Service was suspended during World War II and never resumed, except on a small portion owned the Hutchinson and Northern Railroad which is still in operation.
To the south of Wichita, a line would have run to Oxford via Belle Plaine, with a short branch to Wellington from the latter place.
On November 19, 1910 the line from Wichita to Valley Center was officially opened, and service was extended to Sedgwick on December.
[8] The only other branch operated by the AVI was a short line north from Newton to Bethel College which opened in 1913 and was abandoned in 1925.
Judgment was against the company on the grounds that the Bethel Line was an integral part of the franchise conditions granted by the city of Newton, but by then nobody cared much and the service never resumed.
[9] The interurban passenger services initially used the streetcar systems of Wichita and Hutchinson to access downtown, although these were separately owned.
It had originally opened in 1909 and included in-city electric trolley systems for both Ark City and Winfield, as well as the 14 miles (23 km) of actual interurban trackage between the two.
It was also hit by the mechanization of agriculture in the Twenties, as combine harvesters and tractors reduced the demand for farm workers and so the number of rural travelers.
[7] The company responded to declining passenger revenue by raising fares to 3.6 cents per mile – very high for any interurban – but this did not help.
[14] The Great Depression affected the AVI as it did all interurban lines, and revenues declined owing to the serious economic downturn.
It had well-laid track, so the receiver ordered deferred maintenance but the deterioration resulting damaged the passenger business further.
"[15] On July 31, 1938, all passenger service on the AVI was abandoned, but the company continued to haul freight using its electric locomotives and box motors.
Dieselization came within a year, and the last electric operation was made on October 20, 1940, by a trio of interurban cars held in storage since abandonment of passenger service.
This only lasted a year and a half; in July 1942 the War Production Board requisitioned the line for scrap and the track was mostly torn up.
From here it ran to the west end of W Murdock Street in Riverside, where the Botanica station building survives bearing the AVI logo.
Stops were at 24th Street, 29th Street, Bingham, Walnut Grove (where the company had an amusement park and a siding),[18] Sullivan's Dam, Heller's Grove, Forest Park (here, an industrial spur owned by the AVI ran west to serve a gravel pit), Urbandale, Interurban Place (siding), Van View and Fairfield.
[19] The railway then ran north-west, closely parallel to the Santa Fe, on its west side, to Sedgwick where it veered due north to Van Arsdale.
At Valley Center, a triangular wye made a freight connection to the St Louis - San Francisco Railroad.
From Van Arsdale, the main line ran due west to Halstead, where it met the Santa Fe railroad again and followed it on the south side as far as the salt mine, where it turned due west to run to its downtown terminus opposite the Rock Island railroad station.
[5] Passenger operations in, for example, February 1926 were typically on an 90 minute interval, running between Wichita and Hutchinson with the Newton branch having a connecting shuttle meeting at Van Arsdale.
All these ran daily, unchanged on Sundays, but on Mondays to Saturdays a commuter run was made additionally from Wichita to Valley Center and back, leaving at 6:35.
Strictly speaking this was a Conductor's Cash Fare Receipt for a single journey, because it couldn't be purchased in advance and return tickets were not available.
Cars number 2, 8 and 9 were sold to Bethel College after the end of passenger service, taken off their trucks and used as overflow dormitory accommodation.
Car number 12, the former pride and joy, became a farmer's chicken coop and feed store at Bentley, Kansas, until rescued for the Great Plains Transportation Museum in 1988.