As was the case with many early Chicago railways, electric or otherwise, the B.C.E.R did not last long. In May of 1898, the Bluff City Electric Railway was absorbed by the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway (C&ME). The C&ME was a creation of George A. Ball, William Gilman, and Albert C. Frost. In 1897, the B.C.E.R borrowed $300,000 (That's $9M today!) from Ball, Frost, and Gilman to expand its route south. After this large sum was borrowed, it's not quite clear exactly what happened. According to Campbell, the B.C.E.R was simply "absorbed" (20), while The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transit Historical Society states that "financial difficulties" resulted in the sale of the B.C.E.R to Ball, Frost, and Gilman. Whatever the case, the B.C.E.R ceased to exist from May 12, 1898 onward.

Immediately after acquiring the B.C.E.R, the C&ME began updating the previously "haphazard" streetcar service. Service was improved to better suite the morning and evening rush hours. Additionally, it was decided that the 10% slope down 'Depot Hill' was not worth maintaining (There had been many accidents and operator errors on Depot Hill), so the stub that connected downtown Waukegan to the C&NW train station was removed. The last item of concern for the new C&ME Railway was to connect its northern operations in Waukegan to its southern operations in Highland Park and Fort Sheridan. Though the southern line through Highland Park and Fort Sheridan had been running since May of 1897, it still had not been connected to the northern service. This lack of connection was due to the location of the C&ME's tracks. On the northern service, the tracks of the C&ME all ran on the west side of the C&NW RoW (Right-of-Way), but on the southern service, the tracks ran on the east side. Passengers wishing to travel from Highland Park or Fort Sheridan to Waukegan had to cross over the C&NW tracks to connect to a waiting streetcar. After almost two years of disconnected service and $15,000 (~$450K 2019 $) paid to the C&NW, an underpass connecting the two services was completed.

The C&ME, like the B.C.E.R, continued to look south. From Highland Park, the C&ME continued to construct a right-of-way south towards Evanston alongside the C&NW RoW. Additionally, as the name Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway suggests, construction commenced north towards Milwaukee. The C&ME did not plan on constructing new RoW all the way to Milwaukee, as an interurban railroad, the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Interurban line (M-R-K), already held franchise and RoW from Kenosha to Milwaukee. The M-R-K, after constructing RoW between Kenosha and Milwaukee, also began purchasing RoW between Kenosha and Waukegan.

Another company, the Chicago, Kenosha & Milwaukee Electric Railway (CK&M), began purchasing RoW between Kenosha and Waukegan. The CK&M was actually controlled by the C&ME and was incorporated specifically to acquire RoW between the two cities. (Campbell, 25) In the early 1900s, the M-R-K apparently gave up its Kenosha to Waukegan extension, leaving the CK&M as the only contender. Both the M-R-L and the CK&M had initially planned on constructing their RoW on the east side of the C&NW tracks in an area known as "the flats," but as the CK&M began acquiring its RoW north of Waukegan, it ran into a problem in Zion. (27)

The Zion City Council would not allow the CK&M to construct their railway on the east side of the C&NW tracks as it had proposed. In March 1904, the CK&M compromised and bought RoW just west of Galilee Avenue (What was then the western city limits). (27) Because of this compromise, the CK&M tracks would have to cross the C&NW tracks twice: once south of Zion and once north of Zion. The C&NW, quite understandably, demanded that the track crossings occur over or under their tracks, not at-grade. The CK&M, not wishing to spend large amounts of money on the endeavor (Remember, the B.C.E.R had spent nearly $15,000 to build an underpass under C&NW tracks), elected to build a new RoW west of the C&NW tracks starting at Edison Court in Waukegan. The Zion City Council's demands were really a "...blessing in disguise for the C&ME." (27) After purchasing the RoW in Zion, the CK&M purchased RoW north to Milwaukee along the same basic alignment. By operating the on the less-populated west sides of Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee, the C&ME could operate trains at higher speeds, thus, more frequently.

By the first decade of the 20th century, the C&ME had become so successful that many of the facilities and tracks were nearing obsolescence. One of the most important contributing factors to the C&ME's success was the departure from a standard operating procedure of an Interurban railway—The North Shore Line rarely utilized street-running tracks. While street-running tracks are excellent for providing efficient transportation for passengers, they are not conducive to freight operations. The North Shore Line, in fact, only had two major sections of street-running for much of its lifespan: Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette and 5th and 6th Streets in Milwaukee. After the Shore Line Route was abandoned in 1955, the street-running in Milwaukee was all that remained.

According to the chart on page 28 of North Shore Line Memories, the C&ME earned $193,620, after expenses, in 1903. Adjusting for inflation, this amount is equivalent to over $5.5M today. (For comparison, Metra, a rail agency with almost 500 miles of track and 242 stations, had net earnings of $386.1M in 2018.)(Operating and Capital Program and Budget, Metra, 2018) Passenger service is often more 'memorable' than freight operations, but it is the freight operations that often cover the large majority of the operating costs of a railroad.

References

Campbell, George V. North Shore Line Memories. Quality Books, Inc: Northbrook, IL, 1980.

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