Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) is alerting South Shore passengers and communities to the 6th in a series of planned temporary weekend construction outages which will cause a temporary suspension of train service east of Dune Park Station over the upcoming weekend.

South Shore Line will not provide train or bus service between South Bend and Dune Park Station on the following weekends from 2:30 a.m. Saturday through 3:00 a.m. Monday:

•July 30-Aug. 1.

•Aug. 13-15.

•Aug. 27-29.

•Sept. 10-12.

•Sept. 24-26.

All trains will run normal weekend service between Dune Park Station and Chicago.

Stations affected by this outage include South Bend, Hudson Lake, Carroll Ave. and 11th St. in Michigan City, and Beverly Shores.

During these weekend outages passengers are encouraged to use Dune Park Station. It is conveniently located east of the intersection of Ind. 49 and U.S. Highway 12 in Chesterton, approximately two miles north of I-94 and seven miles north of the Indiana Toll Road. It is a modern station with a large, enclosed waiting area, restrooms, and parking.

NICTD is in the final year of a three-year effort to modernize its overhead wire between Michigan City and Gary. The overhead wire, or catenary, supplies electricity for train propulsion. This $18 million project will replace over 100 miles of electrical conductor, some of which dates back to the 1920s.

This wire is old, brittle and subject to failure, and such failures are the single leading cause of significant service disruptions and lengthy train delays, NICTD said.

The construction plan calls for our contractor to upgrade many of the components under traffic. However, the contractor must have uninterrupted weekend access to the track in order remove old wire and suspend new wire. Nearly all of Phase II work will be done in single track territory requiring temporary weekend service outages.

If someone is flying into either O'Hare or Midway they may still reach points in Indiana by using Coach USA. Coach USA provides bus transportation to and from Midway and O'Hare to various cities in northern Indiana including Michigan City, Notre Dame, Mishawaka and South Bend. For more information visit their website at www.coachusa.com

For weekend outage updates check back to our website www.nictd.com

 or call our pre-recorded weekend outage hotline (219) 878-1745. NICTD apologizes for any inconvenience.