The transformative West Lake Corridor project to run South Shore Line passenger trains between Dyer and Hammond has been delayed by some transformers damaged during an electrical storm.
After the storm in mid-August, one of the transformers sustained severe damage and another, in Hammond, showed damage as well.
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President and General Manager Michael Noland told the NICTD board Monday that service won’t start on that new rail line until the cause of that damage has been determined and can be resolved.
Previously, Noland had hoped service could begin at the end of the year or soon afterward.
“We’re not going to hit early January. Best case scenario, we’re looking at mid-January, end of January,” he said. “It could be several months after that.”
“We are not going to open up this line unless we know we’ve got a fully functional, valid, tested system,” he said.
“Transformers are all over the country. This is not an exotic piece of equipment,” Noland said. But the design of the transformer is different from what the railroad has used for decades, so the spare transformer in Michigan City isn’t a plug-and-play alternative to the ones damaged on the new route.
“We’re all trying to figure out why this damage occurred,” Noland said. If it happened once, it could happen again unless the cause is determined and addressed. Better to deal with it now than before service starts and riders are inconvenienced.
Local experts from the railroad and various companies have gone over the transformers to try to figure out why they’re damaged, and now the transformers are being shipped to the manufacturer for further analysis.
Noland likened the situation to Apollo 13, when everyone worked together to find a way to safely bring the astronauts back to Earth after an oxygen tank in the service module exploded.
Transformers, like firetrucks and ambulances, have a long lead time before the finished product is delivered. However, Noland expects the South Shore Line’s transformers to jump to the front of the production line instead of being treated like a new order.
If there’s a bright side to this new problem, it’s that the West Lake Corridor project is a design-build project. “The financial risk is not on us. This needs to be fixed by the contractor,” Noland told the board.
F.H. Paschen and Ragnar Benson, both based in Chicago, are working on this major project, which is costing more than $850 million.
If it’s a simple fix, the delay won’t be as long as it would be if the transformers had to be completely redesigned.
This isn’t the first hiccup that has delayed the project. Initially, Noland hoped service would begin by the middle of this year. Then it got pushed back until October because of a delay in getting an underpass built in Munster. Then it got moved to the end of this year or early next year because stray voltage needed to be corralled.
Passenger service won’t start until the rail line is thoroughly tested and employees trained, Noland said.
Even as the transformer issue remains unresolved, the railroad is doing what it can to prepare for opening day so service can start as soon as possible, he said.
Once the new north-south line opens along the route of the Monon Railroad, riders will be able to board trains in Dyer and head either directly to Chicago or to the new Hammond gateway station, where they will transfer to one of the trains serving the traditional route. “Most of the service on the Monon is going to be those shuttles,” Noland said, about 22 per day.
A new schedule will debut then, factoring in the time it takes passengers to get from one train to another at the Hammond station to complete their journey.
At Monday’s meeting, Jim Nowacki, of Gary, complained about missing a train from the Gary metro station. He was three minutes early, but the train left four minutes early. Later, he found out from a conductor that trains can leave a few minutes early if they’re running ahead of schedule.
“It sounds like a bad policy to me. I’m 71 years old. I’m rushing to catch a train,” Nowacki said.
Noland said that’s a longstanding policy followed by railroads across the United States. Trains can leave up to five minutes early. “We encourage our riders eastbound to be there early for the trains,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
