Pace Suburban Bus Service

What is wrong with these people! We had a blind client who was waiting for a van to come at 1:30. Knowing how awful they are, we sent someone to keep look out for the van at 1:15. They pulled up, within 5 minutes they were gone. 15 minutes early, didn’t call or come in and just left. We called to see what was going on, were put on hold for 25 minutes. When someone finally answered, they just answered to hang the line up. AWFUL.

I give them 5 stars. Been riding for about a month now and it is great. As long as you can get a seat. If you are real big, please take the Metra.

Ok and reliable bus service in the Chicagoland area

So my 290 bus to Cumberland was scheduled at 9:45 tonight. Finally called a Lyft at 10:55 because the bus hadn’t shown up. The tracker kept pushing back the arrival time in 5 – 10 minute increments. Over an hour late is just absurd.

Pace is good, but there are some flaws to the service such as delays. They have to get better service than that.
I think they should be on time, than be delayed.

I’m writing this review as I stand and wait on a 626 bus that is 10 minutes late as of right now. This driver is ALWAYS LATE! YESTERDAY HE WAS 20 MINUTES LATE. And everyday prior it was at least 15. I got stuck in a heavy thunderstorm 1 day because he was late, did he even offer an apology? NO! I have a child in daycare and there are fees if you’re late and unfortunately this is my only way home for now. I called the PACE company was given a number where the supervisor for this route was supposedly located and never received an answer when I called. This service is HORRIBLE!!! I’m going to have to purchase a car so I don’t have to deal with this.

Love Pace Suburban Bus! It gets me to work comfortable and relaxed. The 307 bus is almost never more than 5 minutes late in the morning. The afternoon commute is a bit less reliable, but the buses are scheduled every 15 minutes, so even if you miss a bus, you won’t wait very long for the next one to arrive. I have also used the 305 occasionally as well.
The bus pass is $ 60/​month, which is hard to beat.
5 stars/​5

May not always be on time depending on traffic conditions and buses getting caught by freight trains thanks to street level railroads, but Pace is consistently on time, clean, safe, and reliable. Much better than CTA buses that’s for sure in many more ways than one.
One thing I don’t like about Pace is the fact that there are so many routes that are short such as 308 and the 357 which I use to take. Another thing being that not all routes run when they should on weeldays and on weekends, two things that CTA looks to have corrected a long time ago. Otherwise, all I can say is that it’s recommended.

I like Pace better than the CTA. The buses are normally on time. I use the 226 and 270 routes a lot to get to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. The 226 runs only on the weekdays. Other routes I take and I love the trips I go on because you go through really cool parts of the burbs. The buses are always clean and the drivers are much friendlier than the CTA a-​holes. I wish there was a Pace bus that goes to Gurnee Mills Mall. There might be but I haven’t seen it. What’s also nice about pace is that they are still cheap to ride. 1.75 one way and they still offer transfer cards unlike the CTA where you have to pay per ride.

you know what the thing about PACE is? it’s been always on time for me. i take it to work (the blue line to rosemont– and the 606 from there to woodfield & then back).
the 606 is always waiting for me as i get off the blue line in the morning. and in the afternoon, arrives exactly when it’s supposed to at woodfield. so good times about that.
the problem with it, though, involves the drivers. the other day i got on and immediately noticed the driver had some severe ticks going on (jaw drops, shoulders that raised up and down, his head was moving in all sorts of directions… just to name a few). now, i’m not discriminating on ticks, here– that’s not what im about.
what concerned me, however, was that his ticks were DEFINITELY affecting his driving. crazy jerky braking, sometimes in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. i could see his ticks from the back of the bus! i kid you not, i fell off of my seat entirely a total of three times.
before i came to my senses and realized i should get off the bus for my own safety, he got on the express way and there was nothing else i could do. we all made it to rosemont fine, but it was scary getting there.
another time, the driver got stuck in a ton of traffic on 90 (shocker). he put the bus in park, got off and peed on the side of it. this is some crazy shit, my friends.

My experience is solely based on regularly taking the #690 route to and from a Metra station in my suburban warfare known as my morning and evening commute.
If the #690 were a girlfriend or friend, I’d dump it. While it can be counted on sometimes, when I really am in need, it’s noticeably absent. Unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil in my life.
The only thing keeping me from dropping this to a 1-​star review is the morning half of my commute goes nearly seamlessly. I step off the Metra and the #690 bus is at the station and waiting for me to board. Perfect. It’s the ride home that makes my life miserable.
I’ve waited for buses that were over a half hour late, or more recently, stuck in terrible snow storms (yes, plural!) waiting for buses that never arrive. Pace would be a convenient option if it were reliable. It makes the CTA #22 bus look like it’s on schedule every day.
Pace, I wish I could quit you now.

