11th Street (NICTD)

11th STREET
11th Street station - passenger shelter and sign.
Station statistics
Address	114 East 11th Street Michigan City, Indiana
Coordinates	41°42′42″N 86°53′53″W
Lines	South Shore Line
Connections	Michigan City Transit
Platforms	Sidewalk north of the tracks
Tracks	1
Parking	Yes
Other information
Electrified	Yes
Owned by	NICTD
Fare zone	8
Services
Preceding station   NICTD   Following station Beverly Shores toward Millennium Station South Shore Line Carroll Avenue toward South Bend Airport

The 11th Street (NICTD) station is a street stop in the central city neighborhood of Michigan City, Indiana. It is located adjacent to the historic 11th Street Station of the former Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad, which operated the station from 1927 until 1987.

History

Chicago-bound train approaches 11th Street station

The Chicago, South Shore and South Bend was one of the last interurban railroads to operate profitably in the United States. Aggressive management, led by financier Samuel Insull, reconceptualized the South Shore as the linchpin of a public transportation network operating throughout the industrialized Indiana Dunes region of Indiana. Insull interests built the 11th Street Station in central Michigan City in May 1927 as a pioneering piece of multimodal public transportation infrastructure. The South Shore had affiliated with several regional bus lines, and the 11th Street Station was conceived as a waiting area point where system users would transfer between a bus and an electric train.

After operating relatively successfully for some decades, the South Shore entered bankruptcy in the 1980s. Electric train service was reorganized under the umbrella of the publicly-funded Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD), but affiliated bus service had long since ceased. The South Shore Line closed the 11th Street station in November 1987,^{[citation needed]} but its NICTD successor-in-interest maintains train service to the street adjacent to the station. The station building itself, designed by Insull's staff-architect Arthur U. Gerber, is closed and out of service as of 2010.

Current status

The trains stop near the original station, opening the door on the north side of the track. To make up for the closure of the station, NICTD set up a small passenger shelter at the end of the adjacent parking lot, near the 11th Street/Pines street intersection. As the rule of thumb, conductors only open the doors in the first two cars.

Michigan City and NICTD have discussed the possibility of moving the tracks off the street, onto a less intrusive alignment. A series of recent studies concluded that the 11th Street alignment is the most viable and cost-effective option, especially in terms of transit-oriented development. According to the preliminary plans, the alignment will be single-tracked and moved half a block (in most places) south of its present location. The current station will be replaced with a new facility between Franklin and Washington streets, southwest of the current location. It will have a raised, accessible platform and a new multi-level parking lot and have a siding track. Suffice to say, most of the buildings on the South side of 11th Street would have to be demolished to make way for the realignment.

There are considerable concerns among Michigan City residents about this plan, particularly those who would be relocated. Other possible alignments exist that would also separate the NICTD tracks from a grade widely used by motor vehicle traffic, and a public hearing was heald in September 2011 to discuss these possible alignments.

Bus connections

Michigan City Transit (at Franklin/11th Street intersection)

• Route 1
• Route 2
• Route 4

External links

• South Shore Line - Stations
• Jeff Tucker, "What's next for station?", May 15, 2002 news story cached by railfan.net .
• 11th St Station on Google Maps street view
• Preliminary 11th Street station redesign developed by TranSystems