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New Express Routes Coming Soon.


jesi2282

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I didn't konw route 834 is expanding, I don't see anything on Pace's website.

I thought he was saying that he would like to see increased 834 service, not that it was announced.

Obviously, though, 834 provides a link otherwise missing from a complete I-355 corridor plan (still in the works).

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P.S. I'll say that I relied on your links to get to the beginning of the channel. You can say how you found it, if you want.

I was tooling around media sites (abc, cbs, youtube) to see if any footage was produced announcing new services, ceremonies or a banner with just a general 'pace' search. I was curious to see if they are using new coach usa equip or older on hand stuff.

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I couldn't tell you - except that the Coach USA bus I was on had megabus stickers on the inside, and an electronic fare collector, which was kind of surprising. Maybe it was pulled out of Coach USA service to be converted to pace?

And yeah, I don't think 834 is expanding. It would be nice to see it though.

The contract says:

"The Contractor shall be required to provide the specified over the road coaches for the first year of operation."

"The Contractor must provide Pace...the following information...The make, model, fleet number, license plate number and VIN number of all buses (non-Pace owned) to be used in Pace service including spare vehicles."

The Route 655 schedule states that the contractor must provide 4 lift equipped over the road coaches for the first year. "Pace will provide fareboxes for this service."

So, that about answers the question. BTW, the contractor is to provide 3 for 755 and 5 for 855 for a total of 12 on that contract. Since the same contractor has the 889 contract, which requires 6 buses and 1 spare (no mention in that contract about getting Pace buses after the first year), Keeshin-Coach USA had to identify 17 of its buses before starting service, and probably before even bidding, although it certainly was not going to purchase 12 new buses for the I-55 service only for use for one year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Heh, I'm in the opposite situation of stuckinthesuburbs.

I live in Schaumburg and was always dismayed at how difficult it was to reach inner DuPage County through Pace alone.

Unfortunately, the #655 is disappointing to potential riders in the northwest suburbs, who can only access Bolingbrook, but not Naperville, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, etc. - then again, we weren't the clientele this time.

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Heh, I'm in the opposite situation of stuckinthesuburbs.

I live in Schaumburg and was always dismayed at how difficult it was to reach inner DuPage County through Pace alone.

Unfortunately, the #655 is disappointing to potential riders in the northwest suburbs, who can only access Bolingbrook, but not Naperville, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, etc. - then again, we weren't the clientele this time.

The 655 does make stops@Downers Grove where you can transfer to the 313,715 and the 834

which serves DuPage County and@Addison where you can transfer to the 711 and the 715 also which serve DuPage county.I think these might be of benefit to those looking to get

around the county.

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The 655 does make stops@Downers Grove where you can transfer to the 313,715 and the 834

which serves DuPage County and@Addison where you can transfer to the 711 and the 715 also which serve DuPage county.I think these might be of benefit to those looking to get

around the county.

I think you missed the point that it doesn't make intermediate stops in the non rush direction.
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A Tribune story on the slow start.

I'm somewhat surprised that if a bus doesn't get any passenger by Alsip, it goes back to Harvey rather than make the run. You would think that they would burn through the contract. I wonder if the contractor, Pace, or the RTA gets the supposed "saving."

Well whadya know.... schedules on video...

...

Rereading the article this morning, it says "To attract passengers, Pace is using several marketing techniques, including route videos posted on YouTube." I wonder whether anyone other than you has discovered them.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Remind me (and funny how I just left TransportChicago an hour ago), that JARC/NF aren't used in X amount of years, that money would be gone...because the 83 (and 31) would be the only ones working on that list.

I sort of thought of this when reading the June 2010 Pace Minutes.

There is a reference there to

Mr. Brannon commented that there were significant changes which impact the 2010 budget. One of these items is the express routes which were cancelled. This would have resulted in a $3.6 million favorable budget result. Staff felt it best to remove it from the budget to more accurately track actual versus budget on a monthly basis. These were JARC and ICE funded routes and this funding will not materialize.

I am having a problem interpreting the above. Does it indicate, as DSorrell implies, that since Pace canceled the routes, it lost the funding (compared to the alternative that it could have blown the money by keeping running empty buses), or that the money was contingent on generating traffic within 3 months, which Pace didn't do, so it canceled the routes?

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  • 3 years later...

The proper thread for this:

Still three years out. While addresses the need to go to Schaumburg (which was once covered by the defunct 655), there should be some attention brought to 616 and get more people there.

Or a Central DuPage restructuring.

As the link points out, the 600 and 610 restructuring with the Axess buses is the first part of this. mk's post was helpful as providing a map for the other routes, which were only vaguely described in board minutes.

Most of this is NW Cook County, which was supposed to get a restructuring, but apparently this is independent of that. Central DuPage got its restructuring over 5 years ago, when 715 was extended to Addison and duplication was eliminated with 714, and 711 was made all day to Addison. As was previously discussed, anything else is going to need a CMAQ or JARC.

As I observed before, 604 and 608 essentially would only bring back canceled portions of 699 (maybe a little more as route 608 would go to Addison instead of Elk Grove Village).

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The proper thread for this:

As the link points out, the 600 and 610 restructuring with the Axess buses is the first part of this. mk's post was helpful as providing a map for the other routes, which were only vaguely described in board minutes.

As I observed before, 604 and 608 essentially would only bring back canceled portions of 699 (maybe a little more as route 608 would go to Addison instead of Elk Grove Village).

Proper redirect: Only depends if 604 and 608 will be local routes or express service to NWTC.

(if only 616 got the same attention)

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Proper redirect: Only depends if 604 and 608 will be local routes or express service to NWTC.

(if only 616 got the same attention)

The map was a bit ambiguous. However, unless park and ride lots are set up in Palatine, I doubt that it collects any passengers going direct on Ill.53.

616 got attention, about when Academy dumped its routes on Pace, that basically only the reverse commute was worth it. It used to be bidirectional, but only is for one trip. I suppose that if the ridership were there, Pace would not have cut it back.

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There might be questions on 608 like would it have provide service for Depry,UPS,or the industrial area on Fullerton.

That is one way of looking at it, and definitely a good way to market, if coming from Rosemont or Schaumburg.

I was just thinking, they could revitalize the parking lot at the Wal-Mart as a way to start.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I'm guessing #604 and #605 will be part of River Garage? I'm not so sure which garage is fit for #608. You mentioned about one route number being wrong.

The ones out of Randall Road (I thought it was reported earlier that they were 607 and 608605) undoubtedly from River, although I don't know what its capacity is (apparently much larger than just to service Elgin).

The Ill. 53 ones probably NW. One also has to figure that the new NW garage might be constructed by then (2016), and since the article talked about bidirectional service, some trips to Elgin might still start or end at Rosemont.

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The ones out of Randall Road (I thought it was reported earlier that they were 607 and 608) undoubtedly from River, although I don't know what its capacity is (apparently much larger than just to service Elgin).

The Ill. 53 ones probably NW. One also has to figure that the new NW garage might be constructed by then (2016), and since the article talked about bidirectional service, some trips to Elgin might still start or end at Rosemont.

It's highly likely that 604 and 608 are NW runs, and 605 and 607 are out of river (and that's regardless if the new garage is built in time); but it's too soon to speculate, especially if those schedules are still in the planning stages.

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