Northwest Indiana ‘Four Cities Consortium’: Part One: Roots
In January of 1998, the mayors of Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting met at Hammond City Hall. Together they made official what is known as “The Four Cities Consortium” or “The Four City Consortium.”
The Consortium was proposed after Norfolk Southern and CSX announced they would buy stock in Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. This meant an important financial windfall for IHB and an imminent increase in rail traffic for the Region.
The purpose was to do what the controversial MaiaCo Company does in Gary today. It was to collectively buy up land for future economic development throughout northern Lake County.
The Consortium also tasked themselves with finding ways to fix railroad congestion in the Region, specifically in Hammond. With IHB being boosted by two major railroads, this was expected to be a paramount project. Elements of the Consortium's goals would be — and are still being—implemented.
Lastly, I would like to mention that though the Region seems to be hostile to a “Metrolake”-style system of government, each city's goals are similar in almost every way. Though we seem not to want to be governed by one municipality, we constantly find ways to collaborate in a “Metrolake” fashion.
Or at least we used to…
As far as the railroad is concerned, something similar to The Consortium was tried before. Let’s talk about the past a bit to set it up.
We’re going back to a 1978 report: The Hammond Railroad Relocation and Consolidation Project. It is a massive, multi-part report, so I won’t cover anything but what I deem important.
The HRRCP featured a conceptual ideal involving elevated railroad traffic. This included rerouting train traffic and/or outright eliminating some rail lines.
In the late 70s, nearly all of the Region’s railroads were in bad shape. Conditions were not safe, and right-of-ways were polluted and shedding customers fast. Businesses relied more on the interstate trucking industry.
Worse than that, the railroads were essentially bankrupt. In 1976, Congress nationalized several railroad companies and consolidated them into what was known as Consolidated Rail Corporation — or Conrail (CRC). Conrail was the largest corporate reorganization in American history.
Almost immediately after its creation, Conrail began abandoning thousands of miles of track. If abandonment wasn’t done outright, it was being openly mused by local municipalities. Other railroads were also following this trend, such as Norfolk & Western.
Cities were losing interest in railroads, and politicians — who once were friendly — began to actively campaign against them. Many crossings were at grade and caused major backups that resulted in the loss of productivity, increased pollution, and accidents. In addition, economic development was stymied by mainlines and yards scattered all over the place. This was especially true in Hammond and Gary.
Conrail was scheduled to take over operations from Penn Central in Gary on March 31st, 1976. Elimination of Penn Central passenger trains on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Ft. Wayne line was imminent. This is the track that had stops at 20th & Broadway and 5th & Chase Street. This service was somewhat saved by Amtrak, which operated the service known as The Calumet, better known as “the Valpo Dummy Shuttle.”
Between Whiting and Valparaiso, there was an average of 1,750 riders daily.
This study aimed for minimum impact railroad operations focused on diagonal rail lanes running through street grids, residential neighborhoods, grade separation at major streets, and trying to maximize the efficiency of existing routes instead of creating new routes. Not only were proposals made, but they had several alternate versions.
Hammond and Gary were openly musing about their economic prospects. Sticking to Gary, officials opposed L&N (Monon) being rerouted to the PRR Ft. Wayne line. Monon was preferred on the N&W Gary District (the former Wabash Railway).
Next, they agreed with Conrail consolidating its lines through Gary as long as it utilized all overhead tracks (including IHB’s Gary & Western/Dune Park Branch). Finally, they had no quarrel with N&W rerouting its trains along the Joliet Cutoff.
These concessions benefited the railroads in almost every way and opened the discussion to eliminate smaller transfer yards to mainly focus on end destination yards, increasing productivity and saving fuel costs. However, the railroads opposed running trains overhead.
The railroads were all for it — except for the fuel part. This meant the IHB Gary & Western/Dune Park Branch (known locally as ‘the high line’) was in danger of being eliminated.
To explain further, the Dune Park Branch was an elevated railroad between Clark Road at the west end and Grand Blvd in Miller at the east. To access it from either side required trains to ascend from ground level. This required locomotives to increase power output, thus using more fuel per incident.
Where it was required, Conrail was not complaining about up-grade travel and the fuel cost in relation to it. However, as far as the Dune Park Branch was concerned, Conrail was apathetic because they focused on decreasing fuel costs. The Dune Park Branch did not meet its criteria.
