South Bend-Chicago travel is even faster as South Shore Line finishes project

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Two tracks are better than one.

That’s the idea behind the South Shore Rail Line’s Double Track Project.

The difference the project will make is reflected in a new train schedule that will take effect on May 14th.

The new schedule adds 14 additional trains to the mix systemwide. It adds one additional weekday round trip between South Bend and Chicago.  Instead of five a day, there will be six.

As for travel time, on average, a South Shore trip between South Bend and Chicago now takes more than two and a half hours.  The Double Track Project will cut that to two hours, or to one hour and 49 minutes, using the express train with limited stops.

“We’re really excited about that, hitting that milestone with our South Bend service,” said South Shore Line President Michael Noland.

Natalie is a student at Goshen College who uses the train frequently to travel home or to visit friends. When told of the pending ride reduction times, she said, “That’s going to be perfect, it’s going to be really good, yeah.”

However, Chesterton resident and South Shore rider Tom Cornwell says the new schedule has the same old problem as the old one. “I take the train here to the airport frequently, and the problem I keep running into is that the first train coming east doesn’t get here until now, doesn’t get here until afternoon, and you can’t catch planes when you don’t get here until afternoon.”

Michael Noland believes moving the South Shore station at the South Bend airport from the east side to the west side could help lure more air travelers to the facility. 

“We want to run shuttle train service between the 11th Street Sation in Michigan City and the west side of the airport, on a nearly hourly basis,” he told 16 News Now. “But it’ll give everybody in northwest Indiana the opportunity to get on a train and take it to the airport in near hourly service and use the convenience of that airport, which is so easy to fly out of.”

Noland also says the station relocation would cut up to 15 more minutes off the South Bend to Chicago trip.

Noland is also looking into adding a stop in New Carlisle that might help workers get to a planned General Motors, Samsung EV battery plant there.

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