Funny you mention station dwell times, since NICTD(which operates South Shore Line in Northwest Indiana, between South Bend and Chicago) has been trying to rebuild the platforms at their busier stations, to be high platform stations. Years ago they rebuilt Hammond to be a high platform station, and later went on in the 2000s to rebuild East Chicago and Hegewisch to be high platform. More recently earlier in the 2010s(in 2013 I think?) they rebuilt Dune Park(by Chesterton, and Indiana Dunes State Park), to be a high platform station.
They are trying next to rebuild Ogden Dunes/Portage to be high platform, though at least that low level station(to my surprise) has a handicap accessible ramp on the end of each platform, which can be used in case someone needs it. They also want in the long term to rebuild Michigan City-11th Street (the downtown station, of South Shore's 2 stations there) to be a high platform station. That would also be part of a bigger project to eliminate street running via separating the South Shore track into a new 2 track section, and making both 10th and 11th Street one way streets. Currently in Mich. City these 2 streets are an old fashioned 2 way street, with a single track in the middle of the street. Supposedly there is talk about eliminating Carroll Ave. as a stop, but not sure if that'd be a good idea considering all the commuters who drive and board at Carroll Ave. Cannot believe I nearly forgot to say, that NICTD is about to embark on a double track project for South Shore between Gary and Michigan City, as currently only a few portions (i.e. by Ogden Dunes) are double tracked or have a siding track.
And on a separate note, NICTD is talking about building a new track route to the western edge of South Bend Airport, along with a new station there. This'd be to both fix the problem of the current South Bend station only being able to board 3 cars at a time, and they'd be able to shave some number of minutes(5-10?) off of the running time to South Bend.
