The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) still hopes to open its new branch to Dyer sometime this summer.
Kelly Wenger with NICTD says three of the West Lake Corridor stations are about 95-percent complete. "We're just wrapping up CCTV and some emergency phone stuff at Hammond Gateway, which is the connecting station into the South Shore Line," Wenger told the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission's Transportation Committee on Tuesday. "They have to do some elevator commissioning, which, hopefully, will take place next week."
But the Munster/Dyer station at the south end of the branch is running behind. The railroad had to work with CSX to get an agreement to build an underpass, to gain access to build a new parking lot and finish the station.
Wenger said a jump span was installed on February 11. "They had a 12-hour outage, they threw it in real quick, and now, they're really moving like gangbusters out there. They love this warm weather," Wenger said.
At the same time, NICTD crews in Michigan City are rehabilitating 32 single-level rail cars to be used for the new service, although not all of them are expected to be ready for the branch's opening. Wenger said they're typically getting new walls, floors, seats and bathrooms.
"Their bones are in great shape, right? And you just hate to see something that's still structurally stable just tossed," Wenger said.
Twenty-six bi-level cars leased from Metra will take their place on the existing South Shore Line, which will be known as the Lakeshore Corridor.
The West Lake project also keeps the Monon Trail, which was built along the railroad right of way in Hammond and Munster. Wenger said that involved moving portions of the trail, plus saving and reinstalling the trail's bridge over the Little Calumet River.
"It's a pretty transformational project, and [we're] maintaining that bike access and not just doing away with it," Wenger added.
The West Lake Corridor will be called the Monon Corridor, to recognize the railroad which ran there in the past.
