Madison County Transit

Interurban era

Public transit in Madison County previously included interurban lines operated by the Illinois Terminal Railroad (ITC). These lines connected commuters with Danville, Illinois to the east, Peoria, Illinois to the north, and St. Louis to the west. The first Madison County alignment opened between Granite City and Staunton on June 4, 1906. In November of that year, the ITC reached the corner of Third Street and Broadway in East St. Louis, Illinois, near the Eads Bridge. However, owners of the bridge refused trackage rights so passengers were forced to transfer to steam trains to enter St. Louis.

With the bulk of Illinois Terminal traffic traveling between Madison County and St. Louis, ITC decided to build its own bridge over the Mississippi River to a new terminal. The McKinley Bridge and a new street-running alignment in St. Louis entered service on October 10, 1910 with a passenger terminal opening in December 1911 at 12th Street and Lucas Avenue.

By the late 1920s, the Illinois Terminal and partner railroads operated freight and passenger service to Madison County communities including; Alton, Edwardsville, Hartford, and Wood River. In 1927, the Venice High Line opened between the McKinley Bridge and the St. Louis, Troy & Eastern Railway in Madison. The 1.8-mile (2.9 km) long trestle was built to bypass busy surface streets and crossed over eight railroads and one yard. Much of the trestle had been demolished by 2006.

Due to street traffic and congestion at its terminals in St. Louis, ITC began a track realignment and terminal replacement project in 1930. In January 1933, a new 2.6-mile (4.2 km) elevated/subway alignment and Central Terminal Building were put into full service. The project eliminated seven streetcar crossings, 29 grade crossings, and improved running time by seven minutes.

On March 8, 1953, service between Alton and St. Louis was ended due to declining profitability and ridership. In 1956, ITC abandoned the trackage between Edwardsville and Madison and filed to end its remaining 134 daily train trips between St. Louis and Granite City due to declining profitability and ridership. In 1958, the McKinley Bridge was sold to the City of Venice for $13.5 million. Later that year, ITC car 457 made the last scheduled run on the Illinois Terminal system.