Well, gotta say Pace has been the gamut of experiences for me. They have ranged from being very enjoyable, to being an annoying necessary evil (due to the fact that sadly, the only access to a car I have is using my parent’s one). Until my very recent experience waiting for an eastbound #92 bus, the only times I’d ever been blown off by any bus drivers waiting for a bus had been for Pace routes (*looks mostly at the older white male drivers who’ve been guilty of that*). Another annoying aspect about Pace is you have to carefully research the frequency of buses on whatever route you’re taking to somewhere and/​or make sure the time you wanna catch a bus isn’t a short run that does not cover a whole route, so that you don’t end up waiting 60 – 90 minutes in the middle of the burbs at times for a bus, and/​or get totally stranded in the burbs after a last bus for a route.
Now for the good about Pace. The seats are much more comfy than on CTA buses, and usually cleaner too. They do a decent job of providing Pace schedules on buses for whatever bus you may need to take somewhere, in case you were lazy and forgot to print out a pdf schedule online. Finally, in case you either forget to put enough money on your transit card/​Chicago Card/​CC+, or forgot to bring one of those altogether, you still can purchase a transfer for other buses (though only valid for other Pace routes). Try doing that on CTA buses with cash, since nowadays you will be set back $ 2 for EACH CTA bus ride you take.
Now since probably most of you don’t realize which places you can possibly get to via Pace, I’m gonna reveal a few hidden/​mostly unknown destinations their buses go to below, and I’ve used them to get to some of these places:
#250 Dempster (and IMHO, may in actuality be a better way than taking the #290 west to the Cumberland Blue Line stop, due to the Rosemont-O’Hare Blue Line closure): downtown Evanston, Skokie Swift station, downtown Des Plaines, Allstate Arena, and the airport transit tram
#208 Golf Rd.: Old Orchard Shopping Center, Golf Mill, downtown Des Plaines, Woodfield Mall (#209 used to go to Woodfield, but nowadays you have to transfer in downtown Des Plaines, if you’re taking it to head towards Woodfield)
#330 Mannheim Rd./Lagrange Rd.: downtown La Grange, the Countryside shopping center area, Archer/​Harlem
#322 Cermak Rd.: Broadview shopping area (where the closest Super Target to Chicago is located), Oak Brook Center, Yorktown Mall
I could go on and on all day listing more examples, but I won’t. One last negative about Pace: the trivia they show on the bus TVs are way too easy. :)

Pace is a great convienince for me if I need it. Sometimes I just don;t feel like driving to work or dealing with traffic. I have two bus lines within a mile from me and they will take me to either the Red or Orange lines depending on where I am going.
I would not want to have to rely on Pace every day. In non-​peak hours the busses run only about once an hour and during peak hours, the run about one every half hour. You really have to plan your trip carefully because if ou miss your bus, you are screwed.
When you have snowstorms they tend to run really late and i don’t blame Pace for this one. For the most part, snow removal in the burbs on major streets is not even close to what is done in the city of Chicago. This slows EVERYONE down, Pace busses included. I blame the municipalities in those cases. I would rather be safe and late then dead in a flipped over Pace bus.
Planning a trip from burb to burb on Pace can be a challenge and can take a long time but it can be done.
The busses are in pretty good shape though and decently comfortable. They always do the trick when I do need to ride the Pace bus.

Pace can be anywhere btween 1 – 5 stars depending on:
a) The route
b) The driver
c) The time
Often not consistent with the schedule (and it really bugs me when they show up a few minutes early and another one doesn’t come for a while), but most of the drivers are nice, helpful, and sometimes just downright cool. Occasionally you get an idiot though.
A lot of the people who ride are rude, smelly, loud, or just damn annoying. Some times you just want to pass massive amounts of gas to get them away from you.

I am now taking the Pace bus to work, and I am miserable. Metra!, I miss you!
The bus itself is fine: clean and warm, although never consistent schedule-​wise.
The problem is the passengers – from the dumb (literally – conversations that make you grind your teeth) teenage Notre Dame boys to the fat, fat ladies who insist on squeezing into the seat next to me and almost knocking my teeth out with their elbows! It’s all too much for me to deal with at 7 AM. I would rather ride the dirty, scuzzy Red Line.

Air conditioned to the max in the summer (padded bra needed– unless you want to point) and warm and cozy in the winter. I really don’t mind taking the bus in the burbs. You have to do a bit of schedule planning if you want to connect to other Pace routes, and sometimes the buses can run way off from the printed schedule. But there is one plus: There are some of the buses that are more like charter buses, with huge, comfy, high-​backed, reclining seats, reading lights, and overhead baggage room.