I just heard on NPR that the South Shore expects to board its four millionth passenger for 2006 sometime tomorrow (December 12). The last year that ridership exceeded four million was in 1957.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit.  It has always been a heavily used rail line.  Actually, it is one of the last surviving interurban trolley lines.

 

Thanks for passing along the good news. 

Thanks for the update on this awesome RR, rob... I've read that CSS&SB is being stretched to the limits by the traffic increase and is strapped for equipment.  I guess the double-tracking btw Gary and Michigan City should help things, but more cars are apparently needed... I know, in the early 90s, METRA was leasing some of its diesels and double-deck cars for South Shore rush hour runs.  I also read South Shore may, in its next batch, begin ordering double-deck cars similar to Metra cars.  This should help...

 

... I guess congestion for a great transit line like this one is, in many ways, a good thing.

The lease of Metra trainsets may have been to assure capacity during the transition from the old Insull-era cars that were falling apart and beyond maintenance, and the replacements that were arriving. The old cars were crap on wheels, and the Randolph Street facility was a pit.

 

 

 

 

Things have improved quite a lot:

 

 

The last I heard, they plan to order (or maybe have ordered) 14 new cars. I think at least some are double-deck. It seems to me that I read someplace that they plan to add a couple of rush-hour trains.

 

I'd like to see them get four-quadrant crossing protection so that they could kick the speeds up. The cars can make 90mph without strain, much of the track is good for it, and west of Miller there are long stretches of open-country running. Typically, they run around 70mph most of the time now, but on one late-night train returning to Michigan City from Chicago, I was hanging around the front of the first car where I could see out the front windows, and the speed indicator in the cab was hovering around 90 as we passed milepost 37. The ride was steady and the train sailed smoothly right through the curve by the cement-block factory without losing very much speed.

 

Back in the day, they used to run expresses between South Bend and Chicago. Maybe the ridership on that end of the line will eventually get back up to where they can do it again.

Damn, 90 mph? Damn!

Damn, 90 mph? Damn!

 

That probably happens with some regularity, late at night. The crews go off duty at Michigan City, so even the trains that run through to South Bend pick up new crews. The last timed station stop is at Dune Park, and the quicker the crews get to Carroll Avenue, the quicker they can go home.

 

I've thought about taking my radar gun up there some night to see how fast they go. MP37 is behind Al & Sally's Motel, west of Michigan City on the north side of US 12. The nearest cross street (crossing now closed) is Kansas. The trains there are about ten minutes west of Carroll Avenue.

 

It's a neat spot to watch trains at night in winter, after a fresh snowfall. The snow muffles the sound as the trains approach, and then billows into the air as they rush by. You can hear the catenary sing as the pantographs wipe it. To me, it's almost as dramatic as steam but without the cinders.

 

Al & Sally's isn't too bad accomodations for hardcore railfans; it's not fancy, more a place that does a lot of weekly business with construction crews, etc. It sits less than a hundred feet from the tracks with no intervening structures, and you can see trains from the rear windows. Passenger trains run from about 4 a.m. westbound to about 2 a.m. eastbound, and there's a long freight that runs some nights after midnight.

 

Al & Sally are probably long gone, and I think the people who run the motel now are Russians. There are two buildings; the older one in the same building with the office is a masonry building with steam heat, nice & cozy. The other (detached) building is cinder block with noisy forced-air heat, and I like it less. In winter, it never seems to get really warm. The motel is showing its age, but it's not a dump.

Reminds me of the old days living in Chesterton, Indiana and taking the South Shore into Chicago.  I was always amazed at how extensive that line was. 

One day in the early 90s when the girlfriend had a Chicago all afternoon conference, I snuck my 1st, an only (to date) South Shore ride.  What a thrill.  I don't doubt those trains -- much newer then -- can fly at 90.  Having been used to the usually slow-to-cruising, frequent-stop commuter trains of Philly, it was awesome to move at such great speeds.  I only had time for to get to the Gary Metro Center and head back (knocked down a beer at the bar/restaurant attached to the station waiting for the return trip back).  Maybe someday I can make it all the way -- or at least to Michigan City w/ its famed street trackage.