With free rides this week and next, transit officials are hoping to get more people on the bus.

Through Friday, Sept. 12, Pace is not charging fares on Route 714, which runs from downtown Wheaton to Naperville with stops at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn along the way.

Thanks to a federal grant, this is the second time the suburban bus service has offered two weeks of free rides on Route 714, also called the COD Connector. Last September saw a bump of almost 100 riders per day after the promotion, and transit officials are again hoping to get more on board as COD students head back to school.

More riders could be crucial to keeping alive the 2-year-old route, the future of which is uncertain after next year.

The COD Connector started in August 2006 with the backing of a $700,000 federal clean-air grant. The funds make up 80 percent of the costs of running the route.

The rest of the money comes from the communities served by the route, such as Wheaton, which has pledged up to $48,000 this year. The $1.50 fare each rider pays goes back to those communities, reducing the amount of money they actually need to spend.

But the federal grant is not permanent, and it could run out as early as this spring.

“Asking for that funding for a third year might be a stretch. We don’t know that for certain, but it’s a stretch,” said Mark Avery, who heads up the planning aspect of the DuPage County Department of Economic Development and Planning.

The county, along with the city of Wheaton, is a member of the intergovernmental group looking after the route. Called the COD Connector Team, it also includes the city of Naperville and COD administrators, among others.

Together, the group is now looking for ways to keep the route going in the event that the federal funding disappears.

One option would be having local communities step up their shares of subsidizing the route.

DuPage County and Naperville pay up to $130,000, which combined with Wheaton’s contribution makes up 20 percent of the total cost of the route.

Another option would be to bring Route 714 into the fold of official Pace routes, in which case suburban bus service would shoulder the lion’s share of the costs.

But before that could happen, the route would have to meet some benchmarks. For example, on an official Pace route the money earned from fares has to be at least 18 percent of the total cost of operating the route. In July, it was only about 6 percent on Route 714.

That is a lot of ground to cover, but the route has been steadily growing since it was launched. The weekday ridership in July — 301, on average — is the highest yet and was double the average during the route’s first six months.

While that ridership is just a small percentage of the College of DuPage community — which has around 33,000 students and faculty in a given semester — Route 714 is indispensable for many who use it, said Meri Phillips, director of student activities at COD.

Just last week Phillips recommended the route to a student who was looking to spend less money on commuting, she said.

“There will be people who won’t be able to get here if that route closes down,” she said.