Board members of the Pace suburban bus agency got some welcome news Wednesday: Ridership on the suburban bus service was up last year.
The increase–3.8 percent over 1997’s figures–brings the ridership total to 39.3 million, the highest figure since Pace’s numbers peaked at 40.5 million in 1991. They then declined each year through 1995, when they hit a low for the decade of 37.1 million.
But the Arlington Heights-based bus agency has lots of work ahead, according to a study presented to the bus board Wednesday by the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The study called for a variety of measures to connect former welfare recipients who live in Chicago with job openings in the suburbs.
The study recommended Pace use vans and express buses and possibly start a shuttle service that would pick up workers from CTA and Metra terminals and ferry them to suburban jobs.