Ridership may be down in a slow economy, but the South Shore passenger service is forging ahead with an aggressive modernization program on several fronts.

Friday the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board approved spending $480,000 more for the bypass track it’s building to ease South Shore trains through the Kensington bottleneck in Illinois.

Also OK’d was NICTD committing $100,000 for another study on relocating the train tracks in Michigan City, and not to exceed $50,000 for additional engineering analysis tied to the futures of the Gary Metro Center and Miller passenger stations.

NICTD general manager Gerald Hanas said neither the Gary nor Miller stations have high-boarding platforms, which allow for faster boarding, less dwell time and safer access for the disabled.

Plans are to add more such platforms along the rail line including at the Dune Park station in Porter County eventually, but Hanas said it’s looking very formidable to make those improvements at both Gary and Miller at a total cost of $60 million to $80 million when combined they only represent 15 percent of South Shore ridership.

By comparison, the East Chicago station, which has a high-boarding platform, carries 26 percent of South Shore ridership.

Hanas noted the past petitions and vocal support from residents of Miller, a neighborhood of Gary, to keep their station open.

The $50,000 appropriation is for consultant American Structurepoint of Indianapolis to do additional engineering analysis of the stations’ high-platform needs and footprint. A private developer has approached NICTD and the City of Gary about building a new train station near Interstate 65 tied to commercial development in the area, but Hanas said NICTD negotiations are on hold pending resolution of the platform costs.

Vote was unanimous by the NICTD directors to approve the engineering study with Porter County member John Evans and LaPorte County member Barbara Huston both absent.

The $100,000 NICTD contribution OK’d on a separate vote is contingent on Michigan City matching that amount as the minimum local share of project costs in hopes of being awarded $800,000 in Transportation Improvement Grants for Economic Recovery known as TIGER II federal stimulus money.

The goal of the new study would be to evaluate various realignment options moving the South Shore tracks off city streets and arrive at a preferred alignment for further refinement and environmental analysis.

Previously studied was an extreme northerly route across the city complicated by waterways, a southern route near the existing freight tracks by Ames Field and Al’s Valueland at Franklin Street, and purchasing land between both proposed routes adjacent to the current South Shore tracks and moving the rails and overhead catenary structures off the roads.

NICTD director of marketing John Parsons said the Michigan City Economic Development Corp., the city’s Redevelopment Commission and the privately owned SouthShore freight service all would make cash contributions toward the new study as well. Broad support helps because Hanas said the TIGER II planning grants are “highly, highly competitive process and it’s extremely difficult to get a grant. It’s not easy.”

LaPorte County Council member Mark Yagelski currently serves as NICTD chairman and addressed the need for yet another study. “We’ve been working on this now for eight years. Why another study? There’s no way we can get federal money without this study. We have some on the shelf but unfortunately they don’t apply today. It’s a process we may not like but it’s something we have to complete.”

According to NICTD, the South Shore has used the two-mile segment of rail that is embedded in the middle of 10th and 11th Streets in Michigan City since the passenger line’s inception in 1908. Today, NICTD believes the current alignment adversely impacts the adjoining properties, rail and vehicular safety, travel time, capacity, and rail and roadway maintenance costs.

NICTD’s long-term goal is to consolidate Michigan City’s two small existing passenger stations into a new, fully-accessible station with modern amenities and adequate parking. NICTD’s yards and maintenance shops are located on Michigan City’s east side.

On another matter, Hanas said work is progressing on construction of a dedicated South Shore rail line at Kensington where NICTD trains join Metra tracks and cross Canadian National freight lines in Illinois. South Shore trains at times are slowed to a crawl or held at the junction for other rail traffic to pass resulting in delays for NICTD passengers.

Hanas said new crossover rails are to be installed in August during the tedious $15 million construction process but it was determined that the South Shore had to redesign Metra’s signal system with NICTD’s share $480,000 for additional engineering and design.

Also Friday, Hanas said he believes the problem has been mitigated to a large extent but Yagelski asked maintenance staff to repaint the blue handicapped parking lines where needed in NICTD parking lots after a complaint at a previous meeting.

Posted 8/2/2010