South Shore Line officials seek input on double tracking project

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. - The South Shore Line hosted a public hearing open house Thursday night to collect comments from folks who would be affected by the Michigan City double tracking project. 

The South Shore Line says it would only take one hour and four minutes to travel from 11th Street Station in Michigan City to Millenium Station in Chicago (as opposed to the current one hour and 41 minutes) if the federal government approves the plan.

The game changer in the plan is transitioning the single track to a double track--which would affect South Bend residents regardless of whether or not the South Bend project moves forward.

"The goal has always been 90 minutes from South Bend, and so we have the South bend project that we're working with the city of South Bend on, when you couple that, when we finish that and figure out how that's going to happen, we can get to 90 minutes from South Bend...with the single tracks bottlenecks, one thing happens and the whole things shuts down," said South Shore Line President, Michael Noland.

Noland says that with just the 25 miles of double-tracking from Gary to Michigan City, they decrease the commute from South Bend to Chicago to about one hour and forty-five minutes.

The South Shore Line submitted its Environmental Assessment to the federal government a few weeks ago, so now they're just waiting for approval.

Michigan City neighbors have mixed reactions to the project.

"My property will be just north of the platform and it's going to impact us because the side streets are going to be vacated or blocked, and we're kind of worried about what that's going to affect our property in the front," said Marvin Guenther, who lives in Michigan City

"I t.hink it's very good, and it's going to cut 35 minutes off of that ride from Michigan City to downtown Chicago, and at the time I was riding, it serviced 6,000 people a day into the city, so that's a big savings of time for everybody." said David Wright, who also lives in Michigan City.

To see the South Shore Line's Environmental Assessment, click here.

You have until October 23 to submit any comments.