South shore expansion ?

Trains Magazine Transit
1

Some business leaders getting behind a passed expansion. For Indiana quite a fete ?

http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/south-shore-proponents-lay-tracks-for-expansion/article_a43e1704-bc0a-5a12-8fe3-03ed48d7a860.html

2

Evidently there may be some progress and partial funding is proposed to extend SS to Dyer. A reroute of Hoosier/Cardinal might occurr and speed up times IND <> CHI ?

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/south-shore-seeks-million-for-expansion/article_f706a214-47a0-521c-8bdc-ce13668febbb.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share

3

A re-route of the “Hoosier State/Cardinal” would be highly unlikely. Trackage from downtown Hammond to State Line would need to be restored for an expansion of South Shore service but the CWI between State Line and near 112th and Torrence was taken up years ago.

4

There is a bike trail that loops south of the cuurent line thru Portage that I beleive was part of the J could they use this?http://www.traillink.com/trail/prairie-duneland-trail.aspx

5

If it’s currently a bike trail, lots of luck trying to reclaim it for rail use.

Chuck (bicycle-riding railfan, retired)

6

SS doesn’t have a route to Union Station. It terminates in the former IC’s (Metra) Randolph St terminal. They could make a connection at State Line with the NS (the old C&WI track past th Ford Plant is gone) but who would pay for or justify that for one train a day.

7

The SS line does have switches at Kensington to get onto the ex-IC main line, from which the St. Charles Air Line could be used. I doubt it would be a practical daily routing.

8

Why?

9

I think the response is to state a method the Cardinal could use to reach Union Station if it was routed onto the South Shore using the old Monon ROW between the Grand Trunk and the SS.

10

Going back to the proposed SS expansion to Dyer, according to this NWI article from 2015 concerning the proposed routing, it looks like they plan to do just that, reclaiming, I guess, what’s listed as the “Monon” trail on Google maps (coupled with the Erie Lackawanna trail thru Calumete City).