South Shore Express

[MetroShadow]

The South Shore Line will begin an express run from South Bend to Downtown, cutting the trip time by 40 minutes end-to-end. One trip in the morning, one in the evening.

[garmon757]

The South Shore Line will begin an express run from South Bend to Downtown, cutting the trip time by 40 minutes end-to-end. One trip in the morning, one in the evening.

Really??? That's the best they can provide??? What about Michigan City (11th Street) and/or Carroll Avenue???

[strictures]

Really??? That's the best they can provide??? What about Michigan City (11th Street) and/or Carroll Avenue???

The express will stop at Dunes Park & East Chicago. Both are high level boarding, which apparently is to speed boarding.

It will also stop at Roosevelt outbound.

It's skipping all the Gary stations, so I expect some screaming from their politicians.

The Trib article said about 400 riders make the trip from South Bend weekdays, so that will make a good load with the passengers from the other two stops.

[Busjack]

Depends what the intent is. If they have enough extra equipment to run extra trains, the intent is to get people from South Bend to Chicago, and it doesn't affect those going from Michigan City inbound.

NICTD should have extra equipment, in that it got the 14 Highliners before the 2008 economic crash, and ridership went down thereafter.

As it is, the first train leaves South Bend 6:32 a.m. ET and arrives in Chicago 8:08 a.m. CT. This one is supposed to leave SB at 6:00, and presumably arrives before 7:00.

Update: This might just be an extension of Train 106, which starts at Carroll St (Michigan City shops), but bypasses most of the same stops, except it stops in Hammond and Hegewisch instead of East Chicago (schedule), or maybe the East Chicago stop shows that it is an alternate to it.

Nothing posted on the NICTD site, so, we'll have to see what develops.

[west towns]

They operate express trains on many of the metra two track lines so this makes sense for better service

[artthouwill]

If I am not mistaken, East Chicago is the 2nd busiest station trailing only Hegewisch on that line

[Busjack]

If I am not mistaken, East Chicago is the 2nd busiest station trailing only Hegewisch on that line

I don't see any statistics, but it has the biggest parking lot, and what people from the south end of Hammond use (I did at one time).

Maybe related, the consultants are still working the West Lake Corridor extension. However, I haven't seen any new plans on the site, such as whether they can connect it to the existing main line in Hammond. The article said just to Dyer, as opposed to prior references to the Cedar Lake or Lowell area.

Edit: There is a nictdwestlake.com site, which does have project maps, indicating that both options are still being studied.

[andrethebusman]

For many years South Shore had a super express. PM run left Randolph St, made Van Buren, then Gary, Michigan City, Shops, South Bend only. Cut rear cars at Gary for a second section that made all stops to Shops. There was a morning equivalent too. Ended shortly before NICTD took over as part of the big service cuts.

[ibebobo]

Michigan City should also have a stop. There are a lot of people who commute from there

[Busjack]

Michigan City should also have a stop. There are a lot of people who commute from there

Again, the question is whether Michigan City will continue to be served by train 106, in which case they get on first and don't need train [presumably] 6. Then it gets down to whether it makes a difference that the Michigan City stop is Carroll Ave. vs. 11th St., but 11th is served by 108.

Not much different than ME train 700 doesn't stop in Harvey, because 750 does.

[Busjack]

News articles point to the NICTD page with the schedule changes.

As I predicted in the preceding post, it will be a new train 6.

106 skips Dune Park, but still covers Hammond and Hegewisch, while 6 covers Dune Park and East Chicago.

Few other changes, the most notable one being that train 12 becomes train 112 and thus cut back at Michigan City instead of originating at South Bend.

Train 11 at 3:57 is the mirroring outbound trip.

[Busjack]

On 2/2/2015 at 7:59 AM, Busjack said:

I don't see any statistics, but it has the biggest parking lot, and what people from the south end of Hammond use (I did at one time).

 

Maybe related, the consultants are still working the West Lake Corridor extension. However, I haven't seen any new plans on the site, such as whether they can connect it to the existing main line in Hammond. The article said just to Dyer, as opposed to prior references to the Cedar Lake or Lowell area.

 

Edit: There is a nictdwestlake.com site, which does have project maps, indicating that both options are still being studied.

Appears that there is more progress reflected on the Project Documents page. There are several alternatives, including via IHB, or several alignments from downtown Hammond to the current South Shore, either via the state line or around the current Hammond station. They now say all electric, and the end of the line would be at Main Street (Munster-Dyer border) with stations at Downtown Hammond, 173rd St., and Ridge Rd., and maybe at Fisher St.

