CSS&SB News 6-1-09

Parking for 200 at Shops and 30 at 11th St today replaced with 800 at the new 11th St station. This will be a good starting point for a nice ride into Chicago.

Riders to Michigan City is a nice bonus. The new station is only a block or two (depending on what end of the train you are on) closer to Lighthouse. If the city wanted to they could use the current station and shuttle people to Lighthouse, the beach or the casino. Is there a demand now?

A nicer station will give people a better place to wait for the train or shuttle bus ... so it will help by taking away the negatives (such as limited covered places to wait for the train/potential shuttle or bus and low level boarding). But I see more benefit for people coming to the station to leave town than those coming to town for tourism.

This is what getting on and off the train should do.
The old station had a diner in it. Get a decent restaurant near the station.
After hopping around Chicago it makes a decent dinner time. Or breakfast before you go.
Its funny, up here the St Joseph station has a pizza place in it and its the best damn pizza you could ever have, and its still a station with a ticket machine in it, no ticketmaster on duty. Quite a transformation for a station. I believe a lot of riders hit it for a meal, and the downtown is just a steps walk up with shops and other restaurants. Thats the transformation MC needs.

After reading through all of the comments on this subject, it sounds to me (a "foreigner" from another state) as if this is probably the best possible plan and solution for getting the South Shore's tracks out of the middle of Eleventh and Tenth Streets. My impression is that the people who will be caused the most trouble and problems by this plan will be the residents of the houses on Eleventh Street who will need to find somewhere else to live because their houses will be purchased and torn down. Otherwise, it sounds like a win-win situation for Michigan City and the railroad.
I have visited Michigan City twice. My first visit was on Labor Day weekend in 1982. I rode on one of the orange cars from Chicago to Michigan City and back to Chicago shortly before the orange cars were permanently retired. During my second visit (in 1999), I was driving west on Eleventh Street when I saw an eastbound train headed towards me. I quickly found a parking place and pulled over to the curb so I could watch the train drive by.

I think there is good reasoning behind getting it off street and perhaps a stronger downtown district with more people wobbling about and that is safety. Comments are people are shocked seeing a train coming right down the street, but any streetcar city this is commonplace. But SS/Nictd isn't running smaller streetcars.
The SS heritage comes from the streetcar thinking, and MC had them also.
Running right thru a city is because the early times there were few vehicles and we relied more heavily on rail transportation to get along. Now too many vehicles clogging the streets. Duh. To the rescue the rail networks. SS leading the way.
We are watching a trend here and I do hope it makes a turnaround for the downtown MC. Better get all the pics you can of the street running now.

From the safety of the station shelter at 11th St ...
The South Shore Line has more than street cars on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX7vFSll_uo

justalurker66 wrote:From the safety of the station shelter at 11th St ...
The South Shore Line has more than street cars on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX7vFSll_uo

consider during electric freight all freights went downtown.
I believe I have a leading shot of 700s pulling thru MC with a drag.

Now they will run mostly light thru town diverting freight away from the street running.

trust me on this.. whatever is condemned for this project will be good for michigan city. half the houses on 11th street are in similar condition to the tarpaper palace @ roosevelt road.

Seconded, downtown is not the peach it once was. Even the used car lot a block west of the depot is gone.

i dunno if it could ever be pulled off down there, but a live,work, play kinda development, like the mega development in N glenview would go well there.. unifortunately I dont think there is enough population growth there for such a project.. something of that nature would be great for dune park, but anything that can result in a walk to the train development in that area is greatly hampered by the national forest service and nimby.. remember, they killed the hotel in the state park which i heard was going to be tied to the train station at dune park..

Fortunately the rails are going to move regardless of the locals ability to create a destination around the new station. It is a good move for the railroad and those who ride it. If it was tied to local development it might never get done. (The Gary relocation/rebuild of Metro Center comes to mind - that seems stalled but it doesn't seem to be affecting the rail operations.)

when I lived down there all I cared about when using the train was which station would get me there in the least amount of time.. this always translated into using something west of the street running like bev shores, or dune park.

Carroll Avenue, unless you know your way around, is hard to find. No signs to the station either.
For 11th street it sounds like there won't be a "south" side of the street.
It sounds like there may be some issues of semantics or whatever, but I like the idea if they can relocate behind the buildings if thats at all possible keeping the street and existing buildings intact, or moving them making a wider 11th street.
Since this project is in idea development stages theres lots to think/talk about, see how it develops, the community in the area will prolly have input/complaints, whatever. Why its a study, have publicly open input for it, gauge the essence about it. Whatever finally happens should be a good bonus for the city.

Superbad, your logic echoes mine - if you're running late, haul a** to the west side of town. You can always beat the train to Beverly Shores with some skilled driving on US-12.

Here is my question (and if I have missed it someplace I will say sorry now). Why not move the tracks the other direction, north and incorporate the old MC station into the new double track high level platform? In this fashion, you could then have the small diner, newstand, etc. because the only way in and out of the platforms would be through the old station. People and business's won't build unless they are guaranteed some sort of traffic flow per hour from the trains and walking traffic on the street. Granted, moving the tracks to the other side then what has been proposed creates some larger buildings that have to be bought and razed compared to the houses on the south side of the street. Not only would you actually be putting history back into use, but you may start a trend in downtown MC that would see historical preservation happening someplace other then the street running. It is just a thought from a CSS&SB fan and history buff.

This route would head north at Lafayette Street and basically down the "ally" between 11th and 10th. The stop would be in about the same location with the platform extending from the edge of Frankling back towards the shops to fit and eight car MU set. After the platform the tracks would take a slight curve onto tenth street. to by-pass the big building at Wabash and then the church a block later. This would then run straight out to connect to where the tenth street trackage is now. You would still do the same concept of taking part of the street away as the plan has stated for 11th. However, being unfamilar with business's in that area i'm not sure if the tenth street running would work as it has been proposed for 11th street. Nor do I know if that is a better solution or hasn't already been looked at. Just adding my two cents.

i don't have a sky view photo of what i am talking about but working on it.

Thanks

one thing that popped into my head about this is how are they going to do the drop-adds that occur at the shops now without an actual time-table stop there anymore? will is just be factored into the schedule? or will this occur at the new station?