CSS – Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad

About CSS

• Location: Chicago, IL and Northwest Indiana
• Employees: 60
• Railroad Mileage: 75 miles shared with South Shore Line (NICTD), 27 miles of freight only and 80 miles of trackage rights for a total of 182 system miles.
• Port Facility Served: Illinois International Port District – Lake Calumet, Chicago, IL
• Connecting Railroads: BNSF, BOCT, BRC, CF&E, CN, CP, CRL, CSXT, GRW, IAIS, IHB, INRD, NS, SCIH, UP and WSOR
• Sustainability: Contact CSS to discover the low carbon solutions we can provide for your freight needs.
• Number of Customers: More than 30

Capabilities

Services: CSS provides safe, consistent and efficient rail service to its customers and interchanges almost daily with its connecting rail carriers.

• Commodities Handled: Steel products, chemicals, coal, food products, minerals, scrap metal, pig iron and building products.
• Equipment: 13 locomotives, 600 freight cars (including covered coil cars, open top coil cars & mill gondolas)
• Capacity: 286k GWOR except for New Carlisle, IN and South Bend, IN
• Annual Volume: 60,000 carloads
• Storage Car Spots: None
• Transloading locations: Refer to the Facilities tab above.

History

While the South Shore got its start just after the turn of the 20th century moving passengers between northwest Indiana towns such as Michigan City, Gary, East Chicago and Hammond, it wasn’t long before the booming industrial region found a need for freight service on the line as well. As the local steel industry grew, so too did related industries, by providing raw materials such as coal, coke, scrap iron, lime, and iron ore. The steel mills’ customers also set up shop in the region, building railcars and components, automobiles, trucks, skyscrapers, bridge girders, stamping plants, appliances, etc. All of this heavy industry was ideally suited to moving products and materials via rail, and the South Shore has played an integral role, meeting the regions logistical needs for nearly 100 years.

The old South Shore line survived several bankruptcies, the latest in the late 1980’s. In 1990, Anacostia presented a plan to the U.S. bankruptcy court that separated freight and commuter operations. It created a new entity to conduct freight operations. Commuter service is now provided by Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District on track shared by the freight operation and dispatched jointly in the Chicago-South Bend Corridor. In 1995, CSS commenced service to the Port of Chicago. In 2000, CSS acquired the Michigan City-LaPorte-Kingsbury line from Norfolk Southern.