Passenger Trains > Amtrak to Move into South Bend Union Station?

Reportedly, a 3 million dollar federal grant will move Amtrak into the old union station at South Bend, Indiana. (I presume there are other tenants in the building.) Does the current South Bend station have a connection to the South Shore?

Posted from Android



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/26 07:12 by wabash2800.

No connection to South Shore unless South Shore trackage is restored east of where it currently ends.  

Historically, which railroads served it, other than the New York Central ?

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Historically, which railroads served it, other
> than the New York Central ?

Grand Truck Western served that station along with the NYC

CR900945 Wrote:
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> No connection to South Shore unless South Shore
> trackage is restored east of where it currently
> ends.  

The track ends right at the station actually. They won't use it though. The terminus for now will likely remain at the airport (with a new alignment they are planning to eliminate the current circle move to get there).

This was discussed a bit in another thread where I posted some recent photos I found at Union Station. The grant award indicates South Bend is putting up a small match for their part which I believe will push the total over $4m. I think this is just preliminary work though and we probably Have a long way to go on this.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,6209333

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Historically, which railroads served it, other
> than the New York Central ?

Grand Trunk Western, joint trackage that was completed about 1929.

Posted from Android

The Studebaker plant was just across the tracks from the station. Singer sewing machine cabinets were made in South Bend, and Bendix made a range of automobile and aviation products.

Many shippers. Back then.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/26 15:20 by Lackawanna484.

The South Shore's recently released long rang plan includes a branch to downtown along with airport line

Where did you see that? I see some stuff about the branch line to Dyer and Valpo?

I could  be wrong, but if CSS builds the ew wester conx to the airport, they could use the current loop around trackage to go east/south past th airport, ad back to the orig CSS main, and the to the downtown station,  Trais would run from downtown to the airport and then west to chicago
 

Look on the plan's map

Posted from Android

I don't think the July 2026 20-year Strategic Plan Final Report (by AECOM and other consultants) has been posted to the NICTD South Shore Line website as yet.  It's much more detailed than the Executive Summay of the May 2014 Plan (by URS and other consultants) it supersedes, which is still on the mysouthshoreline.com site. if you have time to read it all, the new Plan's "thud factor" is 139 pages.

The Downtown South Bend extension is discussed in Section 3.4, Corridor Studies, that begins on Page 69; the extension itself is Section 3.4.1, pp. 71-72 (with maps).

There's a link to the Final Report at:  cdn.insideindianabusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NICTD_2026-Strategic-Plan_FinalReport.pdf, but I expect this link will go dead or behind a paywall sooner or later as it comes from a newspaper/magazine.

MThopper Wrote:
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> Where did you see that? I see some stuff about the branch line to Dyer and Valpo?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/26 21:28 by illini73.

This might give you an idea of what it looks like.


Ron

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Ron Wrote:
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> This might give you an idea of what it looks
> like.

Neat slide show, thanks!

Andy

That's a great travelogue, Ron. Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks Guys!!
You can "borrow" that High School Guidance Counselor photograph if you want.

#1 - This was taken on Friday, May 25, 2007, at about 2:30 PM. As we left Battle Creek, Michigan, heading to Chicago.
#2 - Approaching Schoolcraft, Michigan, when this guy jumped across the tracks in front of us.

The same day I took that series in South Bend.
That was before I learned how to take videos.

Ron

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If that kid slips on the landing ballast, he's probably gonna need some new teeth...