An innovative “reverse commute” bus service that was set up to help residents of Chicago get to jobs in Wood Dale failed to attract enough riders to justify its existence and is to be terminated Jan. 28.
Pace Route 601 Wood Dale started in October 1992 as a Metra demonstration project, with bus service to suburban employers coordinated with the commuter rail agency’s schedule of trains coming out of the city.
Wood Dale and local businesses in early 1993 took over funding to cover the bus agency’s loss on the service, approximately $34,000 a year. But Pace was notified Tuesday that the local sponsors intended to cut off the subsidy, said Melinda J. Metzger, deputy executive director of operations at Pace.
The Pace board of directors voted Wednesday to schedule a public hearing on the route elimination for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pace headquarters, 550 W. Algonquin Rd., Arlington Heights, with the intent of discontinuing service on Jan. 28.
Route 601 make three trips in the morning rush hour and three trips in the evening, and its ridership increased over the past year to about 45 a day from 30, Metzger said. But each bus still carries perhaps seven passengers per trip, resulting in insufficient fares for continued operations, she said.