St. Joseph County is poised to cut in half the amount of money it promised to the South Shore Double Track Northwest Indiana project.

In June of 2017, the county government pledged $18.25 million for work to cut the time of a train trip between South Bend and Chicago to 90 minutes.

Now that it’s time to come up with the cash, attempts are being made to call an audible.

“We think we have an agreement with the city of South Bend, so we’re going to split the $18 million up front. They’re going to kick in $9.1 million, we’ll kick in $9.1 million, and hopefully get the project moving down the tracks,” St. Joseph County Commissioner Andy Kostielney said.

The original agreement called for South Bend to spend $25 million to relocate the South Shore station at the airport or to realign the tracks that lead there.

“While we're still working with South Bend to look at station locations either downtown or the airport, both parties have agreed that maybe this is a better option,” St. Joseph County Economic Development Director Bill Schalliol said. “Let's cover the cost of double tracking now, and then we'll work to identify the best and most appropriate place for a station.”

County officials insist they could cover the entire double track bill by using tax incremental financing, or TIF, revenue from the Indiana Enterprise Center industrial park near New Carlisle -- but just barely.

“It really is tight, so this, if we would have to do the full amount of the bond with the TIF as it generates revenue now, we pretty much would tap that TIF for the life of the bonds, and we're looking at a 20-year bond, so it would really limit what we could do in new Carlisle,” Schalliol said.

County officials have pledged to contribute up to $10 million to any future station relocation project, and they insist it may be a better project as the result of a partnership.

“There’s a possibility from the station standpoint of, there's some cargo freight opportunities that might be opening up around the airport, so that could lend itself to maybe moving the station as part of a larger economic development project too.”

A resolution to issue bonds for the Double Track project will appear on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting of the St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission.