Gary residents got their first look Tuesday night at a plan to speed up and improve the South Shore Line's service between Northwest Indiana and Chicago.
More than 70 people gathered at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts in the Miller section of Gary to learn more about the South Shore's project to build a second set of tracks between Gary and Michigan City.
Before and after a presentation about the plan, they clustered around displays on various aspects of the plan, especially in the Miller area.
The South Shore is applying for a federal grant to pay half of the project's estimated $210 million cost, and it will seek the Indiana legislature's support for the rest.
"It's an exciting proposal," commuter Julia Gibbs said. "I'm all for increased train travel. Getting more people off the roads is always good."
She wanted to know more, though, how the double-track plan would affect the Miller-area infrastructure and sensitive environmental areas along the route.
Ezekiel Flannery, another frequent South Shore rider, wondered what the new station in Miller would look like.
And Mark Diaz asked how, as the planners claim, new tracks between Michigan City and Gary would cut the travel time from Gary to Chicago.
They offered their thoughts after hearing Janice Reid, with HDR Consulting, describe the double-track project's features and benefits.
The new set of tracks would be built from Tennessee Street in Gary to Michigan Boulevard in Michigan City. Trains could pass each other more easily with the second set of tracks, and the South Shore's service would be quicker and more reliable, Reid said.
The project would move part of a state highway. A new track alignment for the expanded Miller station platform would use part of the current U.S. 12 route in Miller, so U.S. 12 would re-routed south to U.S. 20 around the Miller area.
New high-level boarding platforms would be built at the Miller and Portage/Ogden Dunes stations, to make it easier to get on and off the trains
Four current South Shore bridges, including two in the Miller area, would be replaced with new spans.
Trains would still run through the middle of Michigan City, but the tracks would no longer be embedded in the streets. Fourteen street crossings there – none of which have warning gates or lights – would be closed, and vehicle traffic on 11th Street would be one-way eastbound.
In a 20-minute video on the project, business and community leaders said faster train service to and from Chicago with the double-track project would make Northwest Indiana's cities and towns "communities of choice for millennials."
"I think it's a good plan," Miller resident Sargent Rounds said afterward. "I think it will help Gary."
He doesn't ride the train often, Rounds said, but he believes improved service would attract more residents to the area.
Michael Noland, the South Shore Line's president and general manager, urged those who support the proposed plan to contact their legislators.
"If you're interested in this project," he said, "you need to be heard."