This week is a special week here on Aiden Audits Transit. Today we finish the trilogy of newly opened stations on the Monon Corridor, as well as get our first two-for-one station review! Since both these stations are rather similar in design, we will combine their reviews into one post, diving into each of their strengths and weaknesses.

South Hammond is located on the south side of Hammond, Indiana. It’s surrounded primarily by single family housing, which isn’t inherently bad especially since it’s much more dense than the housing around Munster/Dyer. I’ll save the rest of the talk regarding development near South Hammond when we get to the “Surroundings” section of the review, but as a quick preview, I don’t have much else positive to say about them.

On the other hand, Munster Ridge station is located a few hundred feet from its namesake street: Ridge Road. Ridge Road is an arterial road in Munster, Indiana which passes through downtown Munster. Both Munster Ridge and South Hammond are served by the South Shore Line’s Monon Corridor, and are the only 2 intermediate stations between Munster/Dyer and Hammond Gateway, where the Monon Corridor reconnects with the Lakeshore Corridor. For more information on the Monon Corridor service, check out my post on my experience on the inaugural Monon Corridor train.

Amenities

Since no station on the Monon Corridor has alternate transit connections according to Apple Maps, and neither station has ridership information, we will jump right into the amenities portion of the review! Both stations are very clean and modern, as you would expect for newly constructed transit infrastructure. Both stations are single platforms for service on the single tracked Monon Corridor, however Munster Ridge’s platform is significantly shorter than either of the 2 other stations along the corridor, mostly likely due to issues with land use or the railroad crossing on Ridge Road.

The stations are raised above the ground and are fully wheelchair accessible. Each of them have small indoor shelters with benches, heating lamps, and ticket machines, as well as their platforms being completely covered by canopies. Neither of these infill stations have water fountains or bathrooms, unless you count the numerous water pumps sprinkled around these stations to be water fountains, but drinking from these is a questionable option at best. Lastly, both have bike parking and outdoor seating.

These stations are very minimalist design wise, but they’re quite effective at their goals, being very clean and safe. We’ll see how they hold up as time goes on, but for now they seem to be ready to weather some intense use. One additional amenity I didn’t touch on is that there is parking available at both stations, but this sheds light on a problem for one of the stations in particular.

Surroundings

Before we dive into my thoughts on South Hammond station, let’s first look at Munster Ridge. As mentioned before, Munster Ridge serves Ridge Road, and is only a short walk away from a small pocket of commercial development. While this station doesn’t directly serve it, downtown Munster is only a slightly longer walk away down Ridge Road. In the vicinity of this station you will find several pizza joints, a transit accessible gas station, and a small strip mall with such businesses as a barber shop and a bakery. (I didn’t have time to cross Ridge Road to get better photos of the shops.)

Ridge Road itself isn’t a terribly busy stroad, so it doesn’t hinder walkability much at all. Walking north you will find more single family housing, and directly across from the station you’ll find its parking lot, which is reasonably big for a station of this size. Munster Ridge is pretty well placed; it’s the best placed and most developed of the 3 new Monon Corridor stations in my opinion.

Unfortunately, it’s time to get significantly less positive. South Hammond station was kind of doomed from conception. It’s location far from economic development puts it in an already compromising situation. The closest commercial development near South Hammond is along Calumet Avenue about a half mile east of the station, although I’m not sure how many people are using this station to walk to these select shops along a busy road.

What really brings the hammer down on this station is the incredibly large parking lot adjacent to it. Both exits dump you into this massive parking lot that stretches as far as the eye can see; the only other places to walk to are single family homes. It’s truly bizarre how much the NICTD put into building this massive parking lot for a station that probably won’t even use half of its spaces.

Usually large parking lots indicate that there’s lots of demand from commuters from surrounding areas that need to take their cars to reach the station. Considering that South Hammond mainly serves the southern half of Hammond and maybe Lansing, IL if you stretch it, I’m unsure of how much demand is and will be generated by this station. It doesn’t make much sense to include the other parts of Hammond as an excuse for this either, since Hammond Gateway is equidistant to a lot areas in Hammond and you wouldn’t have to worry about shuttle service transfers if you catch the train from Gateway. Not to mention the fact that construction is currently being planned for a station in Downtown Hammond, which is a whole other thing altogether and is already covered in my Monon Corridor review. So while this station serves primarily as a park and ride, I fail to see who will be parking and riding at this station to justify such a terrible blow to walkability and transit oriented development surrounding the station.

Conclusion(s)

Beginning with South Hammond, I cannot deny that this station provides everything that a station of this caliber needs to provide. It’s clean, it’s well made, and its amenities are enough to keep me satisfied as I stare at the massive slab of concrete on the ground in front of me, if only for a moment. The state that the station is in is the only reason why it doesn’t completely fail at being a station. With that being said, it’s depressing walkability and the lackluster service on the Monon Corridor doesn’t give this station any extra brownie points. If there was more development surrounding this station, I could maybe move past the enormous eyesore that’s attached to this station, but given all 3 things I could attempt to walk to, I’m compelled to give this station a (rather generous) score of:

4/10

To end on a positive note, Munster Ridge station fixes most of the issues I had with South Hammond. It’s pretty simple to do, simply make the parking lot smaller and give me things to walk to! I actually enjoyed my short time at Munster Ridge. It’s just as well built as South Hammond while actually being in a useful location for commuters in the Munster area. While any transit is a win for commuters, since it provides more options regardless of its quality, good transit will bring in much more commuters! While I can’t give Munster Ridge a perfect score, it still has its issues, it’s no doubt my favorite station on the Monon Corridor. More on those issues, it’s still a bit of a ways away from downtown Munster, and the development around Ridge Road was still built primarily for cars. I don’t think I have to mention the mediocre service on the Monon Corridor, I assume you would’ve already inferred that to be a downside as well, but it definitely is. Nonetheless, Munster Ridge carries what would otherwise be a very bleak review, with a not bad score of:

6.5/10

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