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Pace Pulse

Bus system in greater Chicago

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Pulse is an express bus service and bus rapid transit system operated by Pace, a bus and paratransit agency in the Chicago metropolitan area.

01History

A system of express bus services operated by Pace was proposed as far back as 2014. One line was to run along Milwaukee Avenue from the Jefferson Park Transit Center, serving the Blue Line and the Union Pacific Northwest Line, to the Golf Mill Shopping Center. Despite delays, the Pulse Milwaukee Line opened on August 11, 2019.

Another express bus service was planned to run from O'Hare Airport to Evanston mostly via Dempster Street. The Dempster Line opened on August 13, 2023, at a cost of $10 million; however, buses only ran on Sundays. Services on the Dempster Line began running daily on October 29, 2023.

02Services

Milwaukee Line

The Milwaukee Line (internally designated as route 100) entirely runs along Pace bus route 270 from the Jefferson Park Transit Center to the Golf Mill Shopping Center. The line primarily travels along Milwaukee Avenue.

Stations

The entire route is in Cook County, Illinois.

Location Station Connections and notes
Chicago Jefferson Park Chicago "L": Blue
Metra: Union Pacific Northwest
CTA buses:  56   68   81   81W   85   85A   88   91   92 
Pace: 225, 226, 270
Central CTA buses:  68   85   85A 
Pace: 225, 226
Austin/Ardmore
Devon CTA bus:  86 
Niles Touhy Pace: 290, 411
Chicago, Niles Harlem/Birchwood Pace: 410, 411, 423
Niles Oakton Pace: 226, 410, 411
Main Pace: 410
Dempster Pace Pulse:  Dempster Line
Pace: 250, 410
Golf Mill Pace: 208, 240, 241, 270, 272, 410, 411, 412

Dempster Line

The Dempster Line (internally designated as 101) entirely runs along Pace bus route 250 from O'Hare Multi-Modal Facility, which directly connects to O'Hare International Airport via the Airport Transit System, to a station hub on Davis Street in Evanston. The majority of the line travels along Dempster Street.

Stations

The entire route is in Cook County, Illinois.

Location Station Connections and notes
Chicago O'Hare ATS to O'Hare Airport
Metra: North Central Service (O'Hare Transfer)
Pace: 250, 330
Rosemont, Des Plaines Higgins Pace: 223W, 223E
Des Plaines Lee/Touhy Pace: 221
Oakton Pace: 226
Des Plaines Metra Metra: Union Pacific Northwest
Pace: 208, 209, 226, 230, 234
Des Plaines, Park Ridge Dee
Park Ridge, Niles Western Pace: 241, 411
Niles Cumberland
Milwaukee Pace Pulse:  Milwaukee Line
Pace: 270, 410
Niles, Morton Grove Harlem Pace: 410, 423
Morton Grove Waukegan Pace: 210
Austin
Skokie Dempster-Skokie CTA Chicago "L": Yellow
CTA buses:  54A   97 
Pace: 626
Crawford Pace: 215
St. Louis
Evanston Dodge CTA buses:  93   206 
Davis CTA/Metra Chicago "L": Purple (Davis)
Metra: Union Pacific North (Davis Street/​Evanston)
CTA buses:  93   201   206 
Pace: 208, 213, 250

03Future

Pace is planning to add two more Pulse lines, both of which will be located in the South Side of Chicago and the south suburbs. One line will mostly run along 95th Street from the Moraine Valley Community College to the Red Line's 95th/Dan Ryan station; another will mostly run along Halsted Street from Harvey station on the Metra Electric District line to the same Red Line station that the 95th Street Line will end.

Watch videos about Pace PulseExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Pace Pulse, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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