Colwell: The South Shore train is ready to move even faster ... All aboard?

The train is ready to move — fast, even faster if local officials and community leaders get aboard for the next move.

South Shore Line trains will move faster and leave more often, starting May 14, with the time of a trip between South Bend and Chicago cut by nearly an hour.

Yep, zip right into the Loop in one hour and 49 minutes, with a reasonable fare and no tolls, no gasoline cost, no need to search for and pay for Chicago parking.

That’s great news for the multitudes taking the train to Chicago for business, shopping, sports events, the theater, concerts, museums, air travel or dining.

That’s great news for the South Bend area economy, for the business ties with Chicago, for more people with Chicago employers living here, for others coming or staying here because of the quick access to all Chicago offers and for tourist visits to Notre Dame or the Studebaker Museum.

The trip could be even faster, with less disruption on some busy South Bend streets, if local officials can at last be all aboard on moving the South Shore station from the east side to the west side of the South Bend Airport terminal. That would eliminate the time-wasting, traffic-disrupting curve along city streets that takes the train to its present location.

A direct route west toward Chicago from the other side of the terminal could shorten the time of the trip even more — to not much over 90 minutes. Also, it would eliminate train crossings at some busy west-side streets and remove miles of tracks and overhead wires.

It would require obtaining land for the new route west, with one alternative route eliminating acquisition of homes in the Ardmore area, where there was opposition to a route through there.

To their credit, state and local officials, Republicans and Democrats, cooperated in funding the double-track project along a 26.6-mille segment of the South Shore Line between Gary and Michigan City, now completed to permit the faster travel and additional trains.

More: Speedier South Shore headed our way. Where it will stop still under debate.

In an earlier column, I saluted that cooperation in improving service on that nonpolluting electric train so vital for northern Indiana travel. And I cited need to move quickly as well to switch the station location at the airport for maximum benefit.

Move quickly? Not exactly. That column was seven years ago.

The long delay, with indecision and inaction, is due primarily to all the suggestions, promotions and studies of moving the station instead to or near downtown South Bend.

Most downtown proposals met with little enthusiasm because of lack of a desirable location or cost or both.

The airport is an ideal location, easy to reach, with adequate and safe parking, with a comfortable waiting area and a cheap parking rate for a one-day round trip.

Taking the South Shore downtown would cost an estimated $300 million, far more than $80 million for going to the other side of the airport and moving west.

Jeff Rea, South Bend Regional Chamber president, has been urging an end of delay before it’s too late to receive funds for a new station from the 2021 infrastructure law.

Rea warns that the funding window closes in 2026 and an application “should be ready to go in late 2024 or early 2025 at the latest.”

While Rea stresses that he isn’t opposed to eventually expanding South Shore service to downtown, he points out that a years-long environmental impact study and design work for a downtown proposal can’t be accomplished until long after the end of current infrastructure funding.

The South Shore proposal for moving the station to that new airport site is ready to go.

The realistic alternatives now are moving the station to the west side or losing a chance for funding and doing nothing for many years, maybe decades. All aboard?

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Shore trip to Chicago could be even faster