More importantly, Conrail didn’t want to be responsible for maintaining the 20+ bridges along the “high line” branch.
Under Richard G. Hatcher, the City of Gary considered railroad relocation to improve the city and make it more pedestrian friendly. His administration had three ideas.
- Having Norfolk and Western Railway (Wabash) abandon their east-west track through Gary between 9th & 10th Avenues. Gary could purchase this section and turn it into a four-lane road running from 5th Avenue east to SR 51 (Ripley Street).
- Because the Joliet Branch of Penn Central (Conrail) was scheduled for abandonment already (1976), the City of Gary could purchase it; making a 99-foot wide street running northeast from 43rd & Grant to 37th & Mississippi. It could be a connector from Broadway to MLK Drive & from I-65 to Ridge Road.
- Possible abandonment of the Conrail Dune Park Branch (Gary & Western), operated by the IHB. If Conrail agreed to abandon this line, it could be done at a “reasonable” cost to the City of Gary. The railroad saw it as a cost-cutting measure; to provide a way to eliminate the need to rebuild or maintain the elevated bridges and save fuel.
A debate ensued. Politicians and citizens clashed because the plan was contradictory and confusing. Money-wise, no other railroad projects were doable at the time besides what the city proposed.
The Wabash was eventually abandoned east of Indiana Sugars in 1983. However, the abandoned portion was never converted into a street. The closure of Gary Screw & Bolt in 1983 was the final nail in the coffin. As a result, the former N&W from Clarke Junction to Indiana Sugars depreciated through freight traffic but was still used by Indiana Sugars. CLICK HERE FOR THIS STORY.
The Joliet Branch was abandoned in the late 70s. It was also never converted into a street. The Dune Park Branch was also abandoned by Conrail in 1984. However, IHB still had legal rights to operate upon the portion from Ivanhoe to 7th & Alabama.
Today, IHB still runs trains on the Dune Park Branch. However, its rights now stop at Chase Street, though physically, it can not reach the bridge there.
More study was conducted, and several solutions were proposed. This involved eliminating crossings and elevating main lines to reduce traffic backups and pollution. There were nearly 650 crossings in the study area — most of them at major routes, yet only 100 were elevated.
One proposal was to run Broadway UNDER the Porter Branch, the tracks just north of 11th & Broadway.
Proposed Broadway underpasses for Porter Branch.
Another was to run the Ft. Wayne Branch under Broadway.
Proposed Broadway underpasses for Ft. Wayne Branch.
A proposed new N&W route had me confused a bit. I’ll post it here, and maybe you can decipher it.
It involved rerouting N&W trains onto or parallel to EJ&E’s Eastern Division, between Gary and State Line Tower in Hammond. There were blueprints of this confusing new proposed route, but the copies available were terrible and impossible to decipher.
The report spent page after page going over this plan. I would love to decipher this doozie and play it out, but I’ll leave that for another post.
This shows Conrail’s rejection of using the Dune Park Branch as an alternative.
The study even combined all combinations of the main proposal with alternate proposals, and it was still rejected because of Miller Woods and Tolleston Dunes.
Even with Conrail complaining about fuel costs, they probably would have allowed IHB to continue to utilize the Dune Park Branch at its own expense.
However, some EPA jackholes and community activists advocated against any plans involving Miller Woods and Tolleston Dunes. They even went as far as to hit the press and the courts. Conrail didn’t want to spend money on the matter, so they rejected any idea that utilized the Dune Park Branch, which ran through both contested areas. So, the only feasible and useful plans were rejected.
If it weren’t for the EPA and the activists, the Dune Park Branch would likely still be in use today, helping to keep intermodal railroad traffic off our street-level crossings. The Miller Woods portion of the Dune Park Branch in question is now a hiking trail.
The Dune Park Branch would have solved almost all of everyone’s problems at once — however, Conrail was worried about fuel, and the EPA was worried about Miller Woods and Tolleston Dunes.
Someone lobbied for Conrail to eliminate the Dune Park Branch altogether. The seeds for it being abandoned are all set right here.
This is what makes the Four City Consortium so interesting. Now that it’s set up, the next blog will talk about how the Consortium was born.