The following is a letter from South Shore President Mike Nolan:
September 20, 2024
Good afternoon, South Shore Line riders. This is my 9th and final of the series of bi-weekly update letters regarding the launch of our new service following the completion of the Double Track project in mid-May of this year. First, I offer a huge thank you to all our riders who have been so patient and understanding as we worked the kinks out of our new schedule. The launch was bumpy for sure, and the delivery of service was not what we expected. We value the input we have received from you, especially the responses to our rider survey. We continue to receive your comments, criticisms, concerns, and compliments as we look to continually improve on our performance.
Our August 20th schedule revision is now in its 4th week, and we are generally pleased with the results we are seeing. We still have work to do before we get to our goal of on-time performance in excess of 90%, but we can see a definite pathway to get to this result. In the not-too-distant future, we will make a more minor schedule adjustment to fine-tune our operation. Many trains will not see a change in schedule, and the trains that do change will undergo only minor modifications.
We are not ready to roll out our proposed schedule modifications just yet, as they need to be thoroughly vetted with our staff and operating partners. When we are ready to make the schedule revisions we will, of course, announce them well in advance so you can plan for any changes you need to make to your arrival and departure patterns.
Again, as I have stated before, with actions that we take, our focus is always on safety; we will never sacrifice safety for any reason, including improved on-time performance.
Thank you again for your continued patience and for riding the South Shore Line!
Best regards,
Michael Noland
President
South Shore Line/NICTD