The South Shore commuter service will be temporarily suspended over seven upcoming weekends between South Bend and the Gary Metro Center.

The train service will be suspended from 2:30 a.m. Saturday through 3 a.m. Monday on the following dates: May 15-17, August 7-9, August 28-30, Sept. 18-20, Oct. 2-4, Oct. 23-25, and Nov. 6-8.

Though the trains will not operate between South Bend to Gary on those times, there will be regular weekend train service between the Gary Metro Center and Chicago.

Stations affected by this outage include South Bend, Hudson Lake, Carroll Avenue and 11th Street in Michigan City, Beverly Shores, Dune Park, Portage/Ogden Dunes, and Miller. There will be no shuttle bus service provided.

During these weekend construction outages, passengers are encouraged to drive to the East Chicago station, located 2.6 miles north of I-94 at 5615 Indianapolis Blvd.

The weekend outages represent the second year of Phase 2 of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation Dsitrict’s overhead wire modernization program between Michigan City and Gary. The overhead wire, or catenary, supplies electricity for train propulsion.

The $18 million, three-year project will replace more than 100 miles of electrical conductor that was designed in the 1920s. This wire is old and brittle and subject to failure. These failures are the single leading cause of significant service disruptions and lengthy train delays, according to NICTD.

The construction plan calls for the contractor, Aldridge Electric, to upgrade many of the components under traffic. However, the contractor must have uninterrupted weekend access to the track in order to remove old wire and suspend new wire. Nearly all of Phase 2 work will be done in single track territory requiring temporary weekend service outages.

The public is encouraged to visit www.nictd.com

 for more information or changes to the planned outages.

Posted 5/11/2010