If streetcars moved commuters within the core of the industrial-era city, railroads served that function further out and pioneered a white-collar commuter business. Beginning with daily trains from Hyde Park in 1856, Chicago's railroads developed a complex octopus-like network of commuter service which by 1934 reached such distant places as Michigan City (Indiana), Kenosha (Wisconsin), and Fox Valley towns from Elgin to Aurora. Most daily commuters, however, originated from suburbs within a one-hour ride of Chicago's Loop, as reflected in the number of daily trains on each line. Strikingly, the managerial and office-worker ebb and flow by this date already favored the white-collar bedroom communities of the North Shore and western suburbs over the southern suburbs, most of which were more industrial in character.

Based on a map by Brian J. L. Berry (Research assistance: Dennis McClendon)
Source: Newberry Library