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Michigan City Switch ahead?
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Daniel Przybyla, 1-866-362-2167 Ext. 13865, dprzybyla@heraldargus.com


Photo: By Wendy Thoms
The 4:10 eastbound South Shore train comes down 11th street in Michigan City Wednesday afternoon. If plans to reroute the rail line’s tracks south of downtown go through, trains traveling through town could be a thing of the past.
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Michigan City and NICTD enter into agreement to conduct $75,000 study to reroute South Shore line


MICHIGAN CITY -- It’s like an earthquake.

That’s how Doug Jankowski describes what happens when the South Shore passenger line comes rumbling in front of his home in the 500 block of East 11th Street.

“You can feel the house vibrate. It’s cracking the walls. It vibrates knick knacks off shelves,” he said of the repeated trains that motor down the middle of 11th Street. “(South Shore trains) come through here all hours of the night beeping their horn. People have to work in the morning.”

If Michigan City Mayor Chuck Oberlie and the Northern Indiana Transportation Commuter District (NICTD) have anything to say about it, the earthquakes will be ending sooner than later for Jankowski and many other residents along 11th, 10th and Holiday streets.

That’s because momentum is picking up to reroute the South Shore passenger line from 11th Street farther south to the CSX rail line near Ames Field.

Michigan City Board of Public Works and Safety gave the OK Tuesday for the city and NICTD to enter into an agreement with TranSystems of Chicago to conduct a study this year into relocating the passenger line several blocks south. Michigan City will pick up two-thirds of the $75,000 study, while NICTD will pay the remaining third.

The rail line needs to relocate, said Oberlie, because it runs down the middle of a 2-mile stretch of roadway through a residential area.

The South Shore’s Michigan City route dates back to 1908.

A total of 37 grade crossings in Michigan City -- 30 percent of all South Shore crossings from South Bend to Chicago -- complicate matters. Relocating the tracks would reduce grade crossings -- streets that intersect with the rail line, officials said.

Speeding up the time for commuters going to and from Chicago is also important to NICTD, NICTD Marketing Director John Parsons said. Right now, passengers chug along at a rate of only 25 mph when traveling through Michigan City.

Oberlie favors rerouting the passenger line south to run parallel with the CSX line, which would increase track distance through Michigan City but save time due to the ability for trains to travel at a higher speed. Platform boarding, which is currently non-existent in Michigan City, is also a priority for the city. The Carroll Avenue boarding area has limited parking and no platform for the handicapped to board easily.

“There’s some nostalgia (with the 11th Street line), but there are problems with it,” Oberlie said.

Although rerouting of the track could cost in the tens of millions of dollars, encompassing both state and federal dollars, Parsons said if the study determines benefits outweigh costs, the project will move ahead.

That would be welcome relief for Sandra Vega, of the 200 block of East 11th Street.

“It shakes your house,” she said of the commuter line. “You can definitely feel it when it goes by. It’s about every 30 minutes.

“It does get old after awhile. If it were gone it wouldn’t hurt my feelings.”