NICTD upsetting South Bend commuters...

buddah wrote:I see tadman, just out of curiosity has there ever been a study of extending the southshore line to lets say Niles or elkhart. This would include 1 more stations in South Bend. JB any insight since rider ship is growing so steadily in South bend. Im inclined to wonder if the increase in rider ship is people from one or both of those cities driving to South Bend to take the train in/out of Chicago.

No, no plans for expansion east at this time. Ridership is growing steadily, but it's still not close to the number of people who would likely ride a Lowell Line.

There is also a very effective bypass expressway that starts north of Niles, travels south through Niles, around the west and south sides of South Bend, then along the south side of Mishawaka, Elkhart, and into Goshen. It's a very effective way to funnel people from any of those communities to the South Shore trains at the airport. Much more effective than laying track and wire through South Bend and Mishawaka.

Tadman wrote:There is also a very effective bypass expressway that starts north of Niles, travels south through Niles, around the west and south sides of South Bend, then along the south side of Mishawaka, Elkhart, and into Goshen. It's a very effective way to funnel people from any of those communities to the South Shore trains at the airport. Much more effective than laying track and wire through South Bend and Mishawaka.

And that bypass is connected to the four lane State Rd 2 (posted 60 MPH) and four lane US 20 (posted 55 MPH) which generally run faster to get people to I-94 and Michigan City. If your favorite weekend South Bend train is cut catch the next closest one or take a quick drive to Michigan City.

I assume that the planners know the number of passengers that use the train and have cut with the assumption that most passengers will take the closest train.

BTW: I have not been following for a couple of years (high gas prices kept me home) but I was surprised to see the scheduled meet that began on February 24th at the South Bend Airport ... Train 11 arrives (7:29p ET), the conductor changes the points and then Train 15 arrives (8:40p ET) on the south side of the platform. Then Train 22 departs (8:50p ET - former Train 11) to Chicago followed closely by Train 422 (9:05p ET) to Michigan City. It is nice to see both sides of the platform in use. Last night Train 11 was SIX cars ... just clear of the switch. Is this just a case of not wanting to spend the time to break the train in Michigan City? The high level only handles two cars, the second two are on the low level section, cars five and six extend across grade crossings.

Prior to this change the meet was off in the fields near Hudson Lake. I used to go out to Birchim and watch it a couple of years ago. It looks like the current weekend schedule requires a pass at Birchim just before 7am CT. The proposed schedule moves that meet to South Bend.

It looks like there will be two deadhead returns to Michigan City under the new schedule. (513 sits for two hours before turning as 516? or is there another deadhead or split of 515 into 516 and 714?) I do like the new red eye return to South Bend leaving Chicago at 11:15p CT (and arriving at South Bend at 2:42a ET). One of the major flaws with the "memory schedule" has been no late night return ... have all the fun you want in Chicago but leave before 8:00p CT if you need to get home to South Bend? Or risk leaving your car in Michigan City.

justalurker66 wrote:BTW: I have not been following for a couple of years (high gas prices kept me home) but I was surprised to see the scheduled meet that began on February 24th at the South Bend Airport ... Train 11 arrives (7:29p ET), the conductor changes the points and then Train 15 arrives (8:40p ET) on the south side of the platform. Then Train 22 departs (8:50p ET - former Train 11) to Chicago followed closely by Train 422 (9:05p ET) to Michigan City. It is nice to see both sides of the platform in use. Last night Train 11 was SIX cars ... just clear of the switch. Is this just a case of not wanting to spend the time to break the train in Michigan City? The high level only handles two cars, the second two are on the low level section, cars five and six extend across grade crossings.

This change was made for several reasons - first, the turn from 15 to 22 was extremely tight. If 15 was at all late, 22 would run late out of South Bend and subsequently screw up the meet at CP 35.2 with with Train 19. Having 11 instead turn for 22 provides more recovery time to ensure that 22 leaves on time even if 11 is a bit late.

Second, especially in the winter when it's dark out in the fields, the meets out east are tough on the crews. Extreme cold temperatures, very low visibility, often frozen switch locks and/or switch mechanisms...a recipe for either a slip and fall or a back injury, plus a guaranteed delay just about every night.

The February 24 schedule takes advantage of the fact that there are two platform tracks. A new spring switch with electric heater was installed at the South Bend divide to support the new operation.

I have not seen any media reports but the board meeting should have been held Friday morning approving the new weekend schedule.
Does anyone know if the new schedule was approved or if there are changes/delays to the change?

by the end of the day I may know, but I wouldn't expect it to go effective till a little time passes and print new schedules and so on.

justalurker66 wrote:I have not seen any media reports but the board meeting should have been held Friday morning approving the new weekend schedule.
Does anyone know if the new schedule was approved or if there are changes/delays to the change?

Approved on Friday. Changes to take place sometime in August.

beat me to it, the board handed out copies of it at the meeting.

A new timetable appeared today on my ride back into the city. It's dark blue with bilevels on the cover. Not sure if anything changes inside, I'll look later.

Tadman wrote:A new timetable appeared today on my ride back into the city. It's dark blue with bilevels on the cover. Not sure if anything changes inside, I'll look later.

Several weekday changes inside, Tad. Trains 11 and 14 are now expresses. Brand new Trains 211 and 114 are paired with them to provide local service (splitting the formerly 8-car slots into 12- to 14-car slots). Trains 215 and 115 swapped slots and adopted a paired skip stop pattern to even out the loads over that time slot.

Weekend schedule remains the same for now.

Bi-levels are assigned currently to Trains 102, 203, 212, 107, 118, 215, 220, 119, 114, and 211.

sound like added trains and leading expresses followed by near locals, and skip stop
running sorta close to eaches.

sounds like a good plan.

FYI: The new weekend schedule is planned to start November 22, 2009 (per the NICTD.com news page).

sounds planned after the track/wire work

Yep ... there was a note in the Chesterton-Tribune article covering last Friday's board meeting ... "(NICTD marketing director John Parsons) said a new weekend South Shore schedule previously approved won’t go into effect as planned this summer due to the service disruptions. The schedule change tentatively is set for late November." (The paper failed to give the date.)

I was expecting the schedule change to coincide with the three week closing (October 18th-Nov 6th) to cut down on busing (less trains to replace on the weekends) but it makes more sense to make a clean change after all of the closures have passed and just in time for Thanksgiving. The late night returns to South Bend will be nice for weekend shoppers.

One more note on November 22nd ... media reports from Friday's board meeting note that the discounted weekend "to Chicago" rates in effect since 2003 are ending with the new schedule. Passengers will pay full weekday fare seven days a week.