Indiana Launches Electrified Monon Corridor

Could be foundation of service to Indianapolis, with proper funding

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun cut the ribbon, then rode in the first car on the first train on the new Monon Corridor on Tuesday—a train that is a solid addition to the state’s passenger rail network. If the state can muster the political will, the Monon Corridor could be a start for hourly service connecting Indianapolis and Lafayette to Hammond and Chicago.

The ribbon cutting and the ride occurred at the Hammond Gateway Station on the South Shore Line, where the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District unveiled the Monon Corridor, a $1.6 billion branch from Dyer, IN to Hammond. There it meets the main South Shore Line, which runs between South Bend, IN and Chicago. The newly opened line uses refurbished coaches, with overhead electric power.

It’s only a single-track, eight-mile, three-station branch, but the service starts with a strong level of frequency—17 round trips each weekday—and it is possibly a bud for service of the same frequency between Indianapolis and Chicago, a route which now gets only three round trips per week on the Amtrak Cardinal between Chicago and Washington, DC.

Economic Boost Seen for Region

The reactivated Monon Corridor is located in Lake County, Indiana, which has lost population over the last five decades due to deindustrialization. The population was 8.7% less in the 2020 census than in 1970.

But the governor believes the train, coupled with a project completed in 2025 to double-track the main line between Gary and Michigan City, will return $2.7 billion over 20 years in jobs, economic development and real estate investment around the train stations. “You’ve got to take risks,” he said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “You’ve gotta stick your neck out, and even when you’ve fallen off where you used to be, view that as a golden opportunity of where you can go, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”

Longtime Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. suggested in his speech that there is more to come. “We’ve been building this project for years, and Hammond’s ready,” he said. “We’re ready to grow, we’re ready to compete, we’re ready to win. So today we celebrate partnerships that made this possible, we celebrate the progress we’re seeing all around us, and most importantly, we celebrate what comes next, because this isn’t the finish line, this is the starting line.”

The train tracks from Dyer carry on to St. John, Clear Lake, and Lowell, and eventually to Lafayette and Indianapolis, two cities served by only three Amtrak Cardinal trains per week in each direction. Extending the South Shore Line to those cities would be big for Indiana, but it’s a matter of money.

“Everything is possible with enough funding,” Dave Dech, the new president of the Chesterton-based Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, told us as ribbon-cutting attendees waited out a lightning delay. “When we’ll do it is when someone funds it. Railroading is expensive. It takes an enormous amount of money, and an enormous amount of patience. If we start talking about it now, 20 years from now somebody’s gonna be cutting a ribbon.”

Political Climate for State Support of Passenger Rail

The elected officials at the ribbon cutting—the Republican governor, the Democratic mayor, and one member of Congress from each party—appeared to enjoy being there, and to appreciate the value of public investment in passenger rail. There was no political acrimony among this group on this day. U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan (D-Indiana) stressed the importance of bipartisanship several times during his speech.

Indiana does not have any state-supported Amtrak routes, having ended funding for the Hoosier State in 2019. But the state has secured federal grants to improve operations of the Cardinal and Lake Shore Limited, and is involved in discussions and planning for potential routes including Chicago to Columbus, OH via Fort Wayne, Chicago to Columbus via Indianapolis, and Indianapolis to Louisville.

The Monon Corridor

The Monon Corridor serves the cities of Hammond, Munster, and Dyer, operates six round trips daily between Dyer and Chicago, and 11 round-trip shuttles between Dyer and Hammond Gateway, with transfers to the main line trains to and from Chicago—though the transfers typically involve a wait of around 15 minutes. One of the transfers to Chicago requires waiting 48 minutes, though a train to Michigan City comes in four minutes.

On weekends, there are 12 daily round trips, all shuttles, but only nine (toward Hammond) or 10 (toward Dyer) are scheduled to connect with trains to or from Chicago.

The Dyer station on the Monon Corridor is a mile north of the Dyer station where the Cardinal stops.

Before Tuesday, the last scheduled passenger train to run on the original Monon Railroad was The Thoroughbred, from Louisville, KY, traveling through Bloomington, Lafayette, and Cedar Lake to Hammond on Sept. 30, 1967.

The City of Hammond, the Town of Munster, and the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District purchased the property from CSX Railroad in 1989, with the idea that someday, passenger service could be restored. A member of the Hammond City Council started making phone calls in 1991 to start the effort. The project, known through most of its planning and construction as the West Lake Corridor, received state funding in 2015, federal funding in 2019, and construction began in 2020.

The train that pulled out of the station this week filled with dignitaries was festooned with the American and Indiana flags, as well as flags representing Indiana University, Purdue University, Notre Dame, and a sports team the governor would like to bring to Indiana: the Chicago Bears.

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