CHESTERTON, Ind. — The completion of the South Shore Line’s new West Lake Corridor branch will depend on construction of an underpass beneath CSX Transportation tracks, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board was told this week.
Lakeshore Public Media reports NICTD President Mike Noland said at a Monday, Nov. 25, board meeting that the underpass for Main Street in Dyer, Ind., will connect a parking lot to the southernmost station on the four-station, 8-mile branch, Munster/Dyer. Approval for that project has just been received from CSX, he said, and the contractor’s current schedule calls for completion in September 2025. That would push the opening of the line back from its longtime target of May 2025, but Noland said NICTD is working with the contractor to find ways to speed up the timeline.
“I’m not going to give up on May,” Noland told the board. “If it’s end of May or beginning of June or sometime in that time frame, we’ll see where it winds up.”
The $945 million project is about 90% complete, Noland said. The new Hammond Gateway station, which relocated the existing Hammond facility to accommodate the connection with the branch, opened in October [see “South Shore opens new Hammond, Ind., station,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 18, 2024].
The branch will known as the Monon Corridor when operations begin, and will offer nonstop peak-period service to and from Chicago, with shuttle service to Hammond during non-peak hours. More details on the project are available here.
