The feeder bus service provided by Pace to commuter train stations in the suburbs has been an abysmal failure, serving only
3 percent of Metra riders, and a new effort to improve bus-to-rail connections faces a lot of roadblocks.
Actually, make that a lot of parking lots.
Fifty-eight percent of Metra customers get to the train by driving. In the outer-ring suburbs, up to 90 percent of Metra riders drive to the stations, said Patrick McAtee, Metra senior director of planning, real estate and development.
Metra officials are well aware that growth in train ridership is directly tied to the availability of parking spaces. This year, 14 suburbs have requested additional parking that would cost $26 million.
But the focus on increasing parking capacity threatens to hold back any increases in bus-to-rail commuting, which has been one of the more difficult transit markets to serve.
“The only time the feeder routes are going to really work is if there is a parking problem,” Pace spokeswoman Mindy Laflamme said. “People want the flexibility of having a car.”
Blue Line forum: CTA chairman Carole Brown is scheduled to meet Monday with residents in the Pilsen, Little Village and North Lawndale communities about their demands that the CTA immediately restore around-the-clock, seven-day-a-week service on the 54th/Cermak branch of the Blue Line.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the La Villita Community Church, 2300 S. Millard Ave.
