When the South Shore Line starts revenue service on the Monon Corridor, it’s going to be a quiet zone. Don’t bother whispering, though; the rule applies only to the trains.
That could happen as soon as March 31, Director of Capital Investment and Implementation Nicole Barker said. Service along the Monon Corridor (formerly known as the West Lake Corridor), between Hammond and Dyer, would begin after a ribbon-cutting.
Whether that date can be locked in depends on getting the transformers in place at substations and running test trains to make sure everything works as it’s supposed to, she said.
The railroad has until May 20 to start operating under the terms of a federal grant for the project. The start of service has been delayed multiple times for a variety of reasons, but the transformers appear to be the final hurdle.
Barker said backup transformers were arriving Thursday and Friday to replace ones that malfunctioned a few months ago.
The quiet zone approval came after Federal Railroad Administration officials checked the height and length of medians and other measures put in place to deter vehicles from going around crossarms at the 10 at-grade crossings, she said.
The crossings were equipped with gates, bells and flashers, as well as medians, to deter vehicular and pedestrian traffic from going around lowered crossing gates.
The quiet zone designation, which went into effect Thursday, spares residents from hearing train horns ahead of each crossing between Douglas Street in Hammond and Fisher Street in Munster.
“The quiet zone designation on the Monon Corridor represents a significant quality-of-life improvement for Hammond residents,” Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said in a Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District news release.
“Working with NICTD, the quiet zones established along multiple crossings in Hammond will increase safety for our residents who utilize the pedestrian path along the rail corridor while reducing noise impacts on neighborhoods – a win for both safety and our community.”
“Munster takes pride in ensuring safe roadways for its residents while offering an excellent infrastructure network,” Munster Town Manager Jim Marino said.
Engineers will continue to use the horns in the quiet zone for emergencies like a car, person or animal on or near the tracks, Barker said.
She also announced the railroad is planning special trains for Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and riders who want to see the Chicago River dyed green on March 14.
The river is set to be dyed at 10 a.m.
The extra trains will not serve South Bend, Hudson Lake, Beverly Shores, Gary Metro Center or Gary/Chicago International Airport.
Two of the extra trains will leave Michigan City’s Carroll Avenue station at 7:19 a.m. and 7:29 a.m. A third extra train will leave the new 11th Street Station in Michigan City at 8:31 a.m.
In the afternoon, three extra eastbound trains will serve Millennium and Van Buren Street, run nonstop to Hegewisch and make all local stops except Museum Campus and 57th Street, terminating at Carroll Avenue. The trains will leave Millennium Station at 3:25 p.m., 5:02 p.m. and 6:44 p.m.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
