Route Number Route Streetcars Operated 10 Hammond-East Chicago 1893-1934 10 Hammond/Conkey St. 1899-1932 10 East Chicago-Indiana Harbor 1913-1934 11 Hammond/Hohman Ave. 1892-1940 11 Hammond/Sheffield Ave. 1895-1940 12 East Chicago-Whiting 1893-1940 12 Whiting-State Line 1894-1940From 1896 until 1940, through streetcars operated into Chicago as far as 63rd St. Replacement bus service continued to operate into Chicago until 1973.
In 1921, Midwest Motor Coach Co. began operating bus service between Gary and 63rd Street, also competing with jitneys which had operated over route since World War I. By 1925, Midwest Motor Coach Co. emerged as the only operator of buses over the route. Buses eventually served the Greyhound neighborhood station at 6302 S. Stony Island Ave., at the time at the CTA Jackson Park elevated terminal. Service operated until 1973.
Also in 1925, several bus companies introduced local bus service in the area. The largest of those companies was the Gary Street Railway Co., which that year was reorganized as Gary Railways Co. Gary Railways Co. was a subsidiary of Midland Utilities, which had been formed in 1924 as a holding company controlled by Samuel Insull, controlling various electric railways and utilities in Indiana.
In 1926, Shore Line Motor Coach Co. was formed as another subsidiary of Midland Utilities, to assume all bus operations from Gary Railways Co. outside the city of Gary. And between 1926 and 1929, all other area bus companies were acquired by Shore Line Motor Coach Co., except for Midwest Motor Coach Co.
In 1929, the Hammond Whiting & East Chicago streetcar system was sold to Calumet Railways. When the Insull companies were dissolved in 1931, Calumet Railways was reorganized as Chicago & Calumet District Transit Co. (C&CD), and acquired Shore Line Motor Coach Co., along with Midwest Motor Coach Co., which had also been acquired by Midland Utilities as a subsidiary in 1929. C&CD also acquired Gary Railways Co., operating it as a separate subsidiary, until selling the company again in 1943.
The last Calumet streetcars were discontinued in 1940. Historical information on the C&CD bus routes has been difficult to obtain, presumably because of a lack of printed timetables or maps. But a special thanks goes to Chicago bus historian Andre Kristopans, for supplying information pertaining to C&CD's bus routes. Kristopans reports that the C&CD local bus route network basically remained unchanged until its demise in 1971. Even though travel patterns had changed. Many routes were designed to serve various steel mills and other area industries, and continued to serve those industries, despite the general industrial decline.
After a few years without public transportation in the 1970's, the cities of Hammond and East Chicago invented new bus networks, completely different from the C&CD network.
Bus Lines (1920's-1970's)
Bus Map (1931)
Bus Map (1966)
The most significant changes to the C&CD route network during its history, was the addition of express bus routes to and from downtown Chicago, beginning in 1941. During the 1950's and 1960's, the downtown Chicago bus routes used the Greyhound Terminal at Randolph St. and Clark St. By the 1970's, buses instead made downtown stops along Michigan Ave.
During the 1950's, C&CD became a subsidiary of American Transit Corp. In 1974 C&CD was merged into Chicago Gray Line, also owned by American Transit Corp., which continued to operate the downtown Chicago service until the 1980's. Service was continued by Hammond Yellow Coach Lines until 1989, discontinued after having lost ridership due to service unreliability.
Hammond Transit System began operations in 1976, operated under contract by Gary Public Transportation Corporation. But such operation outside Gary city limits was determined to be illegal, and in 1983 the contract was assumed by Hammond Yellow Coach Lines. When that company ceased operations in 1989, the contract assumed by ATC/Vancom, ironically a successor to American Transit Corp. Later contract operators were Progressive Transit and finally First Transit, until service was discontinued in 2012.
In 2014, Gary Public Transportation Corporation introduced a circulator bus route in Hammond and Munster, as a connection to its own route between Gary and Hammond.