Chicago Starts Process to Buy Bus Station

Passengers will be out in the cold if depot near train stations closes

Greyhound sold its bus stations over four years ago. Action to prevent Chicago from losing its bus depot has now begun in City Hall.

Preserving and improving the bus station is important for passenger rail because the bus station is located within a few blocks of three of the downtown train terminals in the nation’s passenger rail hub. The bus goes places the train doesn’t go, and a bus station at the existing location connects passengers to local transit, commuter/regional rail and Amtrak. It is indispensable.

The background is that FlixBus purchased Greyhound Lines in 2021. The 31 Greyhound-owned bus stations were sold separately to a private equity firm that is not interested in operating bus stations; they just want to sell the property.

In Philadelphia, the bus station closed, leaving passengers standing on the sidewalk. In Cincinnati, the bus station closed. The area is now served from a trailer in a parking lot 10 miles from downtown, with no transit connection. In Chicago, Greyhound, under pressure from advocacy groups such as ours, agreed to lease and manage the bus station month to month. The station is open for now, precariously, in deteriorating condition.

The city is stepping in with a plan to purchase and renovate the bus station. Plans were announced at a community meeting at City Hall on Jan. 29. Here are the important facts:

1. The city’s Department of Finance believes it can purchase and renovate the bus station for roughly $50 million, as opposed to $80 million for buying and building on a new site, which also would require years of development.
2. The station would pay for its own operation by charging fees to bus operators, and by leasing retail space in the terminal, just as the city owns and operates O’Hare and Midway airports, which are profit-making enterprises for the city.
3. Public ownership of a transportation center such as a bus station is wise. This should be an institution, used and maintained for generations, something the traveling public can rely on – not subject to the vicissitudes of private ownership.
4. The station would welcome any and all carriers that wish to use the facility. Under Greyhound ownership, use was limited to Greyhound Lines and other carriers on the Greyhound network.
5. The city has the ability to enact an ordinance that requires all scheduled inter-city buses serving the central business district to use the bus station, but it has not done so at this time.
6. Residents of the area around the bus station were notified by mail, as required by law, of the Jan. 29 meeting, and this was the first many of them had heard of this. They should not be concerned that they’re getting in late: While advocates have been calling attention to this looming problem for several years, the meeting was the very start of the process of the city attempting to purchase the bus station.
7. There will be numerous opportunities for formal public comment, both on the amendment to a tax increment financing district and on the purchase itself, if it gets that far. Public comment time is scheduled for the Community Development Commission on April 7 and the City Council Finance Committee on May 18. Interested individuals also are free to speak informally with the local Council member, and any other council members.

The High Speed Rail Alliance will be submitting a letter of support to the Department of Planning and Development, and will offer further public comment in support of the plan at the appropriate times.

This is distressed real estate that the city can get from a motivated seller for a reasonable price, and lock in a transportation corridor in the West Loop that maintains Chicago as the nation’s center of transportation. We urge the public to join us in pushing the city to do this.

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