Monon Corridor's opening celebrated as transformational

The first passenger train on the new Monon Corridor pulled from the station on schedule Tuesday, undeterred by earlier storms that pushed back the start of opening-day ceremonies that concluded with a ribbon-cutting by Gov. Mike Braun.

A southbound train left the Hammond Gateway Station at 11:45 a.m., with public officials, railroad fans, long-time South Shore riders and the curious all aboard.

Before the inaugural trip, Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. opened remarks under rain-soaked tents outside the station by calling the new 8-mile rail line “a transformational expansion of the South Shore Line and a major investment in our region's future.”

The West Lake Corridor project that built the new Monon line, along with the previously completed Double Track project along the existing Lakeshore line, will create jobs and “real economic momentum across our region,” McDermott said.

He called the Hammond Gateway Station, “a true front door to our city.”

“Our downtown is already on the rise, and this station will accelerate that growth even further,” he said, adding that the attention the city and other areas of Northwest Indiana area getting now — including from the Chicago Bears — “didn't happen before this project was created.”

Michael Noland, who recently retired as president of the South Shore Line and the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District after leading it during the planning and execution of Double Track and West Lake, noted the return of passenger service to the old Monon Line 60 years after its last train passed through on Sept. 30, 1967.

“That's the last Monon railroad passenger train, called the Thoroughbred,” he said. “It departed Louisville, Kentucky. It went through towns like Bloomington, Lafayette, Lowell, Cedar Lake. It stopped in Hammond, by Douglas (Street), and then it arrived in Chicago for what everyone believed was the last run of the Monon corridor.”

Restoring passenger service 60 years later to the northern portion of that line “did not happen by accident,” he said, thanking the variety of elected and appointed officials and railroad staff members in attendance.

Messages of thanks were spread widely during the half-hour ceremony, notably to former U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, former Regional Development Authority President and CEO Bill Hanna, former South Shore Line General Manager Jerry Hanas and late Hammond City Councilwoman Janet Moran.

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan particularly noted Visclosky, his predecessor, as someone who worked relentlessly for the project in an effort to improve residents’ lives, and noted the cooperation across party lines and among local, state and federal officials.

“Today is about grit and bipartisanship, because Northwest Indiana always has had the workforce, the talent and the drive to accomplish great things,” Mrvan said, “but when we came together in a bipartisan way, state, federal and local levels, we've achieved greatness for Northwest Indiana and the Region.”

Former Gov. Eric Holcomb, former Federal Transit Administration Acting Administrator K. Jane Williams and retired Public Finance Director Dan Huge of the Indiana Finance Authority were also praised for their work.

The complex financing package for the project was administered locally by the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

RDA President and CEO Sherri Ziller recalled the organization’s 12-year involvement in the rail projects, which she said “will change the face of Northwest Indiana.”

She noted Chicago suburbs’ “strong, and enduring, and lasting real estate development around the Metra rail stations,” and said the South Shore’s projects are “already providing the catalyst for similar developments in Northwest Indiana.”

“We're seeing it in Michigan City,” she said, “where the first residential, high-rise, transit-oriented development in Indiana's history, will begin welcoming new residents this spring. We see it right here in Hammond, where the once long-vacant Bank Calumet building has been transformed, and the beautiful, modern apartments that sold out within 60 days.”

She said private investment plans are already approaching one-third of the initial projection of a return-on-investment for the rail projects of $2.7 billion over 20 years.

Other speakers at Tuesday's event included U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym of the state’s second district, centered around South Bend; Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Lyndsay Quest, who also chairs the NICTD Board of Trustees; and Connor Torossian, associate administrator for communications and congressional affairs at the Federal Transit Administration.

Before cutting the ribbon and joining the first southbound trip, Braun praised local leaders and Northwest Indiana for grit and tenacity.

“And every time I've come up, it's a vitality here that we have nowhere else in the state,” he said.

The ribbon-cutting came nearly five and one-half years after a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Munster/Dyer Main Street Station site officially began construction. Officials on Tuesday said West Lake and Double Track each came in under budget. Together, the Indiana-based upgrades to the commuter rail system this decade total about $1.6 billion.