Extensive upgrades to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's South Shore passenger line will bring improved efficiency to a railway that got its start more than a century ago.

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The South Shore line runs from the South Bend

Regional Airport to the Randolph Street Station in Chicago, serving Indiana's northwest counties along the south shore of Lake Michigan as well as Chicago's Loop. It is the last of what was once a vast network of electric interurban railways spanning the eastern and Midwestern states. The passenger cars are propelled by an overhead electric catenary system.

In 2005, the South Shore line saw 3.8 million passengers, a 7.3 percent increase over the previous year and the most since 1961.

NICTD owns the right-of-way for 75 of those miles from South Bend to Kensington-a with the route continuing for the remaining 14 1/2 mi. on Metra lines. The upgrades involve only the South Bend to Kensington route.

The approximately $105 million project includes a three-phased signal modernization project currently under way in preparation for a three-phased catenary system upgrade. Work also includes a systemwide fiber-optics network that will allow for centralized traffic control and serve as a communications backbone for present and future rail services.

Once all work is complete in 2010, riders can expect fewer service disruptions due to catenary system failure and also faster recovery from any type of disruption, said Victor Babin, chief electrical engineer with NICTD. Problems such as those experienced after a severe ice storm in 1998 will be eliminated. That storm brought down 20 mi. of signal wire, disrupting rail service for two weeks.

Humble Beginnings

The South Shore line began in 1903 as a streetcar operator between Indiana Harbor and East Chicago.

By 1908, the line stretched across northern Indiana, extending 69 mi. from Hammond to South Bend. Utility tycoon Samuel Insull purchased the railroad at public auction in June 1925, upgrading the cars and stations to encourage ridership to the Indiana Dunes and lakes of North Central Indiana.

Rail use skyrocketed during World War II as people used the transit system to commute to factories and steel mills along the south shore of Lake Michigan.

But then a strong postwar economy saw the construction of highways, scores of returning veterans moving to the suburbs and an increased dependence on the automobile, which resulted in a slow decline of the railway system. By 1977, the Indiana General Assembly had created the NICTD to rescue the ailing South Shore.

The line became publicly owned in 1990 when the state of Indiana and the federal government stepped in to help the NICTD purchase the track, right-of-way and other assets used in passenger service. The rail line is now in the hands of the public sector and profit is no longer a motivator for providing rail service.

Getting Ready

The South Shore line's overhead catenary system, designed in 1908, saw its last major upgrade in the 1920s, Babin said. While it was long overdue for an overhaul, a modernization of the line's signal system was required before the catenary system could receive the needed attention.

Preliminary steps included a $1.9 million catenary sectionalization project, completed in 2004, that allowed for a redistribution of the power supply to the double track sections of the line between Gary and Kensington.

Previously, if power was cut to one track for maintenance purposes, the second track would lose power as well, eliminating the possibility of any rail travel on that section.

The signal system upgrade-which replaces the old signalization system with a centralized traffic-control system-was broken into three geographic phases, with work starting on the 17-mi. Gary to Kensington section. This $31.5 million phase is expected to be complete by June with phases two and three to follow.

When complete, phase one signalization and train control work will allow for dispatchers to remotely disengage a track and route trains to the parallel track. The change will also allow for freight traffic to be diverted onto sidings, bypassing passenger stations. Once freight traffic can be moved away from passenger stations, new high-level boarding platforms can be built, which help expedite passenger movement on and off the trains.

The installation of 145 mi. of fiber-optic cable-also part of phase one-includes both buried and overhead lines, providing a redundancy to ensure service if there is a disruption to either line. The upgrade will allow for the use of electronic signage both in the rail cars and at stations, providing real-time updates of arrival and departure times. The technology will also give the district a systemwide data network for its enterprise network.

Subsequent signalization project phases will include installation of remotely controlled switches that can send a train onto a siding - or "passing lane" - when a train is passing in the opposite direction.

Phases two and three will be defined geographically and include sections from Gary Michigan to City (phase two) and Michigan City to South Bend (phase three).
Divane Bros. Electric. Co. of Franklin Park, Ill., and Southwest Signal Engineering Co. of Jacksonville, Fla., paired up on the design-build signalization project.

The redundancy in the fiber-optics cable design was crafted well after the initial design was proposed, said Ed Morley, sponsor/division manager with Divane Bros, and represented a "radical change" from the first design. The decision to install both overhead and underground lines means a highly reliable and fast network and was a "pro-future" application, he added.

Rerouting the Wires

The signalization work under way paves the way for replacement of the trains' new catenary system.

The current "fixed termination" catenary system relies on four wires suspended over each track that provide current-carrying capabilities and a point of contact between the train and the overhead wires. As the system has aged, the wires have become worn, making them susceptible to breakage.

During extreme cold temperatures, worn wires can contract and break. In extreme heat, wires can expand and sag, often drooping so much that the wires become entangled at siding cross-points and disengage from the train.

The new "constant tension" catenary system reduces overhead contact wires from four to two and moves the current-carrying capacity wires to feeder cables on the side of the track instead of above, NICTD's chief electrical engineer Badin said. Side support structures mounted along the sides of the tracks are auto-tensioned with weights that respond to temperature changes, compensating for weather-triggered expansion and contraction.

The catenary project - which will be put out to bid in three phases this month - is expected to be complete by 2010. It will be bid as a straight construction project, after a preapproved design.

Sidebar : New Rail Line Proposed for West Lake County, Ind.

Studies are currently under way for a new Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District rail line serving the west side of Lake County from Chicago to Munster via Hammond, then on to Valparaiso with a spur to Lowell.

At full build-out, the line, dubbed the West Lake Corridor, would be 48.4 mi. from Chicago to Valparaiso, with an additional 19 mi. to Lowell.

The new line, prompted by the need for alternative transportation methods amidst growing gridlock as well as rising fuel process, could be in operation as soon as 2009.

The route is still in the early study phase, said John Parsons, NICTD marketing and planning director. Alternative alignments are being examined now, with a preferred alignment expected to be selected this summer.

A request to the Federal Transit Administration will be made in late summer for NICTD to enter into the preliminary engineering phase.

The cost of the line is far from final, but a 1999 feasibility study set the cost at $340 million.

-S.B.

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