Construction of IndyGo’s Blue Line continues on the west side, with miles of barrels lining West Washington Street from Rockville Road to the Indianapolis Zoo.
Crews are installing storm sewer trunk lines and other infrastructure needed to support the 24-mile rapid transit line that will stretch from the Indianapolis International Airport to Cumberland.
While driving past one of the construction sites, a Mirror Indy reader saw what looked like train tracks being placed in containers and asked us to find out more about it.
We asked IndyGo and learned that while digging up the existing street, workers uncovered links to the city’s transportation past — tracks from the streetcar system the city used from the 1860s until the 1950s.
The tracks guided streetcars first pulled by mules and, later, electric streetcars and buses throughout the city. The tracks were later paved over.
IndyGo says crews have found tracks and junctions throughout West Washington Street. An environmental review by the Federal Transit Administration found that the remaining portions of the streetcar rail lines did not have any historical significance and could be removed and salvaged.
IndyGo is removing the tracks they find and taking them to a metal recycling facility.
The agency says it also found old railway tracks during construction of dedicated bus lanes on Delaware Street a few years ago.
In 2024, contractors for the Department of Public Works found several yards of railroad tracks that were part of the city’s first electric freight terminal during excavation work for the Henry Street Bridge project.
Before IndyGo’s latest find is gone, take a look at the way people used to move around the city.
Click the photos below to get a closer look.
It started with some mules
Public transportation in Indianapolis began during the Civil War in 1863 when Citizens’ Street Railroad Co. won a 30-year contract to build “street railroads.”
The company, headed by Thomas Morris, son of Morris Street namesake Morris Morris, laid tracks on West Washington Street for streetcars pulled by mules.
By October 1864, the “Mule Street Railroad,” as some called it, took people on the west side as far as Union Station and the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The railway system expanded throughout the city.
The benefit of public transportation was clear to many Indianapolis residents.
“The convenience of street railroads is illustrated by the fact that persons of small means can do business in the centre of the city and be within ten minutes’ ride of cheap and comfortable homes…” wrote the Indianapolis Sentinel in April 1865.
By the 1880s, railway systems across the country began electrifying, as it was cheaper to operate than mule-driven streetcars.
The first electric streetcar line in Indianapolis was built in 1890 along Illinois Street from Union Station to Fairview Park, a former 246-acre park that is now the site of Butler University. Traveling from one end of the line to the other took about an hour.
Over the years, the railway tracks expanded throughout the city and by 1920, the city’s streetcar system carried about 126 million passengers a year.
Cars drive public transportation off the road
At about the same time streetcars were going electric, the automobile began gaining popularity.
The first car was built in Germany in 1886 and by the early 1900s, companies throughout the world were competing to build their own cars.
In Indianapolis, companies like Nordyke & Marmon, Duesenberg Automobile and Motors and Lafayette Motors worked to produce luxury cars on the west side.
City railways brought workers to manufacturing plants, like the American Foundry at 565 S. Warman Ave. and the General Motors Stamping Plant at 340 S. White River Parkway W Drive.
As the use of cars grew, fewer people used railways. By 1933, ridership had decreased to 52.9 million passengers a year.
The Indianapolis Street Railway Co., which owned the railways at the time, faced bankruptcy. The company was reorganized as Indianapolis Railways, Inc.
Now under new leadership, the company tried to reignite interest in the railway system by introducing newer and better streetcars, electric streetcars on rubber tires called trackless trolleys and gasoline-powered buses.
The city’s last electric operating streetcar, No. 148, was retired in 1953. It was given the nickname “A Streetcar Named Expire,” and because it operated on College Avenue, it was given a sendoff that included a large graduation cap.
The Indianapolis Street Railway Co. changed its name that year to the Indianapolis Transit System.
Trackless trolleys were replaced with buses that did not require overhead electric wires over the next few years.
The last existing Indianapolis streetcar, No. 153, spent 20 years at a truck repair shop in Bedford, Indiana, until it was acquired by the Indiana Transportation Museum. The streetcar was painted and displayed there until the museum closed in 2017.
It was going to be scrapped for parts until the Noblesville-based nonprofit Hoosier Heartland Trolley Co. purchased and renovated the trolley. The organization occasionally holds trolley demonstrations and tours. It plans to select a spot for a permanent museum later this year.
All in on cars
A few years later, Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which called for a national highway system from coast to coast that would be mostly paid for with federal money. States would only have to pay 10% of project costs.
In Indianapolis, that resulted in the construction of Interstate 65 and Interstate 70 through neighborhoods like West Indianapolis and Babe Denny on the south side.
In 1975, the city took back control of the transportation system and formed the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corp. to manage its bus routes.
IPTC changed its name to IndyGo in 1996. In 2024, IndyGo had a ridership of 6.9 million.
Indianapolis did have a limited version of electric rail downtown for a brief time — the IU Health People Mover.
IU Health, then Clarian Health Partners, built the elevated monorail in 2003 to help people avoid traffic while moving among three hospitals. The City-County Council approved the project as long as it would be free to use and the system would be responsive to the region’s transit needs, including the possibility of expanding the project’s reach in the future.
The People Mover traveled at about 20 miles per hour and took people on a 1.4-mile ride in about seven minutes.
In 2014, the Indiana General Assembly passed a mass transit bill that prevents state funds from being used on certain light rail projects. In 2018, some legislators attempted to repeal it in order to make the city more competitive for Amazon’s second national headquarters, but that bill failed.
IU Health closed the People Mover in 2019, citing high costs, and replaced its functions with shuttle buses. Its elevated rails are still visible downtown.
The Electric Railway: Indiana’s Interurbans
This exhibit explains the state’s railway history and how they connected the state’s major cities.
🗓️ Now through Aug. 1
đź“Ť Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St.
🎟️ $15 for adults, $14 for seniors and $5 for kids ages 5-17.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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