INTERURBAN TRADITION. The South Shore Line has been running trains between Chicago and South Bend for a century.

Today, eastbound train 9 (the odd number inherited from the Illinois Central's numbering system) navigates the streets of Michigan City.

Like many interurbans, the South Shore began as streetcar operators in adjacent cities connected their lines to provide the interurban service. Although today's light rail systems tend to be a bit more spatially separated, the precedent is there. Many light rail systems reuse abandoned railroad grades. That's nothing new either. The East Troy branch of Milwaukee Electric uses the antebellum grade of the Milwaukee and Beloit Rail Road (I am told that some of that grade also exists in the Root River Parkway) and the Burlington branch built on the also antebellum Racine and Burlington grade. Experienced ferroequinologists tell me that traces of that grade beyond Burlington toward Lake Geneva and Richmond, Illinois can be seen at wintertime.

Eight car consists are becoming the standard on the South Shore, often with all eight cars running beyond Michigan City although only four cars are on the platform at South Bend. The tradition used to be to make a cut eastbound or an add westbound at the shops. Into the 1960s many trains would also make a cut or add at Gary, where there is still a tail track, used only to turn Gary expresses (and a couple of morning limiteds, apparently respecting the logic that a few fares on what would otherwise be an empty stock move reduce the deficit).

Passenger loadings were pretty good. There were a few Michigan people awaiting passengers off the train. A person can live in far southwestern Michigan and commute to Chicago on the South Shore, thereby avoiding Illinois utility taxes, although Michigan is income tax hell.

Elsewhere on the rails, Amtrak's California Zephyr is turning eastbound at Denver, with the Empire Builder detouring from Hastings to Chicago on the Burlington. There may be a news report on the latter development from Rochelle, as tomorrow promises to be a sunny day.