Gooey leaves on the rails have caused the South Shore Line’s on-time performance to plummet in November, leaving railroad officials scrambling for additional ways to address the problem.
Assistant Chief Transportation Officer Sara Krga said the railroad is doing better than last year, 88 wheels damaged by slipping last November compared to 28 so far this month.
“Last year at this time, we really struggled through the leaf season,” President and General Manager Michael Noland said.
Krga walked the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board through ways the railroad is trying to lessen the impact.
“It’s a really a phenomenon that’s primarily, not exclusively, limited to our single-level cars,” Noland said.
Bilevel cars are heavier and are not affected as much as single-level cars, Krga said. Single-level trains are running at 65 mph vs. 79 mph for the bilevel cars, slowing to 45 mph for flag stops so the trains can stop in time if there’s a rider waiting.
When a wheel slips and slides, it develops a flat spot. When that happens, federal rules require the train speed to be limited to 10 mph, Noland said, so another train has to be brought in to finish the route while the train with the damaged wheel limps back to the shop to be repaired.
The railroad is getting better at recovery times, Noland said, but wants to get even better.
“We took a lot of information from last year and really tried to get ahead of it this year,” Krga said, including a lot of ride-alongs with the engineers.”
This year, the railroad purchased a brush affixed to the front of a train to scrub off leaf and oil residue.
The South Shore Line’s counterpart in Boston has a special schedule for leaf season, which is something that might be done here next year, Noland said. “We’re not unique in running into leaf spots.”
Another possibility is to drop a ton of money into a laser train to burn off the leaf residue on the rails. Or the railroad could use a high-powered water sprayer on the front of the train, effectively power-washing the rails.
Among the comments Noland has received is, “You guys have been running for 108 years, why are you just seeing this now?” It’s because of the Double Track NWI project allowing more trains to run and on a tighter schedule. “We’re running to the full capacity of the RR, and this is one of the byproducts we’ve identified,” Noland said.
Although on-time performance has plummeted this month, ridership and ticket numbers are improving over last year, Director of Strategic Planning and Grants Kelly Wenger said.
“Overall, I think, we’re looking very good, very strong,” she said.
Fares increased on July 1 for the first time in years. Despite the increase, ticket sales are up 19.2% over last year, Wenger said.
Revenue is up 30.5%, she said, with digital sales accounting for nearly 93% of total sales.
Ridership is up 16.5% over 2024, including a 20.9% increase on weekends.
“It’s a really nice increase, this year over last year. It’s a really strong recovery year for us,” Wenger said.
One statistic she’s tracking is the number of bikes on trains in winter months. So far this year, 9,118 riders have taken bikes on trains compared to 6,338 in all of 2024. Last winter, 302 hardy souls took bikes on the train in February.
Getting bikes on trains is easier now, with two slots for bikes on every car so people can get on and off faster, Wenger said.
Noland took time to express pride in the South Shore Line’s planned start of the Monon Corridor – formerly known as the West Lake Corridor – route in March.
New starts usually start slow and build up service as demand increases, but this one is different. “We have always said that WL starts out with five trips in the morning and five trips coming back,” Noland said.
In addition, the railroad is adding a two-car shuttle train to take riders from Munster/Dyer to Hammond so riders can board trains along the traditional route, now called the Lakeshore Corridor, Noland said.
The railroad will have full off-peak and weekend service on the Monon Corridor route, too, he said.
A schedule for the Monon Corridor route has been posted on the South Shore Line website so riders can make plans for child care and whatever other adjustments they need to ride the new service when the trains begin operating.
“We’re excited to get this piece of info out to the public,” Noland said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.