The lie that broke American transportation is breaking intercity bus service

Guest post by Theo Anderson

Chicago’s intercity bus terminal is in limbo. Chicago has resisted calls for the city to buy and renovate the station. FlixBus, whose parent company sold the facility to a private-equity firm after buying Greyhound in 2021, now leases it on a month-to-month basis. It’s a sadly familiar story, as bus stations close in cities across America. Chicago is especially important because it’s traditionally been the national hub of intercity bus service. Uncertainty over its station has far-reaching consequences. I’m interested because I use intercity buses—and because this saga exposes the lie that has broken American transportation in general.

Let me unpack that claim.

Several times a year, for a mix of family and work-related reasons, I catch a FlixBus from Chicago to Indianapolis at the Greyhound station in downtown Chicago. I don’t own a car, so my options are limited, especially since there are no viable Amtrak trains for the Chicago to Indianapolis trip (and vice versa). I’m happy for the bus option, given the lack of alternatives. But I often wonder what the trip would be like if there were quality train service. The question seems especially pressing when we’re crawling along in Chicago traffic or pinned between the semi-trailers that hog the road between Chicago and Indianapolis. A distracted driver, drifting out of his lane . . . . It’s easy to imagine the worst. When I do, I curse Indiana for the miserable Amtrak service in this corridor, which is home to the capital of the Midwest, a major regional city, and a world-class research university (Purdue). High-speed trains could cut the trip to about an hour. Even decent conventional trains would cut it by half. It seems like a no-brainer.

So it’s painful to think of the possibilities versus the grim realities. But at least Indiana’s cards are on the table. Cars reign. Fast, convenient, and affordable travel options aren’t a high priority. The state axed its $3 million annual subsidy for the Chicago-Indianapolis Amtrak line in 2019, citing high costs and low ridership. The current service is one train, three days a week, with a trip time of 5 hours. It’s a leg of a long-distance train from Chicago to New York. (To its credit, Indianapolis has recently broken the Indiana mold by investing significantly in public transit.)

In a way, Chicago’s inaction is more discouraging than Indiana’s indifference. For example, the transition document published by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office last year comes out swinging on behalf of “just” transportation investments. In “low-income neighborhoods,” it says, “there has been persistent disinvestment in transportation assets” as well as “underinvestment in economic development and overinvestment in polluting highways.” The upshot is that “historically marginalized communities have faced inequitable access to transportation, which has limited their connections to education, employment, recreation, and essentials such as as housing, healthcare, and groceries.”

That’s all true. So investing in Chicago’s intercity bus station—which serves about 500,000 people annually—should be the starting point for turning things around. A 2017 study found that about 70% of bus passengers had a household income under $50,000. Giving them a safe, dedicated space to connect with a bus is the very least Chicago and Illinois could do. Instead, they’ve done a lot of foot-dragging, not only on the intercity bus station but on the state’s bus network generally. A recent report noted that “the decline of Illinois’ travel network has been more severe than any other Midwestern state and most states nationwide due to a lack of planning, branding, and marketing of state-supported bus services.”

So what’s going on?

There are many “big lies” circulating in the US right now, but one of the biggest is that cars equal freedom. Despite all the costs and stresses they impose—the monthly payments; the price of gas, repairs, and insurance; parking headaches; runaway carbon emissions; wrecks and fatalities; endless sprawl—cars are supposedly our great emancipator. They unlock the freedom to go where we want, when we want, with the people we want.

This “freedom” is forced down our throats at every turn, not only in the culture but in budget priorities. We overinvest in highways and systematically devalue and underinvest in the alternatives. We make driving the only practical option for most trips, most of the time. And we punish those who reject this “freedom” or can’t afford it. Which is why there are just three trains each week from Chicago to Indianapolis. And why one of the ideas floated for intercity buses was curbside boarding.

That’s right. One idea floated to replace Chicago’s intercity bus station was for riders to board buses on the side of the street. Year-round. In a city famous for brutal winters. (Chicago only considered the proposal. Philadelphia actually implemented it.)

It’s a shameful idea but also a revealing one. It’s the whole scam in a nutshell. Cars offer freedom of a sort, sure. But it’s a freedom that chains drivers to the costs and the dysfunctions of car culture—and leaves anyone who doesn’t go along out in the cold. Instead of reliable, affordable travel options that work for everyone, we get the freedom of the road—the freedom of nothing left to lose.

Isn’t it time to expect more and demand better?