Book excerpt: Commuter, or Suburban Rail Passenger Train Services have been an important part of the Chicago Metro area for well over 100 years. Since the city and its suburbs are economically interdependent upon one another, passenger service could not be discontinued without severe economic impacts on the entire Chicago area. The Metra Commuter Rail Service and the Indiana Commuter Transportation District (South Shore) services have realized this and are providing a crucial life line for the many Chicago-Suburban corridors, and have made substantial gains and many expansions since the 1980s. This book reviews the commuter services offered in the Chicago area on the Chicago & North Western, The Milwaukee Road, the South Shore, the Illinois Central, the Rock Island, the Burlington, the Wabash, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, the South Shore, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads before the development of the RTA, Metra and NICTD.