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Niles Celebrates Launching Of ‘Pulse’ Bus Route

Mayor, Dignitaries Gather At Village Waterfall For New Milwaukee Ave. Express Service

Local, regional, state and federal officials, including Niles Mayor Andrew Przybylo line up to cut the ribbon on the new Milwaukee Avenue Pace Pulse service, the first of the new express bus service lines to launch Thursday in front of one of the signature purple Pulse buses at a kickoff event at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Niles, Chicago, state, federal and regional officials joined Pace Suburban Bus officials at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall for the official launch of Pace’s new “Pulse” service Thursday (Aug. 15).

The new Milwaukee Avenue Pulse service comes after more than a decade of planning. It is the first of several planned express bus routes across the region within the next decade.

The new service, which began Sunday, Aug. 11 along Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago and Niles, between the Jefferson Park Transit Terminal and Golf Mill Shopping Center along the same line as Pace’s Route 270, makes stops once every half-mile in new purple-colored buses.

Niles Mayor Andrew Przybylo praises the Pace’s Milwaukee Avenue Pulse Line service at a kick off ceremony hosted by Pace at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall at Milwaukee and Touhy avenues Thursday. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Speaking at the kickoff, Niles Mayor Andrew Przybylo said, “I have my bus card with me.” He was a frequent user of public transit when he would commute to his former job with Cook County in downtown Chicago.

Przybylo suggested the new service could have been called “Surface Blue” as an extension of the CTA’s Blue Line train from Jefferson Park.

“As people are using cars less and less, this is a cutting-edge approach to public transportation,” Przybylo said. “I believe the Pulse Line will be vital in elevating the success of our TIF districts along Milwaukee Avenue, securing the people of Niles and reinforcing the image that ‘It’s possible here’.”

A Milwaukee Avenue Pace Pulse Line bus pulls up to a “station” at Touhy Avenue for regular bus service during a Pulse kickoff event at steps away at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall Thursday. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Melody Geraci, interim executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance, said “basic mobility is a basic human right.” She said traveling between downtown Chicago and the suburbs is easy, but, “(public) transit between suburbs, that’s a challenge. The number one reason people can’t get a job is they can’t get there.”

Saying the building of rail lines can be prohibitively expensive, Geraci added, “We agree, this is the future of transportation.”

The service is designed to shave seven to nine minutes off the usual 30-minute commute between Jefferson Park and Golf Mill by using slightly elevated stations, which line up to bus doors, for faster boarding, and signal priority technology which triggers early or holds green lights longer.

In the first week of operation, while signal priority is still being worked out, stations in Chicago — including one at Howard Street, Harlem and Milwaukee avenues — remain incomplete because of permitting issues.

Pace spokeswoman Maggie Daly Skogsbakken said current travel times are shaving between five and seven minutes off that trip. She said once stations and signal priority issues are completed and fully implemented, times should become more rapid.

Niles fire district chiefs Robert Greiner (left) and Orlando Diaz (right) check out the new Pace Pulse bus at a kickoff event for the new Milwaukee Avenue Pulse service Thursday, Aug. 15. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Complaints have been fewer than typical when Pace makes a major change. Daly Skogsbakken said. She said there have been complaints about reductions in Route 270 service. Daly Skogsbakken pointed out that, although there has been a small decrease in the number of Route 270 buses, there is a net overall increase in bus service along the corridor. She said with Pulse buses arriving once every 10 minutes during peak periods and once every 15 minutes during off peak, the expanded service is earlier and later than previously offered on the Route 270 line.

As part of Pulse planning, Niles Free Bus routes were studied by Niles and Pace, and adjusted several years ago, both to maximize efficiency and align with the new Pulse stops creating what Pace officials see as a feeder system for the new Pulse service.

A few have complained and a few praised Pulse drivers for making stops between stations as customers adjust, Daly Skogsbakken said. Pace ambassadors have been deployed up and down Milwaukee Avenue to relay information to travelers. 

A big crowd watches local, regional, state and federal officials speak at the Thursday, Aug. 15 Milwaukee Avenue Pace Pulse service kickoff event at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Daly Skogsbakken said those with complaints about the service should contact Pace’s customer service line at (847) 364-7223 or email passenger.services@pacebus.com. She said customer service staffers track those complaints closely. Complaints made via social media sites such as Facebook are also ultimately tracked, but not as closely, she said. 

Besides Przybylo and Geraci, other speakers at the event included Pace Chairman Rick Kwasneski, Andrew Goczkowski, an aide to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th) who was out of the country; State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (D-19th), RTA Chairman Kirk Dillard, Chicago Ald. Jim Gardiner (D-45th), Jesse Elam, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning deputy director of policy and programming.  

The Dempster Street Pulse Line, mirroring the Route 250 Dempster line between Evanston and O’Hare Airport, which will also travel through Niles, is expected to begin operating in 2022.

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