Replies

[Southsider2k12]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/20/p...monday-meeting/

Chicago Tribune
Post-Tribune |
Plans for resuming full South Shore service on…

By TIM ZORN
PUBLISHED: March 20, 2024 at 12:49 p.m. | UPDATED: March 20, 2024 at 12:50 p.m.
Plans for resuming train service on the full South Shore Line are expected at Monday’s Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District meeting.

Michael Noland, the railroad’s president, said he expects to announce when trains will begin running again between Michigan City and Gary.

Train service on that part of the railroad has been disrupted since late February 2022, when construction work on the ...

[Southsider2k12]

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2024/04/03/sout...th-bend-airport

As work to double-track the South Shore Line between Gary’s Miller neighborhood and Michigan City's Uptown district is wrapping up, the Chicago-Indiana commuter railroad is looking into service improvements further east.

On February 28, there was a meeting of the Sandhouse Rail Group, a networking group established by the Northwestern University Transportation Center to connect railroad professionals with students and academics. Metra executive director Jim Derwinski and his South Shore Line counterpart Mike Noland talked about what’s on the horizon for commuter rail serving Chicagoland.

While Streetsblog already covered Derwinski’s presentation on speeding up the Metra Electric Line, Noland’s presentation had some newsworthy nuggets, too. He said that the South Shore Line is making plans to run express shuttle trains between the new Michigan City 11th Street station and the South Bend International Airport, the line’s current eastern terminus. The shuttles would make the trip within 30 minutes, down from almost 50 minutes under the current schedule.

In a follow-up interview, Noland clarified that this would be contingent on another major capital project. The railroad currently uses a single-track half-loop to reach the east side of the airport. The South Shore Line Airport Realignment project calls for building a brand new set of tracks to reach the west side of the airport. Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (the agency that runs the South Shore Line) previously indicated that the change would shave 13-15 minutes off South Bend-to-Millennium Park trips. That's because the current tracks are longer, and the train has to slow down because of the current track alignment and multiple at-grade crossings.