South Shore Line testing first segments of new track in northwest Indiana
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After years of discussion, planning and construction, the project to reduce commute times across northwest Indiana into Chicago has reached a major milestone.
Operators with the northern Indiana South Shore Line ran their first train on new track last month. The service has been testing trains at a low rate of speed for the last several weeks and expects to return commercial train travel to a 14-mile stretch of track as early as the end of the month.
The developments signal a significant step in the $649 million effort to run a second line of train track nearly 17 miles between Gary and Michigan City, reducing commute times to Chicago by about 20 minutes.
NICTD President Mike Noland on South Shore double tracking.
But, even as the yearslong project nears completion, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the rail line, has its eyes set on the future.
The $945 million West Lake Corridor extension branching south into several Lake County suburbs is on track for completion in 2025 and talks to relocate the line’s South Bend airport location continue, NICTD President Mike Noland told Inside INdiana Business. Noland said South Shore operators are even considering revisiting a years-old study of placing a new station near New Carlisle, where General Motors and South Korea-based Samsung SDI are planning to build a new, 2.5 million-square-foot electric vehicle battery plant.
“Our capital budget for the next five years is $2 billion,” Noland said. “That’s a whole lot of infrastructure going into this railroad. The railroad that exists today is going to be completely different from the railroad that exists tomorrow.”
Testing new track
NICTD broke ground on its South Shore Double Track project last summer and, despite recent national supply chain shortages, has progressed on schedule, Noland said, bringing it to an important point in mid-August; track testing.
The service began running trains last month on new track between Chesterton and Michigan City. Since last August, the service has bused passengers 26 miles between its Gary Metro Center and Carroll Avenue stops as crews rips up old rail, straighten out some curves, and put down new track — including the second railway which, when complete, will allow the South Shore Line to extend new express services to commuters.
“I look at it and I sort of pinch myself, that it’s actually real,” Noland said. “From all the planning work we did, from all the meetings we went to, from all the dreams and the visions and the discussion, it’s there. It’s in the ground. You can see it.”
Engineers, conductors and dispatchers are using the current test period to get familiar with the new layout of the track, its speed restrictions and its switch points. Crews are focusing on a 14-mile section now. Noland says he expects that section — stretching from Dune Park to Carroll Avenue stops — to reopen for commercial travel sometime later this month or in early October. Crews will then move on to finish and test the section of the track between Gary Metro Center and Dune Park. Busing is expected to continue along this stretch for another four or five months with total double track project completion expected in May.
Noland said the project is advancing on schedule and has only run a couple million dollars over its main, $375 million construction contract, which is within the project’s planned contingency.
The service’s West Lake Corridor extension, overlapping with the double track project, has had some scheduling issues but is still making good progress toward its anticipated May 2025 completion date, Noland said.
The West Lake extension will run eight miles of track south of the service’s main east-west leg, opening new stops in Hammond, Munster and Dyer. The new corridor, running parallel to the Illinois-Indiana state line in west Lake County, will connect with existing South Shore track just north of downtown Hammond.
As a new extension of South Shore track, West Lake Corridor construction brings its own set of construction challenges, Noland said, as crews build railway overpasses above other existing track used by freight trains, the Grand Calumet River and Hohman Avenue in Hammond.
Noland said this project is about 35% complete and, though significant utility work is still ahead, the NICTD president said he’s confident about opening on schedule.
To accommodate more than 20 miles of new track between the double track and West Lake projects, the South Shore Line is adding trains to its fleet. The South Shore Line recently acquired 26 double decker rail cars from Chicago’s Metra service. The rail cars are being rehabilitated with new seats, windows, floors, restrooms and USB ports, and will add capacity to the service’s existing 82-car fleet.
Improvements to the east
NICTD is also in talks to reduce service time to its eastern terminal in South Bend. The line currently drops commuters for its final stop at the east end of the South Bend International Airport. The commute’s final stretch, which actually sees trains pass the airport to its south and circle back to the airport’s east end, adds about 15 minutes to passenger’s travels.
Noland said NICTD is working with the South Bend Airport Authority which has already begun acquiring land needed to reroute the South Shore Line’s approach into the airport’s west side. In addition to reduced travel times, the relocation is expected to create a safer trip by eliminating more than a dozen at-grade street crossings.
The transportation entities still have about a dozen parcels of land left to acquire to make rerouting the line possible — a lighter lift compared to the 240 parcels NICTD acquired for double tracking and another 200 obtained for the West Lake extension. Engineering studies are still underway, but early estimates show the project could cost about $75 million, Noland said.
Along with double tracking, the terminal relocation is a key part of the NICTD’s goal to reduce travel times between Chicago and South Bend to 90 minutes.
“We want to serve the airport customers in a much stronger fashion,” Noland said. “We have plans not only to add another round trip service out of South Bend once we open up double track, but also to run shuttle service out of Michigan City so that we can get to nearly hourly service to and from Chicago from South Bend airport. That will be a huge benefit for not only the airport, but the entire St. Joe/Elkhart region to have that kind of quality service.”
And, the transportation service is proceeding in phases. NICTD is supportive of one day bringing the South Shore Line into downtown South Bend — an idea that’s often raised by urban renewal advocates, but stands to be a far heavier lift logistically.
Community proposals have suggested taking the track to South Bend’s historic Union Station building next door to the city’s Four Winds Field baseball complex and growing Renaissance District office park.
Noland talks about plans for the South Shore Line’s South Bend terminal.
Noland said he sees the potential economic benefit that could come from bringing the line downtown — just as cities like Gary and Michigan City are seeing new growth along the route of South Shore double tracking. Bringing the track into downtown South Bend, however, would be expensive — Noland estimates between $250 million to $300 million — and would require building adjacent to track owned by Norfolk Southern, who Noland says doesn’t have interest in sharing its existing track into the city with the commuter line.
Though it remains a goal, Noland said it makes sense now to focus on what NICTD knows it can achieve in the near-term — a more direct commute to the airport, and a potential new stop along the way.
Four or five years ago, before the county landed a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant, NICTD studied adding a new stop in the New Carlisle area, but questions rose as to whether traffic in the area would be enough to justify a new station. Though just a “teaser or things to come,” Noland said now might be time to revisit the New Carlisle study.
“We need to dust that study off now that we have something real, something tangible that’s going to move the needle,” Noland said. “We need to take a look at that potential station stop to see how we can assist with and serve and promote the economic development that that investment is going to bring.” Noland thanked riders for their patience as track improvements continue. More information about South Shore Line routes, service delays and more can be found online at mysouthshoreline.com.