By Jon Siedel, Post-Tribune staff writer
PORTAGE — The South Shore Railroad saw a “perfect storm” of ridership last week, the general manager of Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District said Tuesday.
What’s worse, Gerald R. Hanas said, he expects these extraordinary days will soon become ordinary.
Hanas made the comments at a special informational meeting of the Regional Development Authority while discussing NICTD’s plans for the future.
Those plans include a 12-doubledecker-car fleet expansion to accommodate the growing ridership.
“It’s a modest expansion, quite frankly,” Hanas said, adding that he’d like to see 18 cars added eventually.
Hanas said he has made a formal request to the RDA for $7.8 million to help with that expansion, as well as a request for $31.2 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality fund.
He said he’s hoping answers on both might come in the next few months, and that the cars would be added to the line in two years.
INDOT would have to make a decision first, Hanas said.
“We cannot buy these additional cars without some outside help,” Hanas said.
While pointing to a 10 percent increase so far in ridership this year, Hanas told the RDA that the combination of Dan Ryan Expressway construction, spring break and the beginning of baseball season created a difficult situation last week.
The cars NICTD wants to add would have two levels of seats. The order would be tagged on to an existing order for production by Metra Railroad, a commuter train company in the Illinois suburbs.
Hanas said that at about 130 seats per car, they would only have a slight advantage over the South Shore’s current ones.
Tagging onto Metra’s order, however, would make for more efficient production, Hanas said.
William Sheldrake, president of Policy Analytics LLC, also made a presentation to the board about the potential for population and employment growth in the Chicago area.
He was met with some skepticism from RDA member Ned Ruff when he said the expansion of the South Shore Line could create more jobs in Northwest Indiana.
RDA member Harley Snyder explained, however, that an expansion of the South Shore could mean a bigger population, which could mean more businesses, which would mean more jobs.