Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) is alerting South Shore passengers and communities to the 2nd in a series of planned temporary weekend construction outages that will cause a temporary suspension of train service east of Dune Park Station.
South Shore Line will not provide train or bus service between South Bend and Dune Park Station on the following weekends from 2:30 a.m. Saturday thru 3:00 a.m. Monday:
• May 14-16 July 30 – August 1
• June 4-6 August 13-15
• June 18-20 August 27-29
• July 16-18 September 10-12
• July 23-25 September 24-26
All trains will run normal weekend service between Dune Park Station and Chicago.
Stations affected by this outage include South Bend, Hudson Lake, Carroll Ave. and 11th St. in Michigan City, and Beverly Shores.
During these weekend outages passengers are encouraged to use Dune Park Station. It is conveniently located east of the intersection of SR 49 and US Highway 12 in Chesterton, approximately 2 miles north of I-94 (exit 26B) and 7 miles north of the Indiana Toll Rd (exit SR49 North). It is a modern station with a large, enclosed waiting area, restrooms, and parking.
NICTD is in the final year of a 3-year effort to modernize its overhead wire between Michigan City and Gary. The overhead wire, or catenary, supplies electricity for train propulsion. This $18M project will replace over 100 miles of electrical conductor, some of which dates back to the 1920s. This wire is old, brittle and subject to failure. These failures are the single leading cause of significant service disruptions and lengthy train delays.
The construction plan calls for our contractor to upgrade many of the components under traffic. However, the contractor must have uninterrupted weekend access to the track in order 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.
If someone is flying into either O'Hare or Midway they may still reach points in Indiana by using Coach USA. Coach USA provides bus transportation to and from Midway and O'Hare to various cities in northern Indiana including Michigan City, Notre Dame, Mishawaka and South Bend. For more information visit their website at www.coachusa.com
For weekend outage updates check back to our website www.nictd.com or call our pre-recorded weekend outage hotline 219-878-1745. NICTD apologizes for any inconvenience.