By PAULENE POPARAD

By the end of the year all South Shore commuters will be recorded on a digital video imaging system thanks to grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

On Friday the directors of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, a four-county public agency that owns and operates the South Shore, accepted the $690,126 low bid from Railhead of Chicago for 272 cameras that will be mounted in NICTD’s 68 passenger cars.

NICTD’s Randy Welch said the contract doesn’t include cameras for 14 new double-decker passenger cars now being built in Japan and due for final assembly in Milwaukee for delivery beginning in late November through February, 2009. DHS grants should be available to video-equip those cars in the future, said Welch.

NICTD currently has surveillance cameras at its stations and parking lots but the in-car cameras won’t be live action.

Four cameras will be installed in each passenger car enhancing security by recording interior and exterior activity and at all grade crossings, especially in the case of an accident. And because of motion sensors, it’s hoped the cameras will be a deterrent against vandalism.

NICTD general manager Gerald Hanas said while signs will have to be posted notifying passengers that video cameras are in use, it hasn’t been decided if their location in the cars will be identified.

South Shore commuters set a modern ridership record last year for the second year in a row, according to marketing director John Parsons, despite a 6.3 percent dip in December holiday ridership. During 2007 the South Shore carried 4,245,922 passengers or the highest annual total since 1957 for an increase of 0.9 percent over 2006.

While the percentages of ridership growth were more pronounced in 2006 over 2005, all categories except off-peak hours posted slight gains last year, the largest 4.8 percent for weekend/holiday commuters and a 4 percent jump for riders into and out of the South Bend Airport with 292,391 passengers there.

Of the 12,738 South Shore trains operated in 2007, 87 percent of rush-hour trains were on time compared to 90.8 percent in 2006. A total 93.1 percent of the late trains arrived within 10 minutes last year and 96 percent arrived within 15 minutes.

Hanas told the 11-member NICTD board, “It’s been a goofy January for us and we hope February will be better and the weather will moderate. One hiccup can cause everything to stack up and one in rush hour can cause everything to back up.”

He said in March he may bring a construction agreement to the board regarding a long-proposed bypass track for the South Shore through the congested Kensington interlocking in Illinois where NICTD, freight and Metra passenger trains all vie for clearance. The nearly $10 million bypass track would help avoid delays the last 14 miles getting into Randolph Street station in downtown Chicago.

The South Shore’s largest cause for 2007 rush-hour delays both eastbound and westbound, said Parsons, was attributed to Metra including being held at Kensington.

Hanas also said in March he should have a proposed contract for NICTD with Metra for a new agreement to use its tracks and facilities in Illinois and share their related costs of operation; the current base agreement expired in 2006 and Hanas said Metra is proposing a 35 percent increase to almost $4.4 million a year for the South Shore.

After the meeting Hanas said while NICTD likely could absorb a major contract increase through 2008 without a fare hike, the same can’t be said for 2009.

A Metra agreement is needed for NICTD to add rush-hour trains one year from now when the new double-decker cars come into service.

South Shore trains serve Metra’s Hegewisch Station where a 10 percent fare hike for Metra riders goes into effect Feb. 1. It’s not known what impact senior citizens now being able to ride free on Metra will have on South Shore ridership.

In other business, Porter County was passed over during election of 2008 NICTD officers. Mark Yagelski of the LaPorte County Council is chairman; last year’s chairman, Mark Catanzarite of the St. Joseph County Council, will be vice-chairman; LaPorte County Commissioner Barbara Huston was re-elected board secretary and Lake County Commissioner Frances DuPey is treasurer.

Porter County’s representatives are County Commissioner John Evans and County Council member William Carmichael.

Hanas thanked U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, for securing a $5 million appropriation for the South Shore’s ongoing modernization of its catenary and signal systems. “This is for a very real project. We’re not building a Woostock museum. It’s something used every day.”

Visclosky also has committed to securing $500 million in federal funds for the South Shore’s proposed $1 billion West Lake service expansion from Hammond to Lowell and Valparaiso.

West Lake wasn’t discussed Friday although Hanas said staff is following H.B. 1220 in the Indiana General Assembly; it would capture $30 million a year in state sales taxes paid in Lake and Porter counties to fund northwest Indiana’s local construction share of West Lake without imposing a new tax.

Posted 1/28/2008