Many NIU students come from the Chicago metropolitan area and are accustomed to the Regional Transit Authority’s comprehensive public transportation network, and go into shock when they discover there is nothing comparable in DeKalb County.

Near Chicago, there are Chicago Transit Authority trains and buses in the city and inner ring of suburbs, Pace buses in the outer suburbs, and Metra commuter trains running throughout the region. DeKalb only has the Huskie Line of buses paid for with student fees and the Green Line of buses TransVAC operates with subsidies from the City of DeKalb.

Most of the NIU students dependent on the Huskie Line, however, have never heard of TransVAC or the Green Line, and many who have heard of the service are under the impression it only operates during the Winter & Spring Breaks, when the Huskie Line is not in operation.

In actuality, it runs year-round from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on major holidays. Explaining the history of TransVAC, Assistant Transportation Director Ellen Rogers said, “TransVAC is what is called a ‘para-transit service,’ and is an outgrowth of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC), a social service agency that has been in existence since 1974,” she said. “We operate in cooperation with the City of DeKalb, the Green Line, which has established stops like the Huskie Line.”

“The Green Line really began a little over two years ago when the Huskie Line had cutbacks,” Rogers said. “There were pockets in DeKalb that were formerly served by the Huskie Line that no longer are served, and we certainly understand that the Huskie Line is paid for out of student fees. We’ve been able to make up the service on the south side of DeKalb, but unfortunately not in Sycamore, and we don’t run on weekends.”

The door to door service charges a $1.50 fare each way for the able-bodied, but this sum is only a suggested donation for the elderly and disabled. The service is only available to begin with because of the Federal Government’s 5311 grant, which subsidizes rural transportation. The Illinois Department of Transportation disburses these funds to the City of DeKalb, which then provides the money to TransVAC.

“Not every rural area has been fortunate enough to get this money, so DeKalb is lucky,” Rogers explained. There is a 50 cent fare to ride the Green Line because the Green Line is not financed through the 5311 grant. Instead, the Green Line service is subsidized by the City of DeKalb.

“Many towns of DeKalb’s size don’t have public transportation networks at all, so it says something about the town that they have made the commitment to subsidize the Green Line,” said Rogers. If the town has been slow to advertise the service, she continued, it is because the service is still in an experimental stage.

To coordinate transportation in the town, Tom Zucker, Executive Transportation Director of TransVAC, meets with Charlie Bautista from the Huskie Line and Rick Clark, Director of University Programming and Activities.

“It is difficult to estimate transportation needs. In Ogle County out west, they say they’re fine [transportation-wise], but they’re not. Since there isn’t any service there, they don’t know they need it,” Rogers said.

A major development in financing public transportation will come about as a result of DeKalb, Sycamore, and Cortland’s combined population having climbed over 50,000 people, according to the latest census figures.

“By law, the City of DeKalb, Sycamore, and Cortland will have to be declared a metropolitan area to receive and spend federal money. By virtue of having the Huskie Line, one of the largest public transportation systems in the state, NIU will be part of the MPO [Metropolitan Planning Organization],” Ray Bachman, the DeKalb County Board’s County Administrator, said.

Going a step further, Eileen Dubin, DeKalb County Board Member for the eighth district, advocates the DeKalb County Board creating a Regional Planning Commission. Dubin said this body would make long range plans for a wide range of issues, including land use, transportation, urban and rural development and waste disposal for all the towns and townships in the county.

To realize this goal, she wants the budget, which will be determined later this month, to include money for a feasibility study.

“A lot of the lower-paying jobs in the region are attracting a diverse population who need public transportation,” Dubin said, or else some of the workers must get illegal drivers licenses to commute.