south shore line

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.

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

Nighttime South Shore Line trains will be replaced by buses between Gary and Michigan City. The railroad says the busing will take place between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. through Saturday night.

"We're having days when we're 60-percent on-time, and early in the summer, we were reporting 25-percent OTP, which is not good," Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President Mike Noland told the NICTD board last month. "And we're not satisfied at 60 percent."

The South Shore Line will provide service to the Indiana University-Notre Dame College Football Playoff game December 20. Shuttle buses will take passengers from the South Bend Airport station to the IU School of Medicine building on the Notre Dame campus.