June 14, 2024
Dear South Shore Line Riders,
Two weeks ago, I let you know that the roll-out of our new service had not gone as planned. Some of you may say that this is an understatement. Over our first two weeks of operating the new schedule, we had numerous late trains, many of which had delays of 15 minutes or more, a few significantly more. I can assure you that this result was not due to a lack of planning or attention to detail. We planned out new schedules carefully, ran the schedule through service simulators, and ran test trains in advance of the start of the new service on May 14th. What looked good in test mode sometimes doesn’t translate well into actual operations, and we can certainly attest that this is true. I promised to keep you updated on our progress to improve our service with bi-weekly updates. Here is a summary of some of the progress we have made since May 31st and some actions we will take in the weeks to come.
First, all of us, our employees, our passengers, and our friends at Metra who host us for the last 14.5 miles of our service territory, are adjusting to the new schedule. Train runtimes, platform location and positioning, station announcements, Train Tracker reliability, and coordination with Metra have vastly improved. We still have a ways to go, but we are seeing real progress. One example is in the morning rush hour, where we see regular on-time performance from many trains, and those that are late are generally in the 6–10-minute range.
To be clear, we are not celebrating late trains, but we are acknowledging progress and improvement towards our overall goal of increasing on-time performance to the 90% plus mark. We continue to implement opportunities to improve service delivery, and we expect to continue to see improvements in the weeks ahead. I mentioned two weeks ago that we have developed a list of over 40 ideas that will contribute to our success. We have streamlined our intra-day crew changes to eliminate delays in our operations. We are staging our trains earlier out of Carroll Avenue to expedite the start of our runs. We are making more efficient use of our new high-speed crossovers and the flexibility of having two high-level platforms at 11th Street Station in Michigan City and at Miller Station in Gary. We are working to eliminate all temporary slow-speed restrictions on our property as well as on Metra’s. And, it bears repeating, safety has been, is, and always will be our number one priority. We will never put operational performance ahead of safety!
I advised the NICTD Board and have stated many times publicly before we rolled out this new schedule, that we would be making schedule adjustments at the end of the summer based upon what we observed in the new schedule rollout. Our staff has spent numerous hours over the past several weeks modeling a revised schedule that we plan to implement later this summer. This new schedule will make a number of time adjustments to help improve on-time performance. In addition, we have received rider feedback indicating the need to fill in a few selected service gaps, and we also are looking to make improvements to our weekend schedule.
In the coming weeks we will be soliciting input regarding our service and any schedule changes you would like us to consider. We will be conducting a customer survey and strongly encourage your participation. I have no doubt that you will tell us what you do not like and want to see improved. However, it’s equally important to us to know what you like so that we don’t inadvertently change something that is working well.
Two weeks ago, I asked you to be patient with us while we work to bring you the level of service that we promised and that you expect. We sincerely hope that you have seen improved service over the past two weeks and know that we have just begun to make our service, as we have advertised, “Better than Ever.”
Best regards,
