Ridership surge: An aberration or a trend?

octr202 wrote:

dinwitty wrote:My only thought is to get some Light Rail cars to supplement the regular cars.

How's that going to work? You can't run them on an FRA railroad.

Wow, rules.

Note..ressurect the Northern Indiana Interurban...8-}

At this point in time, does NICTD have any ex-Metra Highliners?

Nope, we don't.

I wonder if anyone at NICTD remembers about 30 years ago when they were trying to get money to replace the "Orange Rattlers," and they had the option from Bombardier to purchase gallery cars like Metra Electric and they turned the idea down?

I bet they're probably kicking themselves now for that move!

Maybe not. The cars they got, while lacking capacity, seem to be more reliable, and have nicer interiors than the highliners. Up until recently, that's all they really needed.

I've seen pictures of a special trip with two of the IC highliners at the 11th street station and at shops. I believe those pictures were taken in the late 70's.

Believe the morning sun book has those pics, but I've seen them somewhere too. The old Donald Kaplan book states that NICTD and 1980-ish CSS management had them on a few-run trial and they just weren't in keeping with CSS operations or something like that. Of course, CSS circa 1980 was a pathetic property held together by some mighty dedicated people. CSS/NICD circa 2006 is booming by any mean, with more passengers than 1962.

I wouldn't be suprised if they legitimately weren't keeping schedules, though. The Highliners have those odd brakes that seem to work alright on the MED but with the unpredictability of the street-running segments of the South Shore, I don't think they'd want to risk running them there. Plus, no bathrooms. At that point the people riding the SS seemed a bit POed at management, because the cars were old, trains were packed, and fares were going up. No bathrooms would have been a public relations nightmare. They probably deemed it more worthwhile to design a new car from the ground up rather than to re-engineer the interior spaces and propulsion/braking systems of the IC cars.

time to buy an electric loco and borrow some plain ole passenger cars temporary?

throwing all kinds of ideas around.

byte wrote:I wouldn't be suprised if they legitimately weren't keeping schedules, though. The Highliners have those odd brakes that seem to work alright on the MED but with the unpredictability of the street-running segments of the South Shore, I don't think they'd want to risk running them there. Plus, no bathrooms.

If that's the case, then restrict their usage east of Gary. Otherwise, why couldn't a 6 or 8 car set of old Highliners be used strictly on Gary-Chicago runs? Doing so would allow some measure of additional service at the busy stations of E. Chicago, Hammond (both which have hi-level platforms IIRC) and Hegewisch, stations that are experiencing the brunt of the current spike in overall ridership. I'm sure Metra would be willing to sell or lend South Shore one of their ADA-compliant cars to be kept captive in that extra set for the cause. The lack of bathrooms would be a inconvenience true, but it's a small and temporary price to pay in return for the extra service provided...

In a semi-related note. High level platforms are scheduled to be built at hegewisch this summer, construction starting on August 1st.

doepack wrote:

byte wrote:I wouldn't be suprised if they legitimately weren't keeping schedules, though. The Highliners have those odd brakes that seem to work alright on the MED but with the unpredictability of the street-running segments of the South Shore, I don't think they'd want to risk running them there. Plus, no bathrooms.

If that's the case, then restrict their usage east of Gary. Otherwise, why couldn't a 6 or 8 car set of old Highliners be used strictly on Gary-Chicago runs? Doing so would allow some measure of additional service at the busy stations of E. Chicago, Hammond (both which have hi-level platforms IIRC) and Hegewisch, stations that are experiencing the brunt of the current spike in overall ridership. I'm sure Metra would be willing to sell or lend South Shore one of their ADA-compliant cars to be kept captive in that extra set for the cause. The lack of bathrooms would be a inconvenience true, but it's a small and temporary price to pay in return for the extra service provided...

Thats the good solution if they could borrow equipment.
Let the standard equipment be used for the longer hauls.
If a restroom was really needed, some extra car with one would be practical.

Face it, the probable expansion will require more cars and so far it looks like the demand at the moment isnt keeping up with the supply......

Obvious the new station is interiorized, but it would be good if there was an exterior platform in chicago for overflow.
If the train was dieselized and long enough the engine would be outside the interior area.
I 'll have to get a ride sometime and see all the new stuff.

dinwitty wrote:time to buy an electric loco and borrow some plain ole passenger cars temporary?

From where do you propose to buy a NICTD-compatible electric locomotive? (Here comes PRRGuy's suggestion to buy back the 803 from IRM ... ) It would be much easier to find an available HEP-equipped diesel to haul around standard coaches.

doepack wrote:Otherwise, why couldn't a 6 or 8 car set of old Highliners be used strictly on Gary-Chicago runs? ... I'm sure Metra would be willing to sell or lend South Shore one of their ADA-compliant cars to be kept captive in that extra set for the cause.

The old Highliners are ADA-compliant (sufficiently compliant, at least). The case in which an ADA-compliant car would need to be borrowed is if regular push-pull bilevels were borrowed from Metra's diesel lines, since the most "available" ones (the ex-C&NW Pullmans and the early stainless cars) are not wheelchair-accessible. As Metra's ridership is itself booming too, I'm not so sure they would be willing or able to give up any ADA cars.

dinwitty wrote:Obvious the new station is interiorized, but it would be good if there was an exterior platform in chicago for overflow.

Huh?

From where do you propose to buy a NICTD-compatible electric locomotive? (Here comes PRRGuy's suggestion to buy back the 803 from IRM ... )

Darn, you beat me to the point. Hey, how about that steeple cab buried in Michigan City then?

huh? buried? where?

On another note, I rode CSS tonight and there's no way an 8-car train of sumitomo trailers with a diesel on the South Bend end would have the diesel poke out of the tunnel at Randolph.

And would it be that tough to create a 1500vdc electric locomotive? MNCR has dual mode diesels, and while they aren't the best for electric running, eliminating the engine frees up a lot of space for larger and more robust components. Further, 1500v on CSS compared to 600v on MNCR means the components don't have to be the same size, as when your voltage goes up, the amperage drops.