The South Shore Line plans to spend almost $6.9 million dollars to upgrade its passenger communications system. The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) board approved a proposal from Clever Devices last month.
Gary Babcoke with NICTD said the upgrades will allow for automated announcements on the train and at stations, including stations owned by Metra. "All of those stations will be able to make announcements that our trains are approaching, and distinguish between Metra and South Shore trains and even, to go further in that, they'll be able to announce Lakeshore versus Monon corridor trains when we open up the West Lake line," Babcoke explained.
The upgrades will also involve replacing the Wi-Fi routers on each train car. Babcoke said the new routers will have enough capacity for every passenger to connect one device.
Cars will also be outfitted with passenger counters, to let the railroad know exactly how many people are getting on and off at each station.
NICTD President Mike Noland said that will help with reporting to the federal government, as well as scheduling. "I think our conductors do a nice job of getting a sense of where the ridership is, but we don't know on any given day exactly where our ridership is," Noland told board members.
The South Shore Line hopes to have the new Wi-Fi routers installed by May of next year, with the rest of the upgrades to be complete by December of 2026.
The railroad is also looking to communicate with future riders, as well as current ones. The NICTD board approved a $3 million contract for marketing services with its current contractor, Group 7even. The contract runs for three years with options for two one-year extensions.
The marketing contract drew a fair amount of interest, with the railroad getting six proposals. NICTD Director of Capital Investment & Implementation Nicole Barker said she was impressed with the new concepts and technologies they proposed.
"As you can imagine, even things like social media are evolving on a constant basis, and with that, they're able to collect all kinds of analytical data about which of these platforms are working most effectively," Barker said. "So it was a very rich discussion, I feel."
Both Group 7even's and Clever Devices' proposals came in slightly higher than the railroad's estimates.