A 5 percent fare increase may be coming down the track for South Shore Line customers, according to Michael Noland, the South Shore's president and general manager.
Noland told the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board on Friday that he will request a fare increase at the board's March 23 meeting.
The increase, if approved, would take effect July 1.
The South Shore's most recent fare increases – 25 cents for one-way tickets and 2.5 percent for monthly passes — were in 2016 and 2017. Revenue from those was designated for capital projects.
The latest increase would help pay for a project, funded with a $100 million bond issue, to improve safety with positive train control (PTC), an automated system to warn an engineer about a hazard ahead and to stop the train if the engineer doesn't. The Federal Railroad Administration is requiring railroads to install PTC by the end of this year, though some railroads have received extensions.
The Dec. 18 derailment of an Amtrak train in Washington state, where three people were killed, increased the urgency for installing PTC.
Unlike its other major improvements, the South Shore has to shoulder the entire cost for PTC, without federal or state grants.
The South Shore is somewhat unique because it has to install PTC on each of its electric-powered cars, as well as along the tracks.
"We have a challenge very few in the country are having, and we're meeting it," said Victor Babin, the South Shore's chief engineering officer.
Federal Railroad Administration officials reviewed the South Shore's PTC project at a recent meeting. "They said we're in good shape," Noland said.
The Chicago-area Metra commuter rail system, which owns the tracks the South Shore uses in Chicago, is running behind on its PTC installation but expects to have the system up by the end of 2019, Noland said.
Noland also said the South Shore expects to learn in early February the likelihood of obtaining Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grants for its two largest projects – the West Lake extension and the double-track improvement from Gary to Michigan City. The FTA's rating for those projects would be part of the Trump administration's budget proposal submittal.
Then it would be up to Congress to provide the funding.
Half of the projects' costs would be funded by the FTA if the money is approved. The current total costs are $665 million for West Lake and $312 for double-track.
The South Shore's capital plan for the coming five years, through 2022, totals more than $1.17 billion. That includes the West Lake, double-track and PTC projects, along with new rail cars, a relocated South Bend station, a new access to the East Chicago station, and regular upkeep.
Also Friday, Noland talked about a Jan. 14 incident in which an eastbound train's pantograph broke and got tangled in the overhead electrical wires just outside the Dune Park station, creating a shower of sparks and electric arcing atop a train car.
The cars are well-insulated, Noland said, so the 37 passengers were safe inside – though, he added, "it was probably scary." They were evacuated in 10 minutes, he said. A bus took 20 to South Bend, and a convoy of cars took the others to Michigan City.
Passengers on the first train to Chicago the next morning were bused to Ogden Dunes, Noland said, but the rest of the trains ran.
He said all the cars are being inspected for the type of break that caused the Jan. 14 incident.