Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD)
Operations Simulation and Capacity Analysis of the Metra Electric District

SYSTRA has been selected by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) to perform a significant Operations Simulation and Capacity Analysis study, focusing on the feasibility of operating additional NICTD service on the Metra Electric District (MED). The study will focus on operations over the MED trackage from Millennium Station, at Randolph Street in downtown Chicago, southward to Kensington Station, near 115th Street, a distance of about 14.5 miles. In this area the MED is used by both NICTD and Metra, although the two operators maintain separate terminals at Randolph Street. The NICTD South Shore Line tracks diverge from the MED immediately south of Kensington Station, and have an eastern terminus at South Bend, Indiana.

NICTD operates 37 scheduled daily movements over the full length of this trackage, while Metra operates 170 scheduled daily movements over all or part of it. The ability of this busy trackage to accommodate additional traffic is of great interest to both operators, with NICTD evaluating the implementation of a new West Lake County service on the former Monon Corridor trackage that it owns. Metra is also evaluating future service expansions.

The MED in this area is for most of its length a four-track railroad, with three tracks at the northerly end immediately south of the terminal interlocking. Additional “pinch points” exist at NICTD single track leads both to the NICTD terminal at Randolph Street and to the South Shore Line at Kensington. Installation of bi-directional signaling, enabling peak-period “3-and-1” operation, has been partially completed and is ongoing.

SYSTRA will use its industry-leading RAILSIM® Simulation Software Suite to create a detailed computer simulation model of the study territory and its present operations. Multiple successive versions of the model will emulate both those infrastructure upgrades already underway and a series of conceptual infrastructure upgrades to establish the effects of these upgrades on system capacity. The simulation results will enable the quantification of present and potential future MED capacity and will greatly aid planning efforts by both agencies.

Click here to see the release as published at www.ProgressiveRailroading.com.