Trains will run along the entire South Shore Line again on April 9, and buses will no longer carry passengers between the Gary and Dune Park stations then, the railroad announced Monday.
“Our riders, I know, can’t wait,” South Shore Line President Michael Noland told the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board Monday. “Their number one question is, when do we stop busing?”
Construction on the Double Track project is essentially complete, a little more than two years after the approximately $650 million project began.
It has included building a second set of tracks between Gary and Michigan City to improve the train service’s speed and reliability, plus four new bridges, three new high-level boarding platforms, expanded parking lots, and a brand-new Miller station.
The platform of the newly-built Miller South Shore station is seen on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)
The new platforms at Miller, Ogden Dunes and Michigan City’s 11th Street stations will make entering and leaving the trains faster, and boarding will be easier for passengers with handicaps.
The Double Track service’s official ribbon-cutting is expected on or around May 14, Noland said.
That’s when the expanded, faster service promised with the project is to begin, with a new schedule and seven additional weekday trains in each direction to and from Chicago.
The train service that resumes April 9 will use the current schedule.
Busing passengers along the entire stretch between Gary and Michigan City wasn’t contemplated when the railroad sent the project out for bids in 2021. But when those bids came in much higher than expected, Noland told the NICTD board, the railroad found that its original plan to keep trains running during construction wasn’t feasible.
The second set of bids called for shutting down the train service between Michigan City and Gary and carrying passengers on buses, to allow construction crews to work without having to stop when trains came through.
Passengers cross the double tracks on a pedestrian crossing at Dunes Park Station after disembarking from a westbound South Shore train on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)
“This hopefully is the new normal, and everyone can breathe easier,” Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas said of the new Double Track service.
Monday’s was the first meeting as NICTD board members for Costas and Gary Mayor Eddie Melton. All five board members are appointed by Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The $950 million West Lake Corridor project between Hammond and the Munster/Dyer border is about 70% complete, Noland said.
It includes 16 bridges and a 1½-mile stretch of elevated tracks in Hammond, Noland said.
Starting in June, Noland said, riders boarding and getting off South Shore Line trains in Hammond will start using the new Gateway station — part of the West Lake service — instead of the current Hammond station.
When the West Lake project is finished, riders going to or coming from Dyer, Munster or south Hammond will board and get off at Gateway’s upper platform.
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
