Gratiot ruin [Gary Interurban Terminal]

[bc_n_dtown]

The Gary Terminal, just like the Oakwood Terminal on Fort Street just west of the Rouge River drawbridge, was built by the Detroit United Railway [[DUR) in 1925 to serve as an interurban/bus transfer station for its interurban routes. Plans were to also build another one along Woodward in Highland Park, but it was never built.

Passengers would transfer from the interurban cars to express buses to continue into downtown. The DUR decided to build these transfer stations for two reasons, 1.) because the increasing motor traffic congestion downtown delayed the service into and out of town, and 2.) because after the DSR took over the DUR's city street railway operation, the city of Detroit now charged the DUR a millage fee to operate within the city of Detroit, ironically along the same rails the DUR initially built.

As a result, the DUR decided to terminate its interurban routes at these stations and used its People's Motor Coach Co. [[a DUR subsidiary) to operate express buses from the transfer station into downtown. After the DUR went into receivership the DSR purchased a number of the PMC's buses, hired many of its drivers and took over the company's city express routes, effective July 1, 1926.

According to an article in Motor Coach Age magazine [[Jan-Feb 1991) the DSR rented the Gary Terminal [[and an adjacent 50-bus garage) from the DUR and used it to house buses for its Cadillac Express [[which originated at the Gary Terminal), Warren East, Harper, Schoenherr and Wilshire bus routes. The DSR leased the Gary Garage until November 14, 1930.