Truth Staff
SOUTH BEND -- Talk of privatizing the South Shore has some pointing to the commuter service's bottom line and questioning what private company would want it.
Despite ridership reaching 2.02 million in the opening six months of 2006, about a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2005, the rail line relies on state and federal money for half its operating budget.
"It's not a candidate for making money," said John Schalliol, executive director of the South Bend Regional Airport. "They don't make money. They use other people's money to run the railroad."
Which is why Schalliol cannot in his "wildest dreams" imagine any private company would be willing to buy or lease the South Shore.
David Niezgodski does not even want to think about a privately held company taking over operations.
"The more we sell or lease off, the more someone else controls us," said the board chairman of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District which operates the South Shore. "It would be a terrible thing to even research this any further."
The electric interurban, which begins at the South Bend airport and ends at the Randolph Street station in downtown Chicago, started as a private operation in 1903. By the mid 1970s, the company then running the rail line was teetering on bankruptcy so the Indiana Legislature stepped in to save the South Shore.
The result was creation of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, a municipal corporation operated by the four counties -- St. Joseph, Lake, Porter and LaPorte -- which the rail line traverses.
By 1989, NICTD had taken over passenger operations and in 1990, the organization used state and federal funds to purchase the rail line's assets such as maintenance facilities, track and stations.
Today, NICTD receives about 50 percent of its operating budget from passenger fares and the other 50 percent from state and federal subsidies, said John Parsons, NICTD spokesman.
"We believe we're probably recovering a reasonable percentage of operating costs, if not more than reasonable, from our passengers," he said.
A private company taking over the South Shore would have to raise ticket prices to keep the line running and make it profitable, said Niezgodski.
Consequently, he estimated the fares would have to increase at least two or three times their current rate, bumping the cost of a one-way ticket from South Bend to Chicago from the current $10.55 to about $33 or more.
More than a mode of transportation, the rail line is vital to the region's economy, Parsons said. He pointed to a 2004 study which documented South Shore commuters who work in the Windy City bring $230 million in wages back to northern Indiana.
"We're the means of providing access to high-paying jobs in Chicago," Parsons said.