NICTD (CSS& SB RR passenger) gave a presentation of the proposed reroute off middle of the street 11th & 10 th track right-of-way.
Most of the proposed routes take the passenger service to the North side of Michigan City.
One route is through the middle of City along the North side of the CXS right-of-way.
All of the Northern routes will displace a lot of homes and city buildings.
NONE of the proposed Northern Routes use the existing CSS freight track right-of way.
This track is exactly follows the proposed route from the West side of Michigan City and has access to Amtrak at the Amtrak station.
One proposal will tear down Michigan City Hall, Police station, the vacant News Dispatch building and Pet Food store.
Michigan City has been proposing the demolishing the police station and building a new one for years. Now they have the federal government paying for the move. By having the reroute needing that land.
Another proposal has the reroute over US RT 12 From the West side of M.C. to Trail Creek river.
one proposal would change US RT 12 from 4 lanes to 2 lanes.
Another proposal would remove homes on the south side of US RT 12 and move all 4 lanes South.
All of this proposals would cost about $160 Million.
All of the Northern Proposals would build a station on what was Franklyn Street access to Washington Park (or the middle of the city [E xW]). They will also buil
I like this alternative, for the most part. It leaves the railroad pretty much along its same alignment, and moves the downtown station a little closer to the outlet mall, which has to be the biggest draw in Michigan City these days. It has its problems, though, chief among which would be a leveling of a lot of buildings, including that church on the curve in the street east of the station. Lots of grade crossings are going to be eliminated with this one, which has to be to the good.
One other surprising thing is that this plan maintains an at-grade crossing with Amtrak’s high-speed main line. I’m a bit surprised that they don’t want to put the South Shore over the Amtrak line. It wouldn’t take as much of a grade as most grade separations, as the heavy freights are mostly to the west of this point (and the short, steep hills in the Michigan City streets are rather easily conquered by the CSS GP38-2s).
Sand will not cause any issues, not to mention that half of the proposed northern route will be along a power plant that goes all the way to the shore line, where no beach is present. The other half has a large creek and dune between the route and the shore line. As someone who has lived in the Indiana snow belt the last 5 years, moving the line a half mile closer to the lake will not negativity change the maintenance costs because of snow. I have yet to see a lake affect snow that had it snowing along the coastline in Michigan City, but not downtown. As a matter of fact, the new route should LOWER maintenance costs as a result of winter, since the trackage will no longer be subject to road salting, as the current route is.
It.s hard to understand why the Northern Routes would not use the existing CSS freight track right-of way. Would the Northern Routes have to deal with the waterway that Amtrak crosses on a swing bridge? Would they utilize the old N&W ROW?