Pace restores service in Lombard

Pace bus service is expected to return today to Yorktown Center in Lombard.

Pace announced that routes 313, 322, 715, 834, 877 and 888 will resume service to Yorktown based on the original schedules and routes, with one exception. Route 313 will run west on Washington, south on Westmore/Meyers, west on 22nd Street, south on Grace to the Yorktown stop, and eastbound following the reverse of this route. The temporary bus staging and transfer center on Branding Avenue in Downers Grove will halt.

Buses were barred from the mall at Highland Avenue and Butterfield Road Aug. 1 because Yorktown representatives were concerned about the number and duration of bus layovers on the mall property. Buses were remaining on-site for 30 minutes or more to the detriment of the mall, mall management said.

Yorktown officials have granted Pace permission to continue with the layovers until next month, when the bus company will be able to alter routes without violating the drivers' union contract. The promised new routes will eliminate the contentious layovers at Yorktown.

The compromise comes after several residents, including disabled riders and an advocacy group for the disabled, expressed concerns about the two organization's actions potentially being discriminatory. The altered routes required riders at times to cross several lanes of traffic in addition to long stretches of the mall parking lot to reach a bus stop.

Neither Pace nor Yorktown representatives could be reached for comment Sunday.