Railroads

Railroads have always played an important part in Libertyville’s development. The Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad spur, which came to town in 1880, brought Libertyville’s first growth spurt. It originated as a freight line, expanded to passenger service, and today Metra trains run on its line.

Libertyville’s other rail line carried electric trains and ran through the southern part of the village. (The North Shore Bicycle path takes its place today) The first electric rail cars ran to Libertyville from Lake Bluff in 1903. About a decade later Samuel Insull obtained control of the electric railway system known as the North Shore Line and began improvements almost immediately.

In 1924, due to increased volume on the North Shore Line, another line to the west of the North Shore was needed to accommodate the high speed inter urban trains going to Milwaukee. The new line opened on June 5, 1926, with inter urban trains to Chicago from Libertyville and Mundelein which ran once an hour. The timing of the new line was no doubt influenced by the 28 th International Eucharistic Congress. The closing ceremonies of the Congress were held at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary on June 25, 1926 and it is estimated that over 200,000 attendees made their way to Mundelein by rail, the majority of them riding on electric rail cars through Libertyville.