Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

Moderators: metraRI, JamesT4

  by JLJ061
 
Although the Dan Ryan construction has a lot to do with it, I would say it's an increasing trend, especially with summer events in Chicago coming up.

Maybe it's time to rebuild the old coach yard north of the Old Shop for new equipment, or even prospect future storage yards elsewhere on the line?

  by Tadman
 
What happened to the policy of storing coaches at major stations overnight? I understand certain former coach yards have turned rough, but others aren't too bad.

And with regards to the ridership surge, it will inevitably come back down somewhat after the two year Dan Ryan project is over. I would hope 50% of the new riders decide to stay on the train, however.

  by doepack
 
The surge continues...


Getting Around
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Jon Hilkevitch
South Shore trains feeling the strain
As more and more passengers take advantage of rail line, one official says
`we simply don't have the capacity.'

Published April 24, 2006


The South Shore Line, known for most of the past century as "The Little
Train That Could," is facing its biggest test in many years.

The familiar trains sporting an orange stripe on the outside are crowded,
often standing-room only during even some non-rush hour runs on the 90-mile
line between South Bend, Ind., and downtown Chicago. The ridership gains
would be more welcome if only customers were not so unhappy about the
cramped quarters and if the railroad could promise when new train cars would
on the way.

"I think that if you have to stand the whole way, you shouldn't have to
pay," Marie Tinsley of Lansing said after boarding the South Shore one
morning last week at the Hegewisch station to go to her job downtown as a
customer service representative.

"It's beginning to take a toll on my back," added Tinsley, 44, a 10-year
South Shore rider who said she always used to be able to find a seat.

South Shore officials say they hope to buy more cars and eventually expand
the line deeper into Indiana to carry even more passengers. But the only
thing on the immediate horizon is a fare increase.

Jobs, museums, shopping and restaurants in Chicago are among the draws
attracting more South Shore riders than the electric-powered rail line has
carried since 1961, according to the Northern Indiana Commuter
Transportation District, which operates the passenger service.

Since 1908, the South Shore has operated in the middle of the street for 2
miles in Michigan City. Closer to Chicago, it trundles past landfills and
gasoline-storage farms. Trains stop--but few passengers board or exit--at
the crossing about a mile from Gary-Chicago International Airport, which has
no scheduled commercial airline service.

The South Shore winds near the back yards of well-kept homes in Hegewisch,
and the trains carry many former Chicago-area residents who moved to Indiana
to take advantage of lower housing costs and taxes and, until recently, less
traffic congestion.

The orange trains go past dilapidated dwellings in Hammond and Gary that are
marked by abandoned junk cars on the front lawns and families inside living
below the poverty line--the very people who would benefit from regional
development.

The South Shore is essential to the economy and to helping prepare for
growth in a region that has more than its share of poverty. It links
thousands of people from the South Side, the south suburbs and other states
to downtown Chicago.

Nearly 10% climb in 2006

South Shore ridership increased 7 percent in 2005, when a record 3.8 million
rides were provided, the railroad reported. Ridership rose about 10 percent
in the first quarter of this year, it said.

The 10 percent boost came before many drivers traded their car keys for
train passes at the start of the Dan Ryan Expressway reconstruction this
month and the steep rise in gasoline prices. Daily rider increases have
ranged from 15 to 30 percent higher this year than normal during rush
periods and to more than 70 percent higher in off-peak hours, officials
said.

Although Metra and the CTA have experienced moderate gains in riders since
the Ryan project began, and they carry the majority of transit commuters
each weekday, the ridership increases on the South Shore have been nothing
short of explosive. "We are seeing the kind of ridership numbers that we
normally experience only during the Taste of Chicago," said South Shore
spokesman John Parsons. "We simply don't have the capacity."

The South Shore provided an average of 11,905 rides a day in the first three
months of 2005, jumping to 13,019 rides a day in the first quarter of 2006,
according to the railroad. The numbers swelled to 16,890 rides daily during
the first week of April when lanes were reduced by 50 percent on the Dan
Ryan. The South Shore numbers settled to an average of 14,122 rides a day
last week--still well above 2005's 12,959-ride daily average.

