After months of planning for a more comprehensive bus transportation service throughout the City of DeKalb, a new bus service was supported by a majority of the DeKalb City Council members at Monday’s meeting (Tracy Smith was absent). This is a multiple phase program including providing transportation from the northern part of the city and campus to the industrial parks in the southern part of the city.
One of the major parts of the transportation program will be expanding bus service to and from the Metra station in Elburn to seven days a week. This new service will add one trip in the morning to Elburn each day and one-afternoon return trip Monday through Thursday and on Sunday. The existing service on Fridays and Saturdays would remain the same. The additional service to the Elburn train station would begin on October 7th if all the details are complete.
One of the goals is to increase the opportunity for people not only in DeKalb to have train options but for Chicago and suburban people to have a chance to visit DeKalb. The tentative fee for the trip to Elburn for the general public would drop from $10.50 to $8 and the price for NIU students would be reduced from $6.25 to $4. Children five and under would still ride for free. There is a concern from some business owners as there is already a private service that takes people to and from DeKalb and the Elburn train. Private businesses find it difficult to compete with federal and state subsidy programs.
The transportation for the travelers to and from the train and work options will be provided by mini-buses seating around 25 people.
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