CIN submits Pace Board comment on western Kane connections.
Written public comment for the October 21, 2026 Pace Board meeting · Agenda Item 8A · Kyle Johansen, Founder
What we asked for
Connect Illinois Network submitted written public comment for the October 21, 2026 Pace Board meeting regarding Item 8A, the ReVision Network Revitalization and Systemwide Restructuring Initiative.
Through Connect Kane, we asked Pace to carry forward an On Demand connection between western Kane County and the Elburn Metra station, beginning with a connection from the St. Charles/Geneva service area. We also asked that this connection be considered in regional planning with NITA.
This is CIN’s submitted request, not an approved service expansion. The meeting agenda lists Item 8A under Issues/Discussions/Reports. Pace describes the October 21 presentation as the unveiling of a draft network plan for public review.
Reading this record
The text below preserves the wording supplied by Kyle Johansen as submitted; paragraph spacing has been adapted for the web. It records CIN’s advocacy at the time of submission.
For a description of existing rail, shuttle, nearby Pace, and eligibility-based services, see our western Kane transportation guide. The Unmet Demand Registry remains in development and is not accepting registrations.
Submitted comment
Subject: Public Comment - Agenda Item 8A 1. Name: Kyle Johansen 2. Agenda Item: Item 8A — ReVision Network Revitalization and Systemwide Restructuring Initiative 3. Public Comment:
Chair Noak and Members of the Pace Board of Directors:
Connect Illinois Network is a nonprofit mobility-management organization, and our Connect Kane program is working to improve transportation access in Kane County. We write regarding Item 8A to place one gap and one request on the record, and to thank Director Dahl for representing Kane County on this Board.
The Union Pacific West Line ends at the Elburn Metra station, and Pace has no general-public service in Elburn. Pace’s fixed-route network in Kane County reaches the Kane County Judicial Center on Route 38 and turns back, nine miles east of the station. South and west of Elburn, Sugar Grove, Kaneville, Big Rock, and Maple Park also have no general-public service. Since August 1, their residents have paid the regional sales tax that supports this system.
This month’s expansion of the Access program to Pace shows why that matters. A $1 fare for SNAP participants is a real benefit, and we are glad to see it extended across the region. But a fare discount can only reach a rider who has a ride to take. In western Kane County, it reaches no one.
Pace already has the tools to reach these communities. The Batavia On Demand zone feeds the Geneva Metra station on this same line. The Northwest Cook On Demand expansion this March showed how quickly service can launch when a county and its municipalities partner with Pace. Initiative S-2 of Pace’s Driving Innovation plan names On Demand at rail stations as the agency’s coverage tool. Kane County’s 2040 Long Range Transit Plan identified this corridor in 2010 — Strategies 4E, 4F, and 4G. The plan was right, but the funding moment was wrong. That moment has changed.
So has the law. The Regional Transportation Authority Act, as amended by P.A. 104-0543, now directs the regional Strategic Plan toward “increasing access for transit-dependent populations,” and toward access by low-income communities to places of employment, including the availability of public transportation at off-peak hours and on weekends (70 ILCS 3615/2.01a). Western Kane is where those words describe people with no service at all.
Our request: as ReVision is finalized, carry forward an On Demand connection between Western Kane County and the Elburn Metra station, beginning with a connection from the St. Charles/Geneva service area to Elburn. We ask that this connection also be part of the regional service planning and service standards being developed with NITA through 2027.
Demand in these communities has never been directly measured, because ridership data cannot exist where there is no service. Connect Kane is building an Unmet Demand Registry, organized around the statute’s own population categories, to measure it. We will share what it finds with your planning staff, whatever it shows.
Thank you for your service to the region.
Respectfully, Kyle Johansen Founder, Connect Illinois Network