| Style: | NICTD | ||||||||||
| Portage/Ogden Dunes | |||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 41.6172°N -87.1867°W | ||||||||||
| Platform: | 2 side platforms (one low-level, one high-level) | ||||||||||
| Tracks: | 2 | ||||||||||
| Parking: | Yes | ||||||||||
| Bicycle: | Yes | ||||||||||
| Passengers: | 237 (average weekday)[1] | ||||||||||
| Pass Year: | 2019 | ||||||||||
| Opened: | 1998 | ||||||||||
| Rebuilt: | 2021-2024 | ||||||||||
| Electrified: | Yes (1500 V DC) | ||||||||||
| Accessible: | Yes | ||||||||||
| Owned: | NICTD | ||||||||||
| Zone: | 6 | ||||||||||
| Map State: | collapsed | ||||||||||
| Mapframe: | yes | ||||||||||
| Mapframe-Custom: |
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Portage/Ogden Dunes is a station in Porter County, Indiana serving the municipalities of Portage, Indiana and Ogden Dunes, Indiana. It is used by South Shore Line trains. Ogden Dunes is a semi-gated community with one major access road off of U.S. Highway 12, and the station is located adjacent to where this road accesses the community. The station also serves a Marina Shores subdivision in Portage.[2] Portage/Ogden Dunes station is close to the Inland Marsh and West Beach units of the Indiana Dunes National Park.
The station has a northern low-level platform and a southern high-level platform with most trains in both directions boarding on the high-level platform. Three small passenger shelters are positioned at the beginning, middle and end of the low-level platform. The low-level platform is accessible thanks to a ramp structure located at the west end of the platform, designed to sync up to the first car of the train.[3]
Portage/Ogden Dunes is a comparatively new station, built in 1998–1999 to replace the Ogden Dunes flag stop located about a hundred feet west. The flag stop had a platform and single row or parking accessed immediately off of Dunes Highway to the south of the single-track railway. The new station removed this southern platform and parking area, and instead constructed a new platform and double-row of angled parking north of the single-track. The project also included construction a new track to the north of the existing single-track east and west of the station, but within the station area a new track was built to the south of the existing single-track. This new southern track was then connected at either end of the station with the old single-track to become Track 1, and the new northern track outside the station area was connected to the old single-track within the station area to become Track 2.[3]
As part of a larger project to double-track the South Shore Line, Portage/Ogden Dunes saw a renovation from 2021 to 2024. Since the station was already double-tracked, it did not see a new track. However, a new high-level platform was built adjacent to the southern (eastbound) track, with a gauntlet track to allow freight trains to pass. The existing platform adjacent to the northern (westbound) track remained unchanged and was already accessible to passengers with disabilities due to having a ramp structure. The renovation also added a new parking lot with 354 spaces across Dunes Highway to the south of the station and a signalized pedestrian crossing of the Dune Highway to connect the station to this lot.[4]
