Lessons learned in January helped Saturday when a downed power line stalled two South Shore Line trains during a snowstorm, according to a South Shore executive.
Better communications seemed to help passengers while the two trains were at a standstill for about three hours, South Shore President Michael Noland said Monday.
An eastbound train was stopped next to the Portage/Ogden Dunes stop at 10 a.m. Saturday when the train’s pantograph — the apparatus that brings electricity to the train from overhead power lines — got tangled in the lines.
That train and a nearby Chicago-bound train were stuck while NICTD crews worked to clear away the wires and the power was out in that section.
Noland said he spent time with passengers on the eastbound train.
“Everybody was in good spirits,” he said. “They could see what was going on outside, and we were keeping them informed.”
The South Shore also provided water and blankets for the passengers, but Noland said most didn’t need blankets because the train retained much of its heat.
Lack of information for passengers was one of the main criticisms after a Jan. 12 incident, when ice from a storm coated a train’s pantograph, making it inoperable. Passengers were stranded on that train for more than three hours, and all the morning rush-hour service was disrupted.
In the wake of that incident Noland told the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation Board that communications and emergency procedures would be improved.
South Shore Freight, the company that runs freight service on NICTD’s tracks, sent a diesel locomotive Saturday to pull the two stalled trains to the Dune Park station, where passengers on the eastbound train boarded NICTD-chartered buses to South Bend.
“I can’t thank South Shore Freight and their people enough,” Noland said.
The stalled eastbound train also disrupted traffic into and out of Ogden Dunes because it sat on Hillcrest Road, the town’s main access.
Police diverted traffic to the town’s secondary access, which runs near the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk park and the U.S. Steel plant. Hillcrest opened again around 2:45 p.m., Ogden Dunes police Chief James Reeder said.
Saturday’s incident happened on one of the few areas east of Gary that has two South Shore tracks, which enabled other trains to pass while NICTD crews worked on the broken power line. That work created some South Shore delays the rest of the weekend.
“If this had been on a single track we probably would have been dead for a day,” Noland said.
NICTD is seeking a federal grant to help pay for a $312 million project to build two sets of tracks from Gary through Michigan City.
Noland said Saturday’s incident might have been caused by a “bad pantograph,” but the cause is being investigated. The overhead wires had been replaced as part of a program that began about 10 years ago.
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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