Pace Destination Signs

[Busjack]

After a decade 208 is back to 208  EVANSTON 208 DAVIS CTA.

[Pace831]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

After a decade 208 is back to 208  EVANSTON 208 DAVIS CTA.

I noticed they changed some of the Joliet destination signs and now they make less sense. I saw a NB 504 that said "CENTER CITY" (shouldn't that be CITY CENTER), which didn't flip to anything else. A 508 still had the old "JOLIET CTR" sign. An even stranger one was on the NB 834 trip that leaves Joliet at 5:10 PM and only goes to Bolingbrook. It used to be 834 JOLIET-DRGV (flip) 834 BOLINGBROOK. When I saw it, it was 834 JOLIET-DRGV (flip) 834 53/OLD CHGO (flip) 834 VIA 75TH. Makes no sense because it goes to Briarcliff, not Old Chicago, and via 75th is irrelevant because the bus doesn't go that far. Another observation, they put up standard bus stop signs downtown for what is supposed to be a temporary detour. I suppose they're relatively easy to install and they didn't want to confuse people at the transfer area.

[MetroShadow]

On 7/29/2017 at 4:20 PM, Busjack said:

After a decade 208 is back to 208  EVANSTON 208 DAVIS CTA.

When I visited last week, the westbound trips were different. 

 

208 Schaumburg / NW TRANS CTR

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

When I visited last week, the westbound trips were different. 

 

208 Schaumburg / NW TRANS CTR

It is 208 Schaumburg/208 Northwest TC and about everything to there was changed to that format when the I-90 project kicked in. 606 is now 606 Schaumburg/606 Woodfield /606 Corporate Ctr. Note there is actually a slash after Schaumburg.

Looks like Pace is getting a little more consistent on giving the same point the same name, i.e. both 307 and 757 have Harlem/South Blvd./CTA Green Line, even though the preliminary 307 Harlem has been deleted from other destinations (and Argo is no more). Still haven't done anything about 626 SKOKIE SWFT, even though there is also 620 Dempster/620 Yellow Line.

[Pace831]

I noticed an 888 destination sign still said "S HOLLAND" despite that stop being discontinued a while ago.

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

...

Actually, CTA is way more consistent than Pace, which either includes or omits route names, leaves out vowels, uses inconsistent names for the same terminal (i.e. NWTC NORTHWST TC; DAVIS CTA/DAVIS METRA, EASTBOUND/EVANSTON), intermediate stops without "via," and wrong way readings.

 

 

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

...

As for Pace,  they were trying to implement route names that emphasizes communities rather than streets.  The 303 used to be Madison/19th,  but when combined with the 325 it became 303 Rosemont CTA and 303 Forest Park CTA.  The 208 used to be Golf Rd.  I suppose that at a place like Golf Mill where both eastbound and westbound buses stoo at the same place,  it's easier to differentiate the two, especially for seniors who might be coming from the Niles Free Bus .  It does seem extreme for one bus stop, but at least seniors don't have to ask which way the 208 is going.   The same can be true at Woodfield Mall 

Since we diverged from CTA:

Being more used to the CTA grid system (except 1 Bronzeville-Union Station diverges from that), I disagree with Pace's "connecting communities" (as you characterized it) or destination to destination route names because where both atr used (i.e. 832 Joliet-Orland Square/Orland Square) they are redundant. That seems to be more prevalent in the collar cities.

On the 208, I recognized the theory that at Old Orchard, Oakton College, and Golf Mill, buses go in both directions, so the EASTBOUND may be useful, but the WESTBOUND was lost when the I-90 express bus system was implemented and 208 WESTBOUND/SCHAUMBURG became 208 SCHAUMBURG /NORTHWST TC (as did 600 and 607). Anyway, my point was EVANSTON was EVANSTON, until Pulse, when it and 250 became DAVIS CTA/DAVIS METRA for the same spot. BTW, Pace West buses seem to show Green Line or Pink Line, while others usually just say CTA, but maybe that's because there are more L lines there, but FOR PK CTA is not signed BLUE LINE.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

 

Since we diverged from CTA:

Being more used to the CTA grid system (except 1 Bronzeville-Union Station diverges from that), I disagree with Pace's "connecting communities" (as you characterized it) or destination to destination route names because where both atr used (i.e. 832 Joliet-Orland Square/Orland Square) they are redundant. That seems to be more prevalent in the collar cities.

