60 years (and two days) ago...

Blutorse4792

Now T:ANE I can get into
The "Shore Line Route" was the third victim of the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad's post-World War II financial struggle, following the discontinuation of local streetcar service in Waukegan, Illinois (1947) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1951). While rush-hour traffic on the line remained strong, off-peak service had become practically nonexistent. In stark contrast to the state-of-the-art "Skokie Valley Route" which ran parallel to the west, the Shore Line (which had begun construction in the 1890s) was representative of a classic, turn-of-the-century trolley line, with travel times hampered by frequent, closely-spaced stops and segments of street-running. The one notable exception to this was the trackage through the village of Winnetka, Illinois (pictured below) which had undergone grade-separation and modernization in the late 1930s as part of a WPA Project. Additionally, the Shore Line was in direct competition with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, whose own commuter route (now Metra's Union Pacific North Line) ran directly parallel to the Shore Line between Waukegan and Wilmette, then again to the shared Chicago "L" trackage between Davis Street in Evanston and Howard Street in Chicago.

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(A two-car train in the "Winnetka Grade Separation" in the mid-1950s - note the state-of-the-art catenary. The tracks in the foreground belong to the C&NW, and this particular segment was noticeable for the "races" that would occur between North Shore motormen and C&NW engineers)

Despite all of the factors seemingly working against it, the North Shore Line faced considerable backlash from on-line communities when it announced its intentions to abandon the route in 1954 (a previous attempt in 1949 had been denied by the Illinois Commerce Commission). In a preview of things to come, the railroad was taken to court over the abandonment, where it was eventually determined that the Shore Line Route did not constitute a vital public service when both the C&NW and the North Shore's own Skokie Valley Route provided viable alternatives. Ultimately, the railroad was granted permission to discontinue the service, and the final passenger runs came on July 25, 1955.

A single track was kept between the junction at North Chicago and Highland Park to maintain access to the repair shops at Highwood, Illinois, as well as a handful of on-line freight customers. Profits from the scrapping of the Shore Line were invested into renovating the Skokie Valley Route in the hope that it (as well as the "feeder" branch line to Mundelein) could provide the railroad with enough revenue to permit continued rail service.

This was not to be the case.

The truncated North Shore Line sauntered on for another 3 years before the railroad petitioned for total abandonment in 1958. Due to staunch opposition from the communities served, it was forced by the state of Illinois to operate at a loss for an additional 4 years, until it was proven beyond a doubt that the service could not continue without substantial outside investment or subsidy. The entire system was abandoned in January 1963, having outlasted nearly every other interurban service in North America.

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(A three-car train traverses the Shore Line through Wilmette, Illinois at an unspecified date in the early 1950s)
 
The regions is now kicking themselves in the backside for not preserving the service, I'm sure. It's too bad the state hadn't stepped in, or Metra wasn't around then to keep it running. There could have been crossover service between the CN&W commuter line and the North Shore just as there is in many cities today.

This story, unfortunately, was played out in many cities across America. Boston had its famous Narrow Gauge. This was originally a 42-inch gauge steam powered line that ran from East Boston to Lynn until the East Boston tunnel was built after the line was electrified around 1910. The electrification took place with the assistance of the nearby GE Company in Lynn. The railroad had the option of standard-gauging their entire system and going to third-rail, or optional catenary. Instead the put trolley motors in their old Laconia Car Shops' parlor cars, which must've made for some interesting consists!

The system did well until the competing automobile and buses took their business away, and was scrapped in the late 1940s under a lot of protests from the nearby communities. In the early 1950s, the southern-most portion, plus a bit of a new extension to what is now Government Center to as far as Wonderland Race Track in Revere, became today's Blue line. The original ROW still used on the outlying areas with portions run as third-rail from Government Center to as far as Logan Airport where the trains switch to catenary. The tracks, however, are standard gauge like the rest of the MBTA system. There are talks off and on about extending the system back up to Lynn again. How they're kicking themselves now for letting this one go too.

John
 
When did Boston take over public transit from the private operators out there?

*EDIT*

I did a little research, and it looks like Boston's MTA and Chicago's CTA were founded at the same time.
However, whereas you expanded the MTA into the MBTA to take over suburban operations (in 1964), we created a separate agency (RTA) for that purpose (in 1974).
 
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