St. Patrick’s Day has been chosen as the tentative date for a ribbon-cutting for the South Shore Line’s new West Lake Corridor route.
The route, to be called the Monon Corridor, will transport riders between the Hammond Gateway station in north Hammond and Dyer. The east-west route that South Shore trains have followed for more than a century will be referred to as the Lakeshore route.
“I can’t think of a better St. Patrick’s Day celebration than to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony,” Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President and General Manager Mike Noland told the NICTD board Monday.
Service along that north-south route has been delayed about a year and a half, most recently because of malfunctioning transformers, he said.
Three of the four transformers that power the electric trains on the new stretch of tracks failed, apparently because moisture got inside, he said.
Meanwhile, the railroad is using two transformers – one the railroad had on hand for a replacement and a Frankenstein one cobbled together out of pieces and parts the manufacturer had available – to get the testing and commissioning work done while waiting on the new transformers to be installed.
The new ones are due by the end of February, Noland said. “We’ll hook them up, we’ll test them, and we’ll be ready to go.”
“That’s the only thing left, is getting those replacement transformers to show up,” he said.
The transformers designed for the Monon Corridor route were different from the ones used for the Lakeshore Corridor. The Monon Corridor work is being done as a design/build project by the contractor, FH Paschen Ragnar Benson.
Noland said litigation over the malfunctioning transformers is possible. The railroad would try to recoup its costs, including the 77 employees hired for the new service who are on the payroll long before revenue service can begin.
“We’re finding things for them to do. We’re using them on the main line and we’re keeping them in training,” Noland said.
The railroad plans to operate 28 trains a day on weekdays and 29 trains a day on weekends and holidays. During weekday morning rush hours, five trains will skip the Hammond Gateway station and take riders to Millennium Station. The process will be reversed during weekday afternoon rush hours.
At the Munster/Dyer station, on the border between the two towns, the NICTD board decided Monday to add emergency access points into the west parking lot in case the main entrance via a CSX viaduct is ever blocked.
Residents had argued against allowing access through their neighborhoods, so the secondary access will be for emergency use only. Bollards will be placed and locked, with keys available to town and railroad police. Pedestrians and bike riders will still be able to get through.
As the railroad prepares for the new Monon Corridor service to begin, Director of Capital Investment and Implementation Nicole Barker has been busy getting marketing materials and other essential work done.
“This is the first line where people will actually have to transfer,” she said, so the railroad has to explain how it all works. There will be rack cards handed out on trains and at stations with a QR code for more information online.
The timetable is ready to go to print, awaiting a final selection of dates. Ticket vending machines had to be updated and tickets redesigned, too.
As additional questions come in, the railroad is adding to the FAQ section online.
An informational video about how to ride will be Noland’s final video. His last day is March 16, before the ribbon-cutting. David Dech, with more than 30 years of railroading experience, was hired Monday to replace him.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
