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Editorials
Is Park-n-Ride needed to secure Metra station? : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisIs Park-n-Ride needed to secure Metra station?
| 9/13/2012
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The Oswego Village Board is expected to vote next Tuesday, Sept. 18, on a motion to join the Kendall Area Transit (KAT) bus service.
Membership in KAT will serve to make all village residents eligible for the agency's dial-a-ride bus service.
Less certain, however, is the outcome of another board vote on a contract with KAT to provide weekday bus service to the village's Metra Park-n-Ride facility near the northwest corner of Orchard and Mill roads. From our vantage point there is a real possibility the board will vote to reject the agreement and allow the Park-n-Ride to close when the village's current contract for bus service to the facility with Pace expires Dec. 31.
Under the proposed contract with KAT, the agency would expand the number of bus runs from the Park-n-Ride to the Metra station at the downtown Aurora Transportation Center and for less than what the village now pays Pace to provide the service.
A decade ago a prior village board successfully pursued the opening of the Park-n-Ride as the first step towards securing a full-fledged Metra station on the site. The facility, which opened in 2004 along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway's main line tracks, has 299 parking spaces and is designed to accommodate the construction of a full-fledged commuter station.
For the first five years of its operation, the village used federal transportation grants to pay for the Pace bus service to the Park-n-Ride. Those grants, however, ran out three years ago, leaving the village the responsibility of paying for the bus service.
However, during a committee meeting last week-and at prior meetings over the past two years-board members have expressed concern about the village continuing to fund bus service to the Park-n-Ride. They have noted the low ridership and the high cost to the village of providing the service. The question has been why should village taxpayers be subsidizing bus transportation to Aurora for a small group of commuters, including many who didn't even live in the village?
Before the board now decides to end bus service and effectively mothball the Park-n-Ride, we believe they, Village President Brian LeClercq or village staff should first contact Metra to determine the impact that closing the facility will have on the village's chances to eventually secure a full-fledged Metra station for the site.
It could be that closing the Park-n-Ride won't have any impact at all on Metra's consideration of an Oswego station. But, on the other hand, it might cause Metra officials to question the village's desire for and commitment to a station. That could prompt the agency to drop the village further down on its list of communities under consideration as station sites. Village officials should know this before voting to shutter the facility.
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