Chicago area partygoers will have several alternative ways to get home safely on New Year’s Eve, thanks to free trips to Metra, Pace and the Chicago Transit Authority.
From 10pm on December 31st until 4am on January 1st, free travel will be offered on all CTA buses and trains with the help of a Miller Lite sponsorship. Pace will provide free paratransit bus and ADA travel for the same period of time.
“I sincerely hope that the availability of safe, free travel to the CTA on this New Year’s Eve night will mean a healthy holiday for all children,” CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said in a statement.
Pilots will not have to touch their Ventra cards on turnstiles at CTA train stations or city buses.
In addition, Metra will offer free travel on its trains for the first time in the agency’s history. The offer applies to all train journeys that begin at 6pm on New Year’s Eve and end on Wednesday morning, according to the agency.
The last Metra trains to leave will be held to welcome those attending the New Year’s Eve festivities, with trains leaving between 1:10 and 1:25 in the morning, depending on the line taken by passengers.
Pace offers a limited bus service from 10 to 4 p.m., the agency said, but “the ADA paratransit service operates 24 hours a day in the city of Chicago.”