[2200SeriesFan]

On 2/5/2015 at 1:31 PM, ibebobo said:

Michigan City should also have a stop. There are a lot of people who commute from there

I recall when the 'sunrise express' train debuted, NICTD said something about those stops all being chosen since they used high level platforms. I bet whenever one day Michigan City 11th/Franklin gets an upgraded high level platform and they get rid of street running(probably will be years from now before it occurs, but who knows), maybe it'll occur? Rumor I heard too last I saw from pdf files is that they were talking about eliminating the stop at Carroll Ave., but who knows what'll eventually occur?

Also had heard a similar proposal in one of the NICTD pdfs to eliminate the Clark Rd.(Gary/Chicago Airport) stop. For a while the talk was to combine both Miller and Metro Center into one stop(foolish idea IMO), but I've heard more recent talk that NICTD is now leaning to keep both of those stops. Though I heard that the Miller stop might need to be relocated slightly west of its current location, to support a high level platform. Not sure how they'll handle upgrading Metro Center to have a high level platform, but I'm sure it'll be done somehow. And of course, I'm aware of NICTD's desire to upgrade Gary to Michigan City to have 2 tracks for the whole length of that portion of the South Shore. Not just only a limited portion as 2 tracks, like right by Portage/Ogden Dunes.

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, 2200SeriesFan said:

I bet whenever one day Michigan City 11th/Franklin gets an upgraded high level platform and they get rid of street running(probably will be years from now before it occurs, but who knows), maybe it'll occur?

They were saying they had to get rid of street running to institute positive train control. While their site has mentioned several proposed routes (north, south, and just condemn property fronting 10th and 11th Sts.) I don't think any progress has been made.

5 hours ago, 2200SeriesFan said:

Not sure how they'll handle upgrading Metro Center to have a high level platform, but I'm sure it'll be done somehow.

When I was familiar with the Gary station it was on street level under the Toll Road. It appears now to be similar to what the East Chicago station (which I frequently used) was. I wondered how they could raise that platform, and the answer was that they scrapped it an built an essentially all new platform and station.

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, 2200SeriesFan said:

For a while the talk was to combine both Miller and Metro Center into one stop(foolish idea IMO), but I've heard more recent talk that NICTD is now leaning to keep both of those stops. Though I heard that the Miller stop might need to be relocated slightly west of its current location, to support a high level platform.

The May minutes have something responsive to this. Under the Double Track Project, with regard to going ahead with project development, it says:

Lake St is, of course, Miller.

[Busjack]

NWI Times has a story that the Hammond City Council has approved a funding source for its share of the West Lake Corridor project, including contingencies that there be a Gateway Station about where the current one is, and a maintenance facility in the city (correction: near the north end of the route). There is also a rendering showing the line elevated over "downtown" Hammond, which would get it over the freight railroads at Willow Court. Doesn't show how it clears the Hohman Ave. overpass (and maybe it runs parallel to it), but clearly, there isn't going to be a station at the former Dan Rabin TC, which is under the structure at Sibley.

Also a story that the NICTD Board approved starting property acquisition for the West Lake and Double Track projects.

[artthouwill]

19 hours ago, Busjack said:

NWI Times has a story that the Hammond City Council has approved a funding source for its share of the West Lake Corridor project, including contingencies that there be a Gateway Station about where the current one is, and a maintenance facility in the city (correction: near the north end of the route). There is also a rendering showing the line elevated over "downtown" Hammond, which would get it over the freight railroads at Willow Court. Doesn't show how it clears the Hohman Ave. overpass (and maybe it runs parallel to it), but clearly, there isn't going to be a station at the former Dan Rabin TC, which is under the structure at Sibley.

Also a story that the NICTD Board approved starting property acquisition for the West Lake and Double Track projects.

Still think its crazy to have a West Lake train route AND a Southeast Service. With only 5 miles separating the 2 potential services, not to mention the proximity of the proposed SE service to the existing  ME line, that is losing  ridership.   So much for regional  planning. 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

Still think its crazy to have a West Lake train route AND a Southeast Service. With only 5 miles separating the 2 potential services, not to mention the proximity of the proposed SE service to the existing  ME line, that is losing  ridership.   So much for regional  planning. 

It doesn't extend over state lines, but with Metra crying about no state or federal capital funding, we can assume that the Southeast Service is dead.

Really, though, the only issue would be if people from Lansing would go to Munster or South Holland.

The surprising thing is that Indiana got its stuff together, including the state and local matching funds, as opposed to the mess with the Regional Bus Authority.