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52 minutes ago, renardo870 said:

https://www.lakeshorepublicmedia.org/local-news/2024-05-24/nictd-looking-at-future-service-expansion-rail-car-replacement-with-new-strategic-plan

Looks like a new NICTD 20-year Strategic plan to extend service into downtown South Bend, West Lake extensions to Lowell and Valparaiso, respectively and fare restructuring for short travels are in the works.

I suppose the  Calpine routing would split off the Lakeshore corridor somewhere east of Miller but before Michigan City?  

As for the Westlake Corridor expansion to Lowell a d Cedar Lake,  I wonder why the route between Hammond and Dyer wasn't double tracked?  Without it, you have the same problem that was present on the Lakeshore Corridor before doubletracking started there. If nothing else,  doubletrack from Munster to Dyer ( i still prefer Hammond to Dyer).  St John,Lowell and Cedar Lake might be able to get by on a single track, but, anything more will require more doubletracking. 

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4 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I suppose the  Calpine routing would split off the Lakeshore corridor somewhere east of Miller but before Michigan City?  

 

If you are referring to going to Valpo, the original idea was to split off the West Lake at 45th Ave. and use the GTW, but since that's now CN, that was blocked.

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18 hours ago, renardo870 said:

https://mysouthshoreline.com/letter-from-south-shore-line-president-mike-noland/

Apologies from NICTD President Mike Noland regarding delays dated 052424

 

10 hours ago, Busjack said:

A lot of brow beating, but no explanation. ..

@renardo870: Since you pointed us to Lakeshore Public Media, this story has the explanation given to the board. It includes "Some riders were waiting on the wrong platform, requiring trains to stop longer at stations to wait for them to board. And the new schedules don't have any recovery time built in. ... [S]low orders that are more noticeable on the tighter schedule and upgrading radios to speed up communications with construction crews," construction and shortening the platform in Hammond, and construction of the fourth track on ME property.

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1 hour ago, Busjack said:

If you are referring to going to Valpo, the original idea was to split off the West Lake at 45th Ave. and use the GTW, but since that's now CN, that was blocked.

O knew the original plan was to have part of the route on the Westlake Corridor .   Who owns the tracks that run southeast starting from the Ford Plant in Hegewisch that runs southeast through Hammond  Gary, and Merrillville?

  

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10 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

O knew the original plan was to have part of the route on the Westlake Corridor .   Who owns the tracks that run southeast starting from the Ford Plant in Hegewisch that runs southeast through Hammond  Gary, and Merrillville?

  

Norfolk Southern, but that's always busy. In fact, it was considered one of the biggest pieces of idiocy that the IHB overpasses (especially on Indianapolis Blvd.) didn't clear the NS.

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14 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

O knew the original plan was to have part of the route on the Westlake Corridor .   Who owns the tracks that run southeast starting from the Ford Plant in Hegewisch that runs southeast through Hammond  Gary, and Merrillville?

  

The inclusion of Merrillville is confusing me, but that's either NS's Chicago District (Hammond, Gary, Hobart) or CN's South Bend Sub (Lansing, Griffith, Merrillville)

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5 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

CN's South Bend Sub (Lansing, Griffith, Merrillville)

That's south of there (goes through Harvey), and what I was referring to in mentioning GTW/CN at 45th.

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2 hours ago, Busjack said:

 

@renardo870: Since you pointed us to Lakeshore Public Media, this story has the explanation given to the board. It includes "Some riders were waiting on the wrong platform, requiring trains to stop longer at stations to wait for them to board. And the new schedules don't have any recovery time built in. ... [S]low orders that are more noticeable on the tighter schedule and upgrading radios to speed up communications with construction crews," construction and shortening the platform in Hammond, and construction of the fourth track on ME property.

Well, that does explain a lot. All these things are a recipe for serious delays. 

Not much you can do with the construction projects in Hammond and the Track 4 between 11th and Millennium but they gotta make it easy for the passengers to catch the correct train on the correct platform.

