Delaware is served by the Pennsylvania, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (New York Central system), and the Hocking Valley railways, and by two interurban lines.
Louis, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (Pennsylvania system), the Baltimore & Ohio, the Ohio Central, the Norfolk & Western, the Hocking Valley, and the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus (Pennsylvania system) railways, and by nine interurban electric lines.
There are 29 counties in which coal is produced, but 81.4% of it in 1908 came from Belmont, Athens, Jefferson, Guernsey, Perry, Hocking, Tuscarawas and Jackson counties.
Lancaster is served by the Hocking Valley, the Columbus & Southern and the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley (Pennsylvania Lines) railways, and by the electric line of the Scioto Valley Traction Company, which connects it with Columbus.
Lancaster is the trade centre of a fertile agricultural region, has good transportation facilities, and is near the Hocking Valley and Sunday Creek Valley coal-fields; its commercial and industrial importance increased greatly, after 1900, through the development of the neighbouring natural gas fields and, after 1907-1908, through the discovery of petroleum near the city.