Word has also spread about the new clean, futuristic Millennium Station at
Randolph Street, which serves South Shore and Metra Electric District
commuter trains. The South Shore Line shares tracks with the Metra Electric
starting at 115th Street in Chicago going north to the Loop.

Many visitors from southern Michigan, eastern Indiana and northwest Ohio
travel to South Bend to catch the South Shore instead of driving or flying
to Chicago. "The passenger traffic at our South Bend station is growing
almost exponentially," said Bill O'Dea, the South Shore's terminal
superintendent at the Millennium Station. "People gravitate to it, using the
parking at the South Bend [Regional] Airport. It really is a regional stop
for people coming to Chicago."

But the packed trains are becoming a daily grind for regular commuters
riding to Chicago.

"I've become way more aggressive when I get on the train. I go straight to
my piece of standing room in the vestibule, and I protect it," said Amelia
Solorio, 40, of Calumet City. "You can't even read the paper. That is how
tight it is on the train."

The South Shore owns 68 passenger cars, although several are typically out
of service for maintenance.

Plans are in motion to acquire about 12 more cars, but funding has not been
lined up, Parsons said. The railroad is seeking about $39 million for the
cars from the State of Indiana and a recently created regional development
authority, he said.

The South Shore is conducting engineering studies to determine whether to
buy more single-level trains or to buy double-deck Highliner trains that are
already in production for the Metra Electric, Parsons said.

The South Shore has struggled to operate with unpredictable funding for
years. Unlike Metra and CTA, which receive a portion of sales tax receipts
in the six-county Chicago area to subsidize transit operations, the South
Shore has no local or regional funding sources.

The South Shore has been able to cover about 50 percent of its operating
costs through fares, with another approximately $10 million coming from the
state, Parsons said.

Indiana has historically underfunded its transportation infrastructure
compared with neighboring states, according to data tracked by the U.S.
Department of Transportation. The state is now trying to catch up on years
of neglect by leasing the Indiana Toll Road to a private consortium for $3.8
billion.

Some of the money from the 75-year toll road deal would go toward expanding
and repairing other forms of transportation. No specific amounts have been
earmarked for the South Shore, officials said.

Further fare hikes proposed

The South Shore last raised fares in 2003, citing a ridership slump that
paralleled the sluggish economy at the time. Now, despite ridership gains,
more fare hikes are being proposed--a 2 percent boost in August and another
2 percent boost in 2007. Public hearings on the plan are set for May. South
Shore fares, like Metra's, are based on distance traveled.

Meanwhile, studies are under way on long-sought plans to extend the South
Shore from South Bend to Valparaiso and Lowell, Ind. The studies are
intended to determine potential ridership levels and travel-time savings
that the new service would generate.

A cost estimate is also being refined. The most recent projection was $340
million in 1999, Parsons said. The railroad plans to submit its application
to the federal government this year, he said.

Companies and employees in Indiana want better access to jobs and business
in Chicago's collar counties, which outpace Chicago in job creation.

The South Shore extensions are viewed as a catalyst for decades of economic
growth.

The extensions represent "an opportunity to impact the geographic pattern of
Chicago's growth in Northwest Indiana's favor," concluded an analysis
conducted for the South Shore Line by Policy Analytics, an Indianapolis
research firm.

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Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@... or c/o the Chicago
Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent Getting Around
columns at www.chicagotribune.com/gettingaround
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

  by dinwitty
 
are they able to add trains, or are the number of cars stetched out for that?

  by byte
 
They're pretty much out of cars. It would take a couple years to get a new order of cars in (and by the time they get here, the Dan Ryan reconstruction would probably be done), so pretty much the only thing they could even try doing would be to juggle schedules at high-level boarding stations and use those Highliners they bought in revenue service, rather than for parts. Doubt that'll happen, though.

  by octr202
 
I remember seeing pictures years ago of leased/loaned Metra push pull equipment being used on the South Shore. Now, I know that today there are too many high-level platforms on the South Shore to make that easy to do again, but are there any other reasons that some single level coaches and diesels couldn't be used? (I'm not even getting into whether there's any out there to be leased/bought cheap, although Amtrak probably has the motive power available...)

  by byte
 
There are still quite a few low-level platforms on the system. However, in order to make it work, a couple things would need to be located:

-More ADA-compliant cars. All the cars Metra's selling off right now are bilevel, but lack the features necessary to be ADA compliant. At least one car per train on any potential South Shore diesel train would be needed, but I doubt Metra would be willing to give up any of theirs.

