Chicago could ask Union Station to accommodate Greyhound passengers

CHICAGO — The city of Chicago wants Chicago Union Station to provide waiting rooms for Greyhound bus passengers after the city’s Greyhound station is expected to close in mid-September. Chicago Sun-Times But Amtrak — Union Station’s owner — says it has not been contacted about such a plan and has concerns about whether the area can handle the additional road traffic that Greyhound would create.

Greyhound’s lease on its current depot at 630 West Harrison Street is about to expire, and the company may have to vacate the space by mid-September. John Roberson, the city’s chief operating officer, told the Sun-Times that “from the city’s perspective, the best option is to have passengers board buses at the Chicago Transit Authority transit center at the corner of Canal Street and Jackson Boulevard, across from Union Station.” That would allow passengers to wait at Union Station and use the restrooms, and Greyhound already has a ticket machine at the station. However, nothing is final yet; the city, the CTA and Greyhound owner FlixBus are still negotiating, including requiring Greyhound to align its schedule with the CTA’s.

This is a short-term solution, Roberson said, while the city tries to build a bus station elsewhere.

However, Amtrak made it clear in a statement released today that it sees problems with the plan.

“Amtrak recognizes the need for a permanent intercity bus transit center in the city of Chicago,” the statement said. “We currently provide connectivity for Greyhound buses to Amtrak trains and are pleased to work with stakeholders to explore options for a future facility.”

“This block of Jackson Boulevard is already very congested, and Chicago Union Station is already uncomfortably crowded. This situation was exacerbated when access to Canal Street was lost to a major city road construction project. Putting dozens of intercity buses on Jackson Boulevard and saying that hundreds of daily intercity bus users can shelter in Union Station starting next month are both highly problematic proposals that the city has not yet presented to us.”

A 2023 report from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development called on the city to take action to prevent the closure of the current Greyhound depot, noting that it serves 55 buses daily and carries about 500,000 passengers annually. Those passengers are disproportionately low-income, unemployed, disabled or lack access to private vehicles and will suffer if operations are moved to a curbside location without a safe, climate-controlled waiting room, the paper concluded.

A coalition of about two dozen civic groups has urged the city to buy and preserve the current Greyhound depot, saying in a July letter that “without immediate action, Chicago faces a crisis this fall.” The letter estimates the cost of buying and renovating the station at “less than $40 million – a small fraction of what we typically spend on major transit, airport and highway improvements.” But the city says it found a purchase financially unfeasible due to the cost of modernization and failed in its attempt to obtain a federal grant to buy the facility.