Public transportation before the automobile became the primary form of transportation

The Pacific Electric Railway (reporting mark PE), also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses. The largest electric railway in the world at its greatest extent, around 1925, the system interconnected cities in Los Angeles County and Orange County, as well as in San Bernardino County and Riverside County.



The service was organized around two nexuses located in the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, which were each connected in 1914 by the 1200-volt San Bernardino Line.

The system shared some dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway, "Yellow Car" or "LARy" system. These were on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the busy 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown LA toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Railway