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1871 TO 1 MAY 1971, AND AFTER
Two passenger railroads used this ground, and their services were different species. Over the Grand Trunk main line ran the system's through fleet — the Chicago–Toronto trains that made the line's reputation, the International and the Maple Leaf among them — and those trains did not serve Granger: their Indiana stops were the cities, South Bend above all, and the village's use of the main line was the local and accommodation service, the trains that stopped at the small stations between Mishawaka and Edwardsburg and carried the township to market, to school, and to connections. Over the Big Four branch ran the second service: the Niles and Benton Harbor trains, for which Granger was the junction and transfer point, the depot's second reason to exist. The passenger history of the place is the history of those two local services, and both are dead; the loss ledger at this entry's end states each loss with its date or names the gap where the date is unreached.
The dimming came early and is visible in the federal record. The ICC's 1932 accident report, reconstructing a westbound passenger train's run into South Bend, notes that the train "left Cassopolis, 32.96 miles west of South Bend and the last open office" — in train-order country an "open office" is a staffed telegraph and agency station, and by April 1932, on the record of the road's own operation, no office stood open between Cassopolis and South Bend: Mishawaka's and Granger's agencies were already closed or reduced past the point the train-order system counted, while passenger trains still stopped and the depot still stood. The branch's passenger service died in the Depression contraction: the Niles history record states that passenger service from Niles to Benton Harbor on the Big Four "stopped in the early 1930s," and the South Bend end of the branch lost its trains in the same years — the last-train date for the Granger–South Bend passenger run is a named gap below (the New York Central's public timetables of 1928–1935 are its settler). On the main line, the through fleet outlived the local service by a generation: Grand Trunk Western passenger trains between Chicago and Toronto ran until Amtrak's creation, and because Amtrak did not adopt the route, the last through passenger trains crossed Harris Prairie at the end of April 1971. Amtrak's nearest station to this ground today is South Bend's, on the Lake Shore route — another railroad's line, in another part of the county — and the South Shore Line's airport station stands west of the city; both are boundary facts, and they close the ledger.
The loss ledger. Big Four branch passenger service, Niles–Benton Harbor: ended early 1930s (Niles history record). Big Four branch passenger service, South Bend–Granger–Niles: ended in the same Depression contraction; exact date unreached — named gap. Grand Trunk Western local/accommodation stops at Granger: ended before the through service; the last timetable year carrying Granger as a stop is unreached — named gap (the agency's own open-office status was already gone by April 1932, per the ICC). Grand Trunk Western through passenger service over the line: ended 30 April 1971, unadopted by Amtrak. Passenger service of any kind inside the frame since: none.
Sources: ICC Bureau of Safety report, 28 April 1932 accident (the "last open office" at Cassopolis, quoted); City of Niles History Center, "Big 4 Railroad Marker" (Historical Niles Tour Stop #21) — passenger service Niles–Benton Harbor ended early 1930s; the Amtrak adoption record (the Grand Trunk Western route not adopted, 1 May 1971) as carried in the South Bend build's trains record, cited at boundary size.