The price of a basic ticket to ride the South Shore Line will rise 10% on July 1, part of an effort, along with state assistance, to temporarily provide the commuter railroad the wherewithal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" threatening many transit systems in the post-COVID era.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved the fare increase, the railroad's first since 2018.
The State of Indiana's assistance is available for the next two fiscal years, including $26 million from an account created for initial operations of the new West Lake Corridor line, and as much as $30 million more from state coffers, as needed. South Shore President Michael Noland said the first available tranche of the latter money would total about $12.5 million, and expressed hope that would be all the railroad would need the next couple years.
The $26 million is administered through a governance agreement covering the West Lake and Double Track NWI projects, and still needs approval from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
Beyond mid-2027, NICTD will work with state leaders to develop a long term, structural funding solution, Noland said. By that time, NICTD could be contemplating another fare increase of its own, returning to a COVID-dashed 2018 initiative to consider an increase every two years.
"We'll always work on keeping our expenses down, but you have to have some kind of an operating plan, and the state wants to see that as well," Noland said.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton voted against the fare increase, stating concerns about the economics underlying a plan for regular fare increases. In addition to the railroad's capital projects, expected to continue to promote ridership, Melton mentioned the potential for interstate highway tolling, and its impact — clearly expected to be positive — on ridership.
The 10% rise in fares will be rounded to the nearest quarter dollar, and the discounts for 10-ride and 25-ride tickets will be increased, reducing the impact on them. The South Shore will also discontinue its buy-one, get-one-free deal on monthly tickets, put in place during the pandemic.
The current fare increase will raise revenue by $1.25 million to $1.5 million annually, Noland said.
West Lake Corridor
The long anticipated southward extension of rail service through Hammond and Munster will need to remain in a state of anticipation a couple months longer than thought, Noland reported at Wednesday's meeting.
The original hope, for service to start this month, was extended into late October by a bridge project at the Munster/Dyer station. And now, a contractor's oversight is requiring a redo of work along the rail line to install equipment to mitigate the residual electrical current that can escape the system and potentially corrode metal in nearby utilities.
"It's low voltage current, but it needs to stay on our right-of-way," Noland said. Installation of isolation pads will require "taking up some work that was already completed, and then putting in the proper isolation, and then putting the track back in."
Railroad officials and contractors are still determining the best way to proceed with that, Noland said. "We're holding the contractor accountable. We'll make sure it happens."
The bridge project at the Munster/Dyer Main Street Station is to take Main Street under the CSX freight railroad tracks running parallel to the new commuter railroad, in order to give motorists and pedestrians access to the parking lot and station on the west side of the tracks.
Work to install that bridge began late Tuesday and was expected to be completed late Wednesday.
The new goal for completion of West Lake is the end of this year.
Other projects
This month marks one year since the railroad's Double Track project was substantially completed. Early months of low on-time performance led to schedule changes that has gone far in solving the problem, South Shore officials say.
They touted weekly on-time performance percentages of 31.9% for the week of May 13, 2024, rising to 74.1% for the week of May 12, 2025. Trains arriving within 10 minutes of arrival time rose from 46.7% for the 2024 week to 86.6% for the week in 2025.
The last major Double Track project to be completed is the Michigan City 11th Street Station, which is expected to open to the public in June, along with its parking garage.
In Chicago, the South Shore's Metra Track 4 project, adding a fourth track to Millennium Station and doing upgrades at Millennium and Van Buren Street stations, is scheduled for completion at the end of next year. The project — at $200 million the third largest in the railroad's history — is being done to accommodate the extra trains the South Shore will be running.
NICTD is also continuing to plan for a move of the South Bend International Airport station to the west side of the terminal, and realigning tracks into and out of the airport, to speed trips there.
The funding goal for the $112 million project is half from the federal government, a quarter from the state, and the other quarter from a combination of South Shore funds — $6 million — and $22 million from local sources.
Officials hope to have the state and local half secured, with engineering and environmental studies complete, if and when the U.S. Department of Transportation issues a notice of funding availability.
"I don't have a crystal ball as to when that's going to happen or what it's going to be, but we certainly want to be in a position that when it happens, we have our A game ready to go," Noland said.
Strategic planning
NICTD is also in the early stages of a process to create a new 20-year strategic plan. It's so far done employee and passenger surveys, and is preparing to issue a public, online survey June 5.
The intention is to gather input on service levels, potential rail line extensions and new lines, and other input on why people ride the train — or what would encourage them to do so.