Chicago and Joliet Electric Railway

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The Chicago and Joliet Electric Railway, or C&JE, was an electric interurban railway linking the cities of Chicago and Joliet, Illinois. It was the only interurban between those cities and provided a link between the streetcar network of Chicago and the cities along the Illinois River Valley in north central Illinois, which were served by the Illinois Valley Division of the Illinois Traction System.

[edit] History

The C&JE was an outgrowth of the Joliet streetcar system, which was acquired by the American Railways Company of Philadelphia at the turn of the century. In 1900 a line was built north from Joliet to Lemont, with an extension to Chicago opening in September of 1901. The line ran along the Illinois River from downtown Joliet to the corner of Archer Avenue and Cicero Avenue on the edge of Chicago, where the tracks connected with the rails of the Chicago Surface Lines. In 1915 the C&JE became a subsidiary of Central Illinois Public Service Company, which was owned by Samuel Insull. Despite the use of modern suburban-type interurban cars, C&JE ridership plummeted with the onset of the Great Depression and on November 16, 1933 the line was abandoned.

[edit] Sources

Hilton, George W.; John F. Due (1960). The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 339.