Logistics mulled for new South Shore stop at airport

If the South Shore Line can run its trains directly to the South Bend airport, why not to Gary’s airport?

Gary resident Ronald Jones posed that question to the Gary/ Chicago International Airport Authority at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

“We visualize something like that here,” Jones said. “That’s what we want.”

The South Shore Line’s Clark Road station — which Jones called “similar to a bus stop” for its simplicity — also is labeled the Gary/Chicago Airport stop, and it’s a short car ride from there to the airport terminal.

But extending the South Shore Line directly to the airport’s passenger terminal would require building railroad tracks over the Grand Calumet River and the Indiana Toll Road, Airport Authority Chairman Pete Visclosky noted.

“I never say never,” Visclosky said. “But for the foreseeable future, no.”

Dan Vicari, the Airport Authority’s executive director, noted also that the South Bend airport is the

South Shore Line’s eastern terminus.

South Bend International Airport is served by four airlines. The Gary airport hasn’t had any regular passenger flights for 10 years, though restoring that service has been one of the governing board’s main goals.

Last September the authority retained a company to do a market study and analysis for new passenger service at the airport.

Also Thursday, the authority authorized American Structurepoint to do a $107,000 traffic analysis on the feasibility of reconnecting westbound Airport Road to northbound Cline Avenue, as a prelude for seeking a federal grant to 80% of the construction cost.

“If this serves as a catalyst to a multimillion-dollar road expansion,” Airport Authority Vice President Trent McCain said, “I think it’s a good investment.”

The airport sees improved Cline Avenue access as a key to improving its cargo operations and access to Chicago.

A former exit ramp from westbound Airport Road to Cline Avenue was removed several years ago when a new entrance road from Cline Avenue to Gary’s lakefront casinos was built.

The lakefront casinos have since been replaced by the Hard Rock Casino just off the Borman Expressway.

Wednesday’s Airport Authority meeting marked a year since Visclosky and Porter County representative Tom Collins joined the board.

“We cannot measure how valuable you two have been,” McCain told them.