On the 208, I recognized the theory that at Old Orchard, Oakton College, and Golf Mill, buses go in both directions, so the EASTBOUND may be useful, but the WESTBOUND was lost when the I-90 express bus system was implemented and 208 WESTBOUND/SCHAUMBURG became 208 SCHAUMBURG /NORTHWST TC (as did 600 and 607). Anyway, my point was EVANSTON was EVANSTON, until Pulse, when it and 250 became DAVIS CTA/DAVIS METRA for the same spot. BTW, Pace West buses seem to show Green Line or Pink Line, while others usually just say CTA, but maybe that's because there are more L lines there, but FOR PK CTA is not signed BLUE LINE.

I certainly agree with you about the Pace connecting Communities thing.  I only mentioned that as part of Pace's inconsistencies. 

The 1 got its name because the line was truncated from both Indiana and Hyde Park so that neither made sense to use 

Also when the 120 and the 121 got extended,  they became Oglivie/Streeterville and Union/ Streeterville  respectively  

[MetroShadow]

On 8/15/2026 at 7:50 AM, Busjack said:

Pace has had its share of sign mess-ups going back (as far as I know) to 2006, but most (and this one) seem to be failing to sync the Transitmaster with the sign controller, although it is hard to see how 1003 became an obsolete 9071.

Pulled over from my observation this weekend from NW, the updated 315 signs never turned up either (most were blank or “A1Message” errors)

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Pulled over from my observation this weekend from NW, the updated 315 signs never turned up either (most were blank or “A1Message” errors)

Those simply mean that that slot  on the sign controller (hypothetically 3157) wasn't programmed. For instance, those displays showed up on 604 for a couple of weeks until they finally became 604 Buffalo Grove/604 via Dundee (which, I contend is an ambiguous message, since it could mean the municipalities instead of the roads).

[Sam92]

2 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Pulled over from my observation this weekend from NW, the updated 315 signs never turned up either (most were blank or “A1Message” errors)

Might be a slow roll out. Saw a post on Facebook that said they finally got to it yesterday. 

[TaylorTank1229]

4 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Pulled over from my observation this weekend from NW, the updated 315 signs never turned up either (most were blank or “A1Message” errors)

Yeah I bought that up in the earlier weeks of the 315 extension. The New Flyers going to Midway would either be blank, say “NOT IN SERVICE” or still have up “315 CENTRL/38TH”. Someone on the bus 2 weeks ago still assumed the bus still went down west on Pershing because they lived on Austin and 37th Street.

[Busjack]

41 minutes ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

Yeah I bought that up in the earlier weeks of the 315 extension. The New Flyers going to Midway would either be blank, say “NOT IN SERVICE” or still have up “315 CENTRL/38TH”. Someone on the bus 2 weeks ago still assumed the bus still went down west on Pershing because they lived on Austin and 37th Street.

I wonder if the problem is that the NFs have the multi-color displays and have to be programmed separately. (Not much different than CTA having TwinVision and  Luminator at the same time, and now Luminator and Hanover.) And even though  Pace has only used the fake orange readings since about 2 weeks into Dempster Pulse.

5 hours ago, MetroShadow said:

Pulled over from my observation this weekend from NW, the updated 315 signs never turned up either (most were blank or “A1Message” errors)

I seem to recollect that CTA 5800s also had A1 MESSAGE, which was larger than the display area of the sign.

[TaylorTank1229]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

I wonder if the problem is that the NFs have the multi-color displays and have to be programmed separately. (Not much different than CTA having TwinVision and  Luminator at the same time, and now Luminator and Hanover.) And even though  Pace has only used the fake orange readings since about 2 weeks into Dempster Pulse.

I seem to recollect that CTA 5800s also had A1 MESSAGE, which was larger than the display area of the sign.

A friend of mine on FB group posted this from today. Seems the NFs are now showing “315 MIDWAY CTA” 

[Busjack]

27 minutes ago, TaylorTank1229 said:

A friend of mine on FB group posted this from today. Seems the NFs are not show “315 MIDWAY CTA” 

I think you meant to say "now" not "not."

[TaylorTank1229]

50 minutes ago, Busjack said:

I think you meant to say "now" not "not."

Indeed, I was typing quickly & didn’t notice. Thanks for catching that