WEST LOOP — LaKei Carter has been coming to Chicago a lot this summer.
The Toledo, Ohio, resident and fashion designer is appearing as an extra on “The Chi” and has taken the bus here for shoots four times since June. Each trip, she’s passed through Chicago’s Greyhound terminal at 630 W. Harrison St., which serves multiple bus lines for people traveling to the city or waiting to connect elsewhere.
From her fellow riders to the drivers and other employees she’s encountered, Carter only had good things to say about taking the bus as she waited for a Lyft outside the station Wednesday morning.
“Everybody’s helpful because I don’t know where I’m going, and things of that nature. And they were very polite,” she said. “I’ve never had any issues.”
Rider Tom Higley’s experience hasn’t been quite as positive.
By 9 a.m. Wednesday, Higley was nearing the end of a 48-hour bus journey that had taken him from south Florida to Chicago. He had about an hour to kill before the final leg of his trip to Lansing, Michigan, where he was going to visit his grandmother.
Higley was spending the layover inside the Chicago terminal. He hadn’t been so lucky throughout his trip, though. After taking a bus from Port St. Lucie to Hollywood, Florida, earlier this week, Higley ended up waiting hours for his next ride outside a train station with no available amenities.
That experience could be a snapshot of what’s just around the corner for inter-city bus riders in Chicago as the Greyhound station faces imminent closure.
Greyhound parent company Flix North America’s lease on the Harrison Street property is expected to end in October, and company CEO Kai Boysan told the Sun-Times this week that the station could be vacated as soon as mid-September.
If that does happen, it’s not clear where the dozens of buses that drop off and pick up riders at the terminal every day would go. Some companies may instead offer curbside service — or perhaps take riders to a designated location not yet made public by the city.
One option could be allowing riders to board at the CTA’s transit center at Canal Street and Jackson Boulevard while waiting inside Union Station across the street — but that plan is not final and negotiations are ongoing, John Roberson, the city’s chief operating officer, told the Sun-Times Thursday.
For more than a year, transit advocates have been raising the alarm on what they call a “slow-moving bomb” and a “huge problem” brewing for bus riders in Chicago — one that could leave travelers out in the cold and possibly reduce the number of buses that run through the city.
Last month, more than 20 transit and community groups signed a public letter urging Mayor Brandon Johnson to allocate funds to buy the Greyhound terminal and lease out space to bus companies to maintain service.
But the city confirmed this week it does not plan to do so and is instead “evaluating alternative options to ensure intercity bus services continue without interruption,” a spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, riders are concerned that without a secure place to wait for transfers, or simply to catch a ride home or to work — like Carter was on Wednesday — people could be put in dangerous circumstances.
“Dropping me off, a stranger, that’s not comfortable,” Carter said. “You know, I’m not scared of anyone, but I wouldn’t feel OK putting myself in that situation … . I just don’t think that’s OK.”
‘A Disservice To Everybody’
Greyhound has operated out of its terminal at Desplaines and Harrison streets since the late ’80s. Other bus lines, including Barons, Burlington Trailways and FlixBus, also service the station.
About 500,000 people use the terminal every year, said professor Joe Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University, where he studies urban planning and transportation issues. He’s also the author of “Terminal Town,” a history of Chicago airports, bus depots and train stations.
Schwieterman said inter-city buses provide an essential travel option for older people, low-income riders, those with disabilities and people who can’t or don’t drive.
But over the past few years, Greyhound stations have been closing around the country.
In 2021, the bus company was acquired by FlixBus in a deal that did not include the Chicago terminal and numerous other properties. The following year, 33 Greyhound stations were bought by a subsidiary of the Alden Global Capital hedge fund, which has been selling them off, according to Axios.
The past three years have acted as a sort of “grace period” in hopes a permanent solution for bus riders in Chicago could be found, Schwieterman said during public comment at a recent City Council committee hearing.
But with the terminal lease ending in a matter of weeks, there is still no official plan to accommodate bus traffic — and the repercussions could be massive, transportation advocates told Block Club.
Losing the station is going to be a “real mess,” and it could lead to major inconveniences for travelers as well as increased congestion on Chicago streets where buses could potentially pick up and drop off riders, Schwieterman said.
Bus companies may also offer less service and fewer transfers without a dedicated terminal, Schwieterman and Micheál Podgers, policy director for the Better Streets Chicago advocacy group, said in interviews last month.
“As a result, you’ll have a lot of riders who are going to lose inter-city transportation options, and that’s going to range everywhere from tourists to students to lower-income riders to people who just need to get to Madison, for example,” Podgers said. “That is absolutely going to have an economic blow on the city, but also our peer cities across the region. And so that’s doing a disservice to everybody at that point.”
Advocates have pointed to Philadelphia as a “carbon copy” of what could happen in Chicago.
The Philadelphia Greyhound station closed last year after more than 35 years in operation. The city has since moved the designated bus pickup area several times, leading to complaints from riders about the lack of indoor waiting space and amenities as well as issues with neighbors and nearby businesses.
“That’s pretty much what we’re going to have here,” Schwieterman said. “This is not just a case of passengers going to suffer. We’re going to have a lot of backlash of people out on the street with their luggage, impeding sidewalk flow, bringing down the aesthetics of the neighborhood. That’s playing out in Philadelphia.”
Acquisition Not Happening, City Says
In their July letter, transit advocates and community activists urged the city or another public entity to buy the Greyhound station, a move they say could lead to greater bus service at the now-underused terminal.
Schwieterman estimates it could cost about $40 million to buy the site — not a small chunk of change, he admits, but a much cheaper option than building a standalone terminal elsewhere.
The move would not be without precedent: Major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and others all have some level of public involvement in their bus terminal.
Podgers agreed the city buying the terminal and leasing it out to bus companies would be the “best-case scenario” for riders from Chicago and those just passing through.
But in a statement Wednesday, a Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson said that while the city has been exploring options to “maintain a terminal” in Chicago since last year, nothing has been nailed down — and buying the current station is not going to happen.
“The city of Chicago applied for funding from the federal Buses and Bus Facilities Program to purchase the existing terminal, but the application was denied. The city also explored buying the current facility, but found the acquisition financially unfeasible,” department spokesperson Erica Schroeder said. “Currently, the city is evaluating alternative options to ensure intercity bus services continue without interruption.”
One option could be to use Union Station and the nearby CTA transit center as a temporary site, Roberson told the Sun-Times.
The Mayor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment this week.
In a statement of its own, Greyhound’s parent company on Wednesday offered few specifics about negotiations with the city or where buses may end up.
“Intercity buses are essential to Chicago’s transportation ecosystem, providing vital services to vulnerable populations, including minority groups, lower-income communities, students, individuals with disabilities, and those without cars,” Boysan, the Flix North America CEO, said in the statement. “We remain optimistic that all local stakeholders will recognize the urgent need to make a decision and will soon come together for the benefit of city residents to agree on a formalized solution that ensures continued service for passengers.”
That leaves advocates urging the city to find a permanent solution that doesn’t impede inter-city bus travel or harm travelers — with the hope that a planned City Council committee hearing next month on the issue could help buy time before the Harrison terminal closes.
Many remain frustrated with the process and inaction from City Hall and other levels of government — what Schwieterman characterized as having a “hot potato quality” where no one is taking ownership of the potential problems to come.
“The city can’t act like they didn’t know this wasn’t coming. They’ve had warning from the company, from advocates, from other cities,” Podgers said this week. “It remains frustrating that something that could be solved in a relatively straightforward manner, isn’t. And that is largely a result of the Mayor’s Office and CDOT choosing not to give attention to this.”
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