The Chainlink

Bikes on the South Shore line. Question for Active Trans

I'm mainly posting this to see if there is any work being done to change the policy of no bikes on the South Shore train line.  I recently rode to MI and was thinking of how many great biking opportunities would be opened up by being able to take a train to Michigan City.  Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Jared on October 21, 2010 at 9:46am
Is there actually room on the trains though? I'd love to do a day trip by South Shore going to Michigan City and then riding up into Michigan, but alas I'm not sure when that will happen.
Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on October 21, 2010 at 11:42am
Hey Jeff, wanted to let you know that we saw this and will get back to you...it may take a couple of days, we're not as quick moving as a Chainlink discussion.

Thanks,
Ethan Spotts, Active Trans, Marketing & Communication Director
Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on October 21, 2010 at 2:10pm
Maybe not practical for a day trip, but Amtrak's Pere Marquette route to Grand Rapids, MI, has stops in Michigan City, New Buffalo, St. Joseph and Holland. You can probably get a boxed bike on board.

Greyhound and Indian Trails also provide good service to Michigan. I've done a few bike trips in the Wolverine state this way. They require boxing your bike.

Here's a couple of write-up of these trips, including details of how I got bike boxes for the trip home:

Marquette to Petoskey:
http://votewithyourfeetchicago.blogspot.com/2010/06/saying-ya-to-da...

Circuit of lower Lake Michigan:
http://votewithyourfeetchicago.blogspot.com/2008/08/mellow-multi-mo...

John Greenfield
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on October 22, 2010 at 8:21am
Yep, only folding bikes.

Kristian M Zoerhoff said:
John Greenfield said:
Maybe not practical for a day trip, but Amtrak's Pere Marquette route to Grand Rapids, MI, has stops in Michigan City, New Buffalo, St. Joseph and Holland. You can probably get a boxed bike on board.

The Pere Marquette no longer stops at Michigan City or New Buffalo; only the Wolverine and Blue Water do. Also, there is no baggage service on Michigan services trains, so a boxed bike would not be allowed, if I remember correctly.
Permalink Reply by JeffB on October 22, 2010 at 10:30am
I've never done it, so what would I have to do to my bike in order to box it? Remove the pedals? What about the handlebars? Any special tools needed? Is this something a non-mechanically inclined person like me could do?; I'm impressed with myself when I can fix a flat, so...
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on October 22, 2010 at 10:49am
Jeff,

Boxing a bike for travel on Amtrak or by bus just involves removing the pedals (pedal wrench or adjustable wrench needed) and turning the handlebars (correct size allen key needed for threadless stems)

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/pedal-installation-and-rem...

http://www.cyclechat.net/topic/67080-turning-handlebars-for-travel/

JeffB said:
I've never done it, so what would I have to do to my bike in order to box it? Remove the pedals? What about the handlebars? Any special tools needed? Is this something a non-mechanically inclined person like me could do?; I'm impressed with myself when I can fix a flat, so...
Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on October 27, 2010 at 4:39pm
Hey all, sorry about the delay in responding to this question.

Background: the South Shore Line is run by NICTD, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, not Metra.

We've met with their agency and our Southland Coordinator, Steve Buchtel, works with them fairly closely.

They are open to working towards bike access but there are several reasons/factors why it is not allowed currently.

Kristian is correct that part of the issue is that they run single level cars not bi-level style which Metra runs.

NICTD is also in a several year process of securing money and making improvements to their disability access including upgrading stations from low-level to high-level which will make it ADA compliant.

Those are the two primary challenges they have to allowing bikes on their line.

They are also trying to secure money to make other infrastructure improvements to their tracks, signal system, bridges, etc. and money is tight all around.

This is something that Active Trans will continue to monitor and potentially push for in bigger ways in the next few years.

We are currently involved in a planning contract (as a sub contractor to JJR Engineering) to improve non-motorized access (bike, walk, transit) to the Indiana Dunes and bike access on the South Shore may come to the forefront in that plan.

We will certainly keep everyone updated and if there is an opportunity for public input or action, we'll of course post on the Chainlink so we can all tell them what we want...more bikes on trains, right?

Thanks much,
Ethan Spotts, Marketing & Communication Director, Active Trans
Permalink Reply by JeffB on October 27, 2010 at 5:26pm
Thanks for following up Ethan.
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on October 29, 2010 at 10:12pm


Active Transportation Alliance said:
We are currently involved in a planning contract (as a sub contractor to JJR Engineering) to improve non-motorized access (bike, walk, transit) to the Indiana Dunes and bike access on the South Shore may come to the forefront in that plan.

We will certainly keep everyone updated and if there is an opportunity for public input or action, we'll of course post on the Chainlink so we can all tell them what we want...more bikes on trains, right?

Thanks much,
Ethan Spotts, Marketing & Communication Director, Active Trans

This is great news. My friends and I canceled our plans to take bikes to the dunes (and to even visit the dunes) when we learned that the South Shore line disallows bicycles (except for folding bikes).
Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on November 19, 2012 at 8:33am

Any updates on this?

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on November 19, 2012 at 9:08am

this is a hilarious pic.   We should make it mandatory for anyone who resurrects an old thread.

MagMileMarauder said:

Any updates on this?

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on November 19, 2012 at 10:36am

Thanks Ethan! Yes we want more bikes on trains! But we also want the option to just ride there when we have the time, so I appreciate all you can do on both fronts. Keep up the great work!

Active Transportation Alliance said:

...
We are currently involved in a planning contract (as a sub contractor to JJR Engineering) to improve non-motorized access (bike, walk, transit) to the Indiana Dunes and bike access on the South Shore may come to the forefront in that plan.

We will certainly keep everyone updated and if there is an opportunity for public input or action, we'll of course post on the Chainlink so we can all tell them what we want...more bikes on trains, right?

Thanks much,
Ethan Spotts, Marketing & Communication Director, Active Trans

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