MQT1223 wrote:I understand the reasoning behind the NICTD's restrictions. Doing 50 down a street would be catastrophic and downright dangerous for anyone and require one heck of a warning system for pedestrians and motor vehicles. I was more or less focused on the restrictions CSX has in place.
I'd say that any speed restriction that was in the Employee Time Table would be one that the railroad set or agreed to.
For Michigan City, the 1987 timetable shows:
25 MPH Passenger and Freight between 125.3 and 126.2 Michigan City Limits.
30 MPH Passenger and Freight between 124.2 and 125.3.
40 MPH Passenger and Freight between 123.6 and 124.2.
Going west ...
45 MPH Passenger and Freight between 126.2 and 126.7.
50 MPH Passenger between 126.7 and 127.9.
60 MPH Passenger between 127.9 and 130.5.
(The Michigan City siding is 126.1 to 127.2.)
The 2005 timetable has 79 MPH Passenger between 127.9 and 129.7 (still 60 MPH to 130.5). The other limits remained in effect. The same speeds are shown in the 2008 timetable.
CSX doesn't do 50 MPH through Michigan City, even without street running.
The information that I can find shows "the restrictions that CSX has in place" as 25 MPH for the city limits.
Getting back to NICTD ... if they were to realign their track south and follow the CSX ROW they would build their own track separate from the CSX line and follow their own speed limits. However the southern option was discarded a few years ago (along with a northern option past the power plant and Amtrak station to the former NS line).