>>886427After the North Shore Line was discontinued, the CTA bought the last 5 or so miles outside of Chicago and revived it as a "pet project" in federally funded suburban transit. It was a big success, and continues on today as the Yellow Line.
Shortly thereafter, the communities north of the Yellow Line started forming a regional transit agency to help the CTA extend service back north and subsidize its operation.
While that was happening, the Chicago & North Western Railway (a long-time competitor) bought this (they had a lightly used freight branch parallel to the North Shore), scrapped the northbound track, then sold the right-of-way off to a power company to build those large, tubular power lines on.
The C&NW itself admitted that they didn't want to compete with the CTA out in the suburbs (prior to 1974, suburban transit in Chicago was entirely run by private companies) and did this to prevent the Yellow Line from being extended north.
