After decades of dreaming, planning and building, the South Shore Line’s West Lake Corridor rail service will finally begin March 31.
The new north-south route, now dubbed the Monon Corridor, extends from the Hammond Gateway station to the Dyer-Munster station at its southern terminus.
An invitation-only VIP ribbon cutting will be held on March 31 with revenue service beginning afterward, at about 11 a.m., Director of Capital Investment and Implementation Nicole Barker said.
The start of service has been a moving target until now.
At its last meeting, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board heard that the hoped-for date was March 17. Outgoing General Manager and President Mike Noland thought a St. Patrick’s Day event would be an auspicious beginning, with new General Manager and President David Dech on board that week.
The $950 million, eight-mile design-build project by F.H. Paschen Ragnar Benson, a joint venture, has been beset with delays, most recently transformers that failed and had to be replaced. Before that, it was stray voltage that had to be grounded properly.
The start of service was originally expected to begin about a year and a half ago.
NICTD, which operates the South Shore Line, has the new route’s schedule posted online at mysouthshoreline.com.
In the early years of planning the West Lake corridor project, the concept called for extending the rail line far beyond Dyer. The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority’s new 20-year strategic plan shows the RDA hasn’t forgotten that.
The RDA plan includes upgrading existing stations, including Gary Metro, as well as extending service to include stations at Dyer, Schererville, St. John, Highland, New Elliot, Crown Point, University Park in Gary, Hobart, Wheeler and downtown Valparaiso.
With the Monon Corridor and Double Track NWI projects, the Indiana General Assembly created transit development districts to boost the state’s return on its investment in the commuter rail service.
In Michigan City and Hammond, the fruits of that labor are already becoming evident. Michigan City’s 11th Street Station is part of a giant complex that Flaherty & Collins is building to include commercial space on the ground floor and residential space above, reshaping the city’s skyline.
Early discussions of investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the railroad drew attention for increasing access to higher-paying jobs in Chicago, but the railroad is also attracting residents to Northwest Indiana.
In Hammond, the Banc project converted the former Bank Calumet building into a residential structure, showing the railroad is drawing residents to downtown Hammond.
By 2050, the RDA report predicts, annual commuter earnings will have increased by $91 million. Northwest Indiana’s population will increase by 7,300 residents by 2050, with an increase in employment of about 6,500 jobs.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
