Maria Hirschfield arrived at work earlier than usual Monday morning.
She enjoyed a faster commute, too.
The Niles woman was among the passengers on the South Shore railroad's inaugural "Sunrise Express" train. The new weekday service travels between South Bend and Chicago in under two hours, with one train in the morning and another in the afternoon.
Hirschfield goes to Chicago three times a week for her secretarial job at a law firm in the West Loop. The express service means she'll be able to cut more than 40 minutes off her morning commute, and she'll save time again on the way back to South Bend.
"When I told my boss about the express, we were both thrilled," Hirschfield said from her seat on the train Monday morning. "So was my husband, because I'll get home a little earlier at night."
The "Sunrise Express" actually left before dawn Monday.
A bright crescent moon was still glowing in the eastern sky when local officials gathered on the train platform at South Bend International Airport to celebrate the start of the new service.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said the South Shore is an important connection to Chicago.
"There are ways to unlock its potential to bring us even closer to Chicago," the mayor said. "It's going to be up to us to make sure we use it."
The train left South Bend at 6 a.m. on the dot and breezed by four stops in Hudson Lake, Michigan City and Beverly Shores before picking up more passengers at Dune Park. It skipped four more stations in Portage and Gary before stopping to board more riders at East Chicago. Then the train sped past three stations and dropped off a group at the University of Chicago. From there, it bypassed two more stations and made its final two stops at Van Buren Street and Millennium Station in downtown Chicago.