo, passenger and freight service was provided from Detroit to Dayton and Cincinnati. This line was abandoned in 1932 due to lack of business. In addition to their Michigan holdings, the Detroit United Railway also owned the Sandwich, Windsor and Amherstburg Railway, an

trolley line linking

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

with the towns of

Tecumseh, Ontario Tecumseh is a town in Essex County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is on Lake St. Clair east of Windsor and had a population of 23,229 at the 2016 census. It is part of the Windsor census metropolitan area, and is a part of the Windsor-Es ...

to its east, and to La Salle, Ontario and

Amherstburg, Ontario Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is ...

to its southwest. This was purchased in 1901, and sold in 1920. Remnants of the DUR in the Windsor area to this day include the

Ganatchio Trail The Ganatchio Trail is the second bike trail built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Construction on the trail started upon the closure of Clairview Avenue. The trail extends over 5.3 km, and passes through several neighbourhoods, including Riv ...

bike path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

(along former Claireview Street, the original SW&A alignment), and the older bridge foundations on Front Road over River Canard.

Publications

* Electric railway service / Publicity Dept., Detroit United Lines. Detroit, Mich.: 1913-1920, 5 vols. A weekly periodical, now available through googlebooks.com. * afety bulletin/ Pere Marquette Railway Co. Detroit Mich.: 1918-1920. * Safety: a magazine for all of us / Detroit United Lines. Detroit, Mich.: 1914?- ? For their street car conductors.

Footnotes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Detroit United Railway Interurban railways in Michigan Defunct Michigan railroads Railway companies disestablished in 1928 Railway companies established in 1900 Streetcars in Michigan Defunct Ontario railways Interurban railways in Ontario