The South Shore Line's weekend service disruptions in Chicago are necessary for better service in the future, according to Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) President Mike Noland.
This weekend and next weekend, train service will be replaced by buses between 18th Street and Millennium Station on both the South Shore Line and Metra Electric District.
Noland told the NICTD board last week that it's part of the Metra Track 4 project. "It's vital to our growth in the future," Noland said. "We would not be here talking about West Lake or Double Track without this project."
It's designed to ease a potential bottleneck, where the four-track Metra Electric District narrows to three tracks approaching downtown. Noland said Metra is rearranging a rail yard to make a continuous, four-track line. That will make room for the 26 new trains made possible by the West Lake and Double Track projects, plus room for more in the future.
"It really does open up capacity and operational flexibility," Noland told board members.
He said that currently, there's only one track into the South Shore's section of Millennium Station. That leads to delays if trains have to cross in front of each other. This project will increase that to two.
On December 7 and 8, and again on December 14 and 15, passengers heading downtown will get off at 18th Street, and a bus will take them up the McCormick Place Busway to Millennium Station. Passengers with disabilities will be shuttled from McCormick Place. The Van Buren and 11th Street stations will have no service at all the next two weekends, and Metra Electric's Saturday trains will run on Sunday schedules.
"For a couple weekends, our passengers are going to be inconvenienced," Noland acknowledged. "It's the only way to get this project done, in order to move some of these essential tracks."
These aren't the first disruptions caused by the project. In October, Metra closed one of the northbound tracks for five miles, causing delays and boarding changes.
And South Shore officials say there are regular track closures on nights and weekends. That's caused some nighttime South Shore trains to use platforms typically used by Metra.
Noland said there will continue to be some disruptions, especially at night, until the project wraps up in 2026.