This Sunday, February 27, 2022, will be the last day of operations within a public street of an interurban railroad in Michigan City, Indiana. The South Shore Line has operated in this street from the beginning of its days, which has continued through a series of owners and name changes over the years. The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) has been operating the line since the 1980s, with modern equipment purchased from Japan. The line will be rebuilt, staying within the street right of way, but will be open track and having public access as needed via minor single lane roadways.

The overall project is described here:
https://www.doubletrack-nwi.com/

Below, more photos taken on Feburary 23 by Jim Burd that have been shared by Les Beckman.

Boy those are long trains. Are there really that many passengers?

If I understand correctly, only the 11th Street portion is closing at this time. The shorter 10th Street section is remaining open for now. No trains though..... To be replaced with busses starting Monday.

I am surprised to see they tore down the 11th Street depot. I thought the plan was to keep the facade from it and use it to build a new station onto? Maybe it was structurally impossible to do that.

Anyway.... From a couple years ago.

The plans that I saw online recently involved redevelopment of the area the station building stood in, but that the facade was being saved and would be re-erected as part of that new development.

EDIT - found a link that shows the location of the reconstructed facade....

https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local ... 8372d.html

One way or another, the news filtered back to guys at various railway museums.

Here is a summary of an excursion by Frank Hicks and a few other fellows from IRM:
https://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2022/02/gone-railfanning.html

And here is a visit to see it in operation by the gang from Hoosier Heartland Trolley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt6XkUCS_04

Wow, they're really moving there!

Please clarify.

Renderings of the development of the Michigan City station show street trackage on a center reservation r/w.

Is this the end of traditional interurban street running in Michigan City with tracks to be relocated as shown?

Is there a bypass around Michigan City that allows continued through passenger service to South Bend?

Thank you.

Wesley

The answers to your questions, in detail, can be found on one of the 24+ web pages that link from the referenced address in my first post. I recall there were issues with considering a bypass that led to retaining operation in the ROW of the street. To increase capacity, most of the street is being vacated.

Sometimes artistic renderings are accurate, but this image may help you:

The very last train *I* photographed on that stretch a couple years ago was that long and had BILEVEL coaches...........................

"Shops" in Michigan City is at the east end of the street running. It's where trains heading east had cars taken off, and trains west had cars added. Going west from Michigan City, the number of passengers boarding increases markedly increases.

Like others, I am a little confused.
If they're rebuilding it, does this mean it's going a totally different direction? Is it still going to be some street running or not?
Looking at the older shots (great b/w night shots, by the way), I can imagine anyone living along those streets would have an easy time to get around on days when the streets are icy or it's bad out. I couldn't imagine living in a place where the trains would stop well within a small kid's baseball throw from your front door.

SEPTA still has street running on both its Media and Sharon Hill lines. Whether you consider these to be interurbans is your call.

SEPTA's Norristown Line (P&W) did not have street running on its own track but cars could continue onto LVT (Lehigh Valley Transit) street running in Norristown. LVT cars ran on P&W from Norristown to 69th St. Terminal until 1951 (Trolley Freight only 1949-1951). There is no street running on the ex-P&W today.

Phil Mulligan