The refurbished section of the Northwest Transportation Center sports the new Pace-themed coat of paint. (Photos by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

The renovations of Pace’s Northwest Transportation Center in Schaumburg won’t be completed until next summer due to permitting-related delays. 

The center is a major regional transfer hub, with buses going as far east as Evanston, as far north as Palatine and as far west as Elgin.  

Pace broke ground on the renovations on July 19, 2023, with the goal of finishing the project by the end of 2024. However, according to Pace spokesperson Stephen DiBenedetto, the delays pushed the project start date to the beginning of this year.  

When the work is complete, the Northwest Transportation Center will have expanded parking, more parking spots for people with disabilities and electric vehicle charging stations. For the first time, it will have a fully enclosed passenger waiting area with public restrooms. New sidewalks are being built south and west of the center to make it safer for pedestrians to reach the nearby office towers, hotels and businesses.  

The Northwest Transportation Center was originally built in 1993. It is used by five local routes, two regularly scheduled express routes, a Soldier Field express route that runs during Bears games and a Schaumburg Trolley circulator service. The center is located south of Woodfield Mall and west of the Streets of Woodfield shopping area, which both have historically been major destinations. Like other Pace Park-n-Ride facilities, it was built with ample parking and a drop-off area for passengers taking the buses to Chicago and other suburbs.

Before the renovations, the Transportation Center had a large roof and bus shelters with heat lamps.

The future location of the fully enclosed passenger shelter and ADA transfer facility.

However, unlike the Rosemont Transportation Center at the eponymous Blue Line ‘L’ station, there is no fully enclosed waiting area. As with most Chicago area bus hubs, the restrooms are reserved for bus drivers. 

The renovated center will include an indoor passenger waiting area with restrooms roughly where the driver restrooms are located. As before, it will have Ventra card machines and real-time bus arrival displays, but the renovated facility will also use audio announcements. 

The parking will be expanded, going from 192 parking spaces, six of which are Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, to 301 spaces, eight of which are ADA-compliant. To accommodate more space, Pace is building a second parking lot west of the transportation center, at the former site of the Woodfield post office.  

The original parking lot will have a larger drop-off area, and a pair of electric vehicle charging stations that can each charge two cars. New sidewalks will be built along Mall and Kimberly drives to make the center more accessible to pedestrians. 

The section of the Northwest Transportation Center with the older color scheme.

Finally, in a notable change, the transportation center will serve as a transfer hub for area paratransit services.  

The Pace project webpage indicated that the agency consulted its ADA Advisory Committee before finalizing the design. The project is funded with $8.2 million in Rebuilt Illinois state capital bill funding.  

When Chronicle Media recently stopped by the transportation center, work was well underway. The northeastern section of the bus bays got a new blue and white coat of paint, similar to Pace’s official colors, while the other parts still sported the older crimson and gray paint scheme. The construction work closed the bays in the middle, so some buses picked up passengers at Kimberly Drive.  

DiBenedetto said that the permit issues merely delayed the project. 

“The village [of Schaumburg] building permitting process led to associated drawing changes that delayed further construction at the site last year,” he said. “Activity picked back up in the first couple of months of this year and has been progressing steadily throughout the year.” 

Affected Services 

In the press release announcing the groundbreaking, Pace described the renovation as a way to

Renovations continue at the Northwest Transportation Center.

support its I-90/Jane Addams Tollway corridor express services. In December 2016, Pace significantly expanded its presence in the corridor. It increased frequency on Route 600, which runs express between the Rosemont Blue Line ‘L’ station and the Northwest Transportation Center and launched three new routes. One of those routes, Route 607, runs between the transportation center and I-90/Randall Road Park-n-Ride in Elgin. Riders can also transfer to Route 603, which runs express to downtown Elgin, at I-90/Barrington Road Station in Barrington.  

Pace previously indicated that, last year, 63 percent of the riders use the four express routes to get to work. The ridership varied, with 600 getting the highest ridership of the four and 607 getting the lowest. 

December 2016 also saw Pace launch three new local routes to support the new express service, but only one of them survived the pandemic. Route 604 runs express between Woodfield Mall and Rand Road along IL-53 highway, then mostly follows Dundee Road corridor, serving Palatine, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove and Wheeling. 

Route 697 was launched Aug. 8, 2022 to partially replace Route 696, which was discontinued during the pandemic, providing service to Harper Community College and businesses along Algonquin and Meecham roads in Schaumburg and Palatine.  

The other three locals are longtime services. Route 208 primarily serves the Golf Road corridor in Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove, Skokie and Evanston. Route 554 offers a local option to reach downtown Elgin, serving parts of Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Hanover Park and Streamwood. Route 606 is a more local version of Route 600, serving parts of Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows and Mount Prospect.