Planners look at picking up the Pace on Oak Brook route

Not quite the hare, but definitely not the tortoise, arterial rapid transit for the suburbs is getting a boost from the Regional Transportation Authority.

Pace wants to create three ART routes along Cermak Road, Milwaukee Avenue and Dempster Street. Arterial Rapid Transit allows buses to use transponders to prolong green traffic lights and shorten red signals to speed up travel times.

Officials said Wednesday that the RTA is essentially adopting the Cermak Road route, which is expected to start at the end of the CTA's Pink Line in Cicero and include stops in Oak Brook and in Lombard near I-355.

The RTA will take charge of planning the Cermak project in cooperation with Pace.

The route is more complex to engineer than the Milwaukee or Dempster concepts, hence the RTA involvement. RTA Deputy Executive Director Leanne Redden said the route involves an interesting transition from urban to suburban to corporate campuses and retail centers.

The Cermak line would follow Route 322, which travels along Cermak between the Pink Line 54th Avenue station, continues on 22nd Street and Butterfield Road in DuPage County to the Yorktown Shopping Center. Planners are considering extending the ART version to Butterfield and I-355.

The ART system would have its own bus stops providing real-time travel information, vehicles that are distinct from regular Pace buses and limited stops on the way.

It's a middle step between standard Pace service and the Bus Rapid Transit concept that's also being pushed by Pace. Bus Rapid Transit involves buses using their own lanes as well as having traffic-signal control capabilities.

But although ART is faster than your average bus, getting the Cermak route up and running could take a few years. The next step is to apply for federal funding, which involves hiring consultants to do an analysis. The cost of creating the service could run from $30 million to $45 million. One option planners have is to build it in phases, Redden noted.

Pace officials said ART could not only expedite bus service but improve productivity, which is essential as the agency is facing a budget crunch. The Cermak route could attract a lot of west Cook County riders traveling to job centers in Oak Brook, they hope.