CHESTERTON — The South Shore Line’s ridership is on the same pace as other commuter trains in the nation as the industry rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We keep very close communication with the other commuter rail properties across the country. Our trends are around the same as everyone else,” South Shore President Mike Noland said during Monday’s Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Board meeting.
“Everyone is seeing the central business district, the 8-to-5 Monday through Friday, ridership is down, whereas the discretionary ridership is up. On average, everyone’s at about 50 percent.”
In terms of 2023 ridership, the South Shore had 210,914 total passengers through February. Ridership for that period in 2019, the last non-COVID year, was 448,635.
“We’re trending toward 50 percent recovery levels overall. That discretionary ridership, like we mentioned last month, is actually nearing 60 percent so we’re seeing an increase on the weekends,” said Nicole Barker, director of capital investment and implementation.
Noland added that last year they started at 25 percent and finished at 50 percent. “We’ve kind of plateaued. We’ll see what the summer brings.”
He told the board they recently had a presentation with an analyst from Jones Lang LaSalle, a major provider of office space development across the country, who indicated they are seeing people return to the office, but slowly.
“They monitor swipes on the elevators or the security coming out of buildings. For the first time since the pandemic, it’s north of 50 percent, which means people are starting to come back,” Noland said.
Across the country, he said, peak demand has been Tuesdays through Thursdays.
“Everyone’s got an opinion. I don’t know who’s right or wrong. I think the consensus is that it’s not likely we’re going to return to the 8-to-5, Monday through Friday template, that likely hybrid is here to stay.
“The debate is, will it be two days a week, three days...”
The South Shore, added Noland, has a different offering compared to other commuter agencies.
“They’re anchoring their hopes on the return to the business community and that robust environment,” Noland said. “We are substantially increasing our service and substantially reducing the amount of time to and from the marketplace. We’re not just providing the same thing we provided before.”
Noland noted that the Chicago area was recently acknowledged for being the most congested city in the country. “There’s opportunity there. That tells me there’s low-hanging fruit that’s still out there.
“With our enhanced service model, we have the opportunity to turn these numbers around. I for one am very bullish on the opportunities to restore the ridership to our system.”
Revenue through February was $1.36 million, compared to $1.02 million for the same period in 2022. Revenue for that period in 2019, the last non-COVID year, was $3.22 million.
“Some of the trends that we’re seeing is that 25 rides are trending downward and single rides are trending upward,” Barker said of ticket sales.
“As you can imagine with people commuting in different ways, they are using that package more often because they’re offered more flexibility right now.”
Digital ticket sales, so far in 2023, represent 75.3 percent of tickets sold and 78.9 percent of ticket revenue.
“We’re seeing the digital sales uptick again. We’re over 75 percent of tickets sold and that’s been creeping up, which is really exciting,” Barker said.
Ridership for the Chicago Auto Show, Feb. 11-20, was 4,409 this year compared to 3,570 in 2022. Ridership for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Chicago River Dyeing, on March 11, was 4,680 compared to 3,547 in 2022.
“The auto show, we had an increase in ridership over last year, which is fantastic,” Barker said. “The same thing goes for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We had pretty decent weather, albeit cold. We saw an uptick there as well.”
Through February, the South Shore’s total on-time performance was at 86 percent, compared to 85.4 percent for the same period in 2022. Through February, a total of 2,121 trains ran, with 1,825 of those on time.
The South Shore’s Bikes on Trains program will begin April 1, but not in Michigan City. “It’s a rough year because Double Track is happening, so just one more year where between South Bend and East Chicago we won’t be having bikes on trains in that segment. The remainder of the corridor will allow them,” Barker said.
Double Track NWI – which will add a second set of tracks and station improvements along a 26.6-mile stretch from Michigan City to Gary – is expected to open for service in spring of 2024.
“It’s with great excitement that we look towards next year when we will have various new stations that have never been able to accommodate bikes on trains that will come online to support the program, which has been blooming every year and getting larger and larger,” Barker said.
A newly designed website is also in store.
“This has been something that we and our marketing firm, Group7even, have been working very hard on. Everyone on the railroad is doing their final review of content and we hope to roll it out next month,” Barker said.
The new website will offer a search feature that is not possible with the technology on the current website. And it will be much easier to navigate, she said.
“We think this will dramatically help people find the information that they need, as fast as possible. So, A – they reduce their frustration; and B – they can reduce the number of calls they have to send our way.”
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