The ''Lake Shore'' was a long-distance passenger train operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and New York via Cleveland, Ohio. The ''Lake Shores route paralleled that of the New York Central's famed ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

''. Amtrak introduced the ''Lake Shore'' on May 10, 1971, nine days after Amtrak had assumed control of most private-sector passenger train operations in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. The ''Lake Shore'' was the only train to serve Cleveland, which had been the largest city left out of the original system. Amtrak introduced the route on the understanding that

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and New York would assume two-thirds of the cost of the train. The initial plan included a

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

—

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

connection (to be supported by the state of

); Amtrak dropped the planned connection because of poor track conditions between the two cities. The ''Lake Shore'' was the last long-haul train to use Cleveland's Union Terminal, with the last departure occurring on December 31, 1971. For the last week of the ''Lake Shores runs Amtrak used a temporary platform near the

Detroit–Superior Bridge The Detroit–Superior Bridge (officially known as the Veterans Memorial Bridge) is a through arch bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge links Detroit Avenue on Cleveland's west side and Superior Avenue on Cleveland's eas ...

, west of the terminal, to avoid incurring a year's fees ($250,000) for a week's use. Amtrak discontinued the train in January 1972, after New York failed to meet its obligations. Amtrak would later introduce the ''

'' over the same route.

References

External links

November 14, 1971, Amtrak timetable
{{Former Amtrak routes Former Amtrak routes Railway services introduced in 1971 Railway services discontinued in 1972 Former long distance Amtrak routes