CHICAGO — The city of Chicago wants Chicago Union Station to provide waiting-room space for Greyhound bus passengers after the expected closure of the city’s Greyhound station in mid-September, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. But Amtrak — Union Station’s owner — says it hasn’t been contacted about any such plan and has reservations about the area’s ability to handle the additional street traffic Greyhound would generate.
Greyhound’s lease on its current depot at 630 West Harrison Street ends soon, and the company could have to vacate the space by mid-September. The city’s chief operating officer, John Roberson, told the Sun-Times that having passengers board buses at the Chicago Transit Authority transit center at Canal Street and Jackson Boulevard, across the street from Union Station, “is the best option from the city’s standpoint.” That would allow passengers to wait at Union Station and use its restrooms, and Greyhound already has a ticketing kiosk at the station. However, nothing is final; the city, CTA, and Greyhound owner FlixBus are still negotiating; among other issues, Greyhound would have to adjust its schedule around the CTA’s.
This would be a short-term solution, Roberson said, while the city seeks to develop a bus station elsewhere.
Amtrak, however, made it clear in a statement issued today that it sees problems with the plan.
“Amtrak recognizes the need for a permanent intercity bus transit center location in the City of Chicago,” the statement reads. “We currently provide access to Greyhound buses connecting to Amtrak trains and are happy to participate with stakeholders as they consider options for a future facility.
“That block of Jackson Boulevard is already very congested and Chicago Union Station is already uncomfortably crowded. This situation worsened when Canal Street access was lost to a major city street reconstruction project. Adding dozens of intercity buses to Jackson Boulevard and saying hundreds of daily intercity bus users can take shelter in Union Station starting next month are both highly problematic suggestions the city has yet to present to us.”
A 2023 report from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development called for city action to prevent the closure of the current Greyhound depot, noting that it handles 55 buses daily and handles about 500,000 annual passengers. Those passengers are disproportionately low income, unemployed, disabled, or lack access to private vehicles, and will suffer if operations shift to a curbside location without a secure, climate-controlled waiting room, the paper concluded.
A coalition of some two dozen civic groups has urged the city to buy and maintain the current Greyhound depot, saying in a July letter that “without prompt action, Chicago is headed for a crisis this autumn.” The letter estimates the cost of purchasing and remodeling the station is “less than $40 million — a small fraction of what we regularly spend on major transit, airport, and highway improvement.” But the city says it found a purchase was not financially feasible because of the upgrading costs, and failed in its bid for a federal grant to help buy the facility.
Greyhound is the cause of this problem. They were the owners and sold it off and leased it back. Now the current owners want to redevelop the property. Yes, a decent intercity bus station is desirable but again, Greyhound sold it off to make money and now it becomes the city’s problem. Hopefully wherever this ends I hope that Greyhound would have to pay sufficient rent to pay for any needed upgrades.
I have trepidation about Greyhound sharing space at Chicago Union Station. The facilities established by Greyhound have become magnets of crime in recent years.
Greyhound deserted a large terminal inherited from Trailways in Downtown Houston last year (1923) for a small station at a remote location on the east side of town near the East Freeway (I-10). Residents in the area complain about the increase in crimes.
Greyhound stations are deposit points for parolees and ex-convicts.