Politics
Amtrak Pushes Back Against Plans to Expand Bus Hub Across From Union Station
Exterior of Chicago’s Union Station. (Gerald Zaffuts / iStock)
Amtrak is fighting plans to expand a bus hub right across from Union Station, citing security and other concerns.
Those concerns were echoed by transportation experts including the Metropolitan Planning Council, which said that “expecting this small bus terminal to additionally function as the main Greyhound/intercity bus station is not a long-term solution for a city that calls itself a transportation hub.”
Chicago is under pressure to secure a bus depot in short order to avoid Greyhound’s travelers this winter having nowhere warm and sheltered to wait for their bus, store their luggage or go to the bathroom.
In a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago’s transportation commissioner Thomas Carney made public Wednesday, Amtrak president Roger Harris indicated the city has ignored the passenger rail corporation about its plans, even as the Johnson administration is apparently focusing its efforts on using the Union Station Transportation Center on Jackson Boulevard, where Chicago Transit Authority buses do pick-ups and drop-offs, as a terminal for Greyhound and other bus lines as well, with the idea that bus travelers could use Amtrak’s Union Station as a base before their trips.
“While proximity to transit is crucial, we believe the challenges of this location raise significant safety, operational, and financial concerns for the users of Chicago Union Station, tenants and the surrounding neighborhood,” Harris wrote. “Feedback from other stakeholders and community members has highlighted concerns about potential impacts and disruptions to the area—crime, traffic congestion, and increased demand for services.”
Neither Johnson’s office nor CDOT responded to WTTW News’ requests for comment.
Union Station serves as Amtrak’s national hub and is commuter rail service Metra’s busiest station.
Adding “hundreds” of additional bus passengers to the space each day would require more security and customer service agents — costs that Harris said Amtrak shouldn’t have to shoulder. Rather, he wrote, that significant “financial burden” should be fully paid for by either Chicago or FlