The coal is delivered to the Michigan City generating station owned by Northern Indiana Public Service Company.

[3] Property acquisition and engineering from South Bend west to the St. Joseph — LaPorte county line was completed within the year.

[4][non-primary source needed] The Seagraves’ also obtained franchises for operation in the streets of South Bend, New Carlisle, and Michigan City.

[5] Grading for the railroad was begun in St. Joseph County during 1903, but the Rich Man's Panic put an end to the work and apparently the Seagraves’ interest in the company.

The directors of the Air Line voted for a corporate name change on July 30, 1904: The Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend Railway Company.

[9] Although the scope of the project was then limited to a rail line from Chicago to South Bend, the business model posited by the Seagraves’ remained.

The remainder of the line from Michigan City to Hammond was in service on September 6,[10] only twenty-one days before the first Ford Model T automobile left the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit.[relevant?]

[15]) The South Shore Lines found itself in financial difficulty from the start as passenger revenues were insufficient to cover the railway's bonded indebtedness.

[20] Attempting to overcome inadequate earnings, the South Shore Lines made every effort to develop freight service in 1916,[21][22] and an excursion business to bring Chicagoans to the Indiana Dunes, the amusement park at Michigan City, and the Casino at Hudson Lake.

The most significant of the rail excursions to the development of Northwest Indiana were the regular outings of the Prairie Club of Chicago on the South Shore Lines that began in 1909.

[24] In 1925, the Cleveland Trust Company still held the original construction bonds of the South Shore Lines in the amount of $9,500,000 ($165 million in 2023 adjusted for inflation).

Based upon the depreciated appraised value of $6,463,076,[27] and with a commitment to invest $2,500,000 in the property, Insull purchased the original construction debt from Cleveland Trust in exchange for 6% noncumulative debentures.

[28] In 1977, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) began subsidizing the passenger operations on the South Shore Line.