Kendall approves Park-n-Ride service with Oswego
By Steve Lord slord@stmedianetwork.com October 5, 2012 5:26PM
Updated: November 8, 2012 11:45AM
YORKVILLE – The Kendall County Board has approved its side of an agreement that will bring a new Park-n-Ride service to Oswego.
The service will be a partnership between Oswego and Kendall County — but the village will bear the cost. Still, Oswego officials say they will save money by going through the county’s Kendall Area Transit system, and ending its contract with the Pace suburban bus system.
“Although there is no cost to the county, the cost to Oswego will be better than it was,” said County Board member Jeff Wehrli.
If Oswego had stayed with Pace, it would have cost $95,000 for next year. Oswego staff estimated going through KAT would cost $80,000 to $88,000.
KAT also will offer two additional routes in the morning between the Park-n-Ride location at Mill Street and Orchard Road and the Aurora Transportation Center. The Park-n-Ride is designed to carry commuters from Kendall County to get the Metra trains in Aurora.
Pace ran three routes in the morning and three in the early evening; KAT will have five routes at each time.
KAT also runs the county’s Dial-a-Ride service, a curb-to-curb service administered by the Voluntary Action Committee, based in DeKalb. Dial-a-Ride runs Monday through Friday, by appointment. To use Dial-a-Ride, a person has to be registered with the KAT office.
While KAT will continue to offer the Dial-a-Ride, it will expand to take in the Park-n-Ride, too. To do that, Kendall County will take bids to lease two new vehicles.
Oswego will sell passes to people who want to use the Park-n-Ride, although there will be a way to collect a fare for one ride at a time.
Oswego already has approved the KAT contract.
Oswego’s Park-n-Ride bus ridership peaked in February 2009, with 149 one-way rides daily, but plummeted in 2010 when Pace cut the service from 12 trips to six each day.
Oswego continues to try to convince Metra that it needs to put a commuter rail station at the Park-n-Ride location at Mill and Orchard, and County Administrator Jeff Wilkins said the new service could help convince Metra officials to do that.
“They’re hoping this will show them the need,” he said.