-Reliable locomotives. The P40/42s Amtrak has sitting around have either been mothballed for a while or are junk because they were driven into the ground. In either case, they would need work to be brought up to snuff before any service starts. Also, Genesis-series locomotives don't have very good acceleration for commuter service.

  by PRRGuy
 
I'm not too sure you'll ever see a straight diesel pulling a south shore train anytime soon, when it was done in the past, Randolph St was still an open staition. Now that it's under the park the ventilation isn't that great, as most of you that have been down there before know. When they fire up that wire work car thats parked down there you can barely breathe. If/when this west lake line gets off the ground they still need to address this concern.

  by doepack
 
byte wrote:There are still quite a few low-level platforms on the system. However, in order to make it work, a couple things would need to be located:

-More ADA-compliant cars. All the cars Metra's selling off right now are bilevel, but lack the features necessary to be ADA compliant. At least one car per train on any potential South Shore diesel train would be needed, but I doubt Metra would be willing to give up any of theirs.
I could be wrong, but I also doubt diesels are going to happen. Unless Metra has found other buyers for the remaining older highliners, I don't see why they couldn't sell (or perhaps "loan") a couple of the older ADA-compliant cars to South Shore, although if it were a loan, it would be long-term until the newer cars were delievered, but other than for parts, or just surplus equipment, Metra might not want the car back anyway. If Metra just lent them one car, it could theoretically be held captive in a six or eight car set of the old highliners the South Shore recently purchased, which could then make several trips a day between say, Gary and Chicago. Benefits of doing such would include augmenting the current schedule with the badly needed extra service, while serving the busiest stations on the system in between. Just a thought...

  by dinwitty
 
I can see the need to reduce running time, the MC NKP line runaround could drop some minutes in schedules, a quicker trip can free some car time and maybe add a train or two.

Chicago went away from steam hauled commuter service because of all the smoke, which is why IC electrified and the EL.
Guaranteed diesel operated trains a negative.

My only thought is to get some Light Rail cars to supplement the regular cars.

  by octr202
 
PRRGuy wrote:I'm not too sure you'll ever see a straight diesel pulling a south shore train anytime soon, when it was done in the past, Randolph St was still an open staition. Now that it's under the park the ventilation isn't that great, as most of you that have been down there before know. When they fire up that wire work car thats parked down there you can barely breathe. If/when this west lake line gets off the ground they still need to address this concern.

Right...thanks. I keep forgetting that, having read books and such with the station before it got covered. You'd think that I'd remember, having been there to ride the ME the last time I was in Chicago and all...

  by octr202
 
dinwitty wrote:My only thought is to get some Light Rail cars to supplement the regular cars.
How's that going to work? You can't run them on an FRA railroad.

  by Tadman
 
I always hated the fact they covered Randolph, until you guys reminded me a diesel couldn't run down there. The last thing I want to see is P42's under our wires. However, it'll be tough to work those highliners they way they only have one low-level trap. There is a set of about 6 sitting outside KYD, all in orange, pans down, for the last few weeks. Those driving past on 130th can see them.

  by byte
 
Actually, now that you mentioned Randolph being covered, there could be another problem - arcing. The new Highliners get pretty up close and personal with the wire, but if there wasn't a pan on top drawing current, I wonder if it would be safe to even put a regular bilevel down there that's the same height (although I might be just paranoid - most of the arcing stories usually come from the NEC, so I'm guessing AC has a tendency to arc more than DC).