 

Edited by renardo870
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14 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

The inclusion of Merrillville is confusing me, but that's either NS's Chicago District (Hammond, Gary, Hobart) or CN's South Bend Sub (Lansing, Griffith, Merrillville)

I should have included  Hobart too.  The Lansing Griffith alignment is a straight East West, while what i was referring to runs through Hammond and the Hessville neighborhood  of Hammond before crossing into the southwestern part of Gary.  These tracks run southeast.  The alignments near 45th Ave ( which runs Gary to Hobart) and near 61st Ave ( which is Merrillville to Hobart) are east west.

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  • 3 weeks later...
15 hours ago, renardo870 said:

 

South Shore latest update 6/14/24

Screenshot_20240614_195835_Facebook.jpg

Screenshot_20240614_195839_Facebook.jpg

One thing I didn't see was that there are stations that still only use one side platform at a station platform even though there are two platforms available.   While the published schedule may or may not provide sufficient time for trains in each direction to use the same track and platform, any delays could increase the likelihood of a conflict which in turn could cause more delays and, in my humble opinion., defeats the purpose of the doubletracking.  

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1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

One thing I didn't see was that there are stations that still only use one side platform at a station platform even though there are two platforms available.   While the published schedule may or may not provide sufficient time for trains in each direction to use the same track and platform, any delays could increase the likelihood of a conflict which in turn could cause more delays and, in my humble opinion., defeats the purpose of the doubletracking.  

Well, NICTD had bustitution last week from Miller to Dune Park for trains EB from 10pm to 3am that started Monday 6/10/24 and concluded on 6/13/24 but it wasn't clear on what the bustitution was for. I'm not sure it was to finish up a minor punchlist from the Double Track Project or something else, but I agree with what you're saying @artthouwill

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  • 4 weeks later...
8 hours ago, renardo870 said:

Updated letter from South Shore President Mike Noland...

https://mysouthshoreline.com/letter-from-south-shore-line-president-mike-noland-5/

 

The "D" stop note (train may be 5 minutes early) is kind of strange. Looks like the existing train is 5 minutes behind schedule.

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3 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Your link doesn't work and a search for McCormick on their site didn't find it.

They must've taken it down but it was saying it was a public meeting for a new August Schedule and to no longer make a flag stop at 23rd Mccormick Place except for special events. 

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Updated Schedule and removal of weekend/Holiday McCormick Place Flag Stop

https://mysouthshoreline.com/south-shore-line-announces-implementation-of-new-schedule-effective-august-20-2024/

New later EB Chicago to South Bend trips added:

Train 33 🚆 8:15 PM & Train 35 🚆 11:15 PM Mon-Fri

Train 513  🚆 11:15 PM  Weekends/Holiday (formerly Train 613 to Mich City)

https://mysouthshoreline.com/public-service-announcement-july-24-2024/

 

Edited by renardo870
McCormick Place stop removal
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5 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

The Downtown Hammond South Shore Monan Line station is expected to open in 2026 between Fayette and Russell Sts and would make a good replacement for the current Hammond bus terminal. Hammond Gateway would be even better, so that riders could connect to the existing "Lakeshore" line as well, but it would add quite a bit of operating costs for Pace.

I'm not sure i understand why there would be a downtown Hammond Honan Line station AND a Hammond Gateway station.  The two stations wouldn't be that far apart.  The new line will serve the Gateway station along with the original line.   The Hohman station will be converted to an overflow parking lot for the Gateway station.   So far it doesn't look like Pace will serve either station and Hammond no longer has a transit system  so what's the purpose of this station?

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6 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

The Downtown Hammond South Shore Monan Line station is expected to open in 2026 between Fayette and Russell Sts  ...

 

42 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I'm not sure i understand why there would be a downtown Hammond Honan Line ...

Again (having lived there and taken a field trip to the roundhouse at 175th St. on a Shore Line charter bus), it's the Monon (named after the town where the 2 branches of the Monon RR crossed).

Also, between Fayette and Russell is an incline, and while it appears on YouTube that the Monon Line platform at Hammond Gateway is on the flyover incline, I can't see them doing it again.

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