Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District

The South Shore Line will run extra trains Saturday for the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade and dyeing of the river.

Between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, South Shore trains will arrive and depart from tracks 5 and 6. That's on the lower level of the station, typically used by Metra trains.

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) still hopes to open its new branch to Dyer sometime this summer.

Some South Shore Line trains will make an extra stop for the Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting.

For the next two weekends, westbound trains will stop at McCormick Place on request between 10:06 a.m. and 6:46 p.m. Certain weekday trains will also stop at McCormick Place next week and again on Presidents' Day, February 17.

The past five years have brought big changes to the South Shore Line's ridership patterns but also to private-sector development along the rail line.

"We are working with the contractor to try to make sure that they bring that schedule back to something that we believe is reasonable," Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President Mike Noland told the NICTD board Monday.

South Shore Line riders can expect schedule adjustments and a fare hike in the coming months.

"Sheffield Avenue has a center turn lane down the whole entire way," said Town Manager David Hein. "It's not necessarily needed each and every section, so there is some suggestion to do landscaping in the middle to kind of break it up to give it a new look, to kind of make it look like it's revitalized."

The South Shore Line service was disrupted for much of the day Wednesday, due to overhead wire damage near Hammond.