Crews worked to repair 22 rail breaks along 10 miles of track in Porter County on Thursday, November 27, 2008. The damage forced South Shore trains to suspend service on Thanksgiving Day. (WSBT photo)
Story Created:
Nov 27, 2008 at 7:55 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Nov 27, 2008 at 7:55 PM EDT
SOUTH BEND — South Shore passengers learned their holiday travel plans were derailed after trouble on the tracks Thursday. A freight train carrying coal caused 22 rails on the track to split over a 10 mile span between the Ogden Dunes and Michigan City stops.
Crews were working since 3 a.m. to repair the breaks, leaving the South Shore out of service and dozens of passengers stranded between South Bend and Chicago.
Some passengers were not aware of the service cancellation. WSBT News broke the news to several people waiting in the lobby that their Thanksgiving travel plans were derailed because of the suspension in service.
Moonshik Woo planned to board the train to Chicago.
“I was supposed to meet some of my friends up there,” he told WSBT News. “I was going to spend the night there and come back tomorrow.”
As word of the service suspension spread, many passengers learned they were stranded.
“It’s down? You’re kidding!” exclaimed Lorenzo Kibler. “What are we going to do?”
Many passengers were stranded, and their holiday travel plans were left at the gate.
“I was going to my mom’s,” Kibler said.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t buy that ticket,” his friend added.
Repair crews were hard at work fixing the very serious rail breaks along a 10 mile span of track.
“I’ve been here for 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” explained NICTD spokesperson John Parsons. “It was caused by the mechanical failure of a unit coal train that came through here last night.”
The force of the train caused 22 rail breaks. Left untouched it could’ve caused a train derailment. But a warning sensor near the Ogden Dunes station kicked into gear.
“That’s why we have a signal system the way we do — to warn us of these situations, to prevent that from happening,” Parsons said. “It’s critical that we get it repaired, and we simply could not run trains without repairing these rail breaks.”
While Lorenzo and his friend found a ride to dinner in East Chicago, others weren't as lucky.
“We certainly want to express our apologies to our passengers for this disruption, but we want to have service restored as quickly as we can,” Parsons said.
Officials issued a release about 5 p.m., saying the rail lines would soon be fixed and that the next train out of South Bend was scheduled for clearance close to 8 p.m.
South Shore officials say passenger service will resume according to the following recovery schedule:
Westbound Train 512 will depart from Michigan City at 5:20 p.m., CT arriving in Chicago at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Westbound Train 514 will depart South Bend at 7:40 p.m. ET, arriving Millennium Station at 9:00 p.m. CT
Westbound Train 516 will depart South Bend at 9:40 p.m. ET, arriving Millennium Station at 11:00 p.m. CT
Eastbound Train 513 will depart Michigan City at 5:40 p.m. CT, arriving in South Bend at 7:20 p.m. ET
Eastbound Train 515 will depart Michigan City at 7:40 p.m. CT, arriving South Bend at 9:20 p.m. ET
Eastbound Train 517 will depart Millennium Station at 8:00 p.m., arriving in South Bend at 11:20 p.m. ET
Eastbound Train 619 will depart Millennium Station at 11:15 p.m., arriving Michigan City at 12:55 a.m. (11-28-08)
Eastbound Train 101 will depart Millennium Station at 12:45 a.m. (11-28-08), arriving in Michigan City at 2:28 a.m.
