> Milwaukee claims to be the inventor of the weekly transit pass

… so, really? In the 20th century? I’m _almost_ certain that the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (1834) did season tickets; remember seeing one once. Even if not that, surely some one did in the century between the invention of commuter rail and the Milwaukee one?

(The Dublin and Kingstown railway, allegedly the first commuter railway in the world, is interesting in that it was clearly designed before people had figured out what commuter rail was _for_; on launch it was every half hour on weekdays… and every 15 mins on Sunday. These days it’s every ten mins on weekdays and every 20 mins on Sunday… But in the very early days there was definitely an impression that using commuter rail was a leisure activity.

It was also extended with the world’s first atmospheric railway, which lasted about ten years before being replaced with something more sensible. Today, Dublin has about four commuter lines, which just goes to show that first mover advantage doesn’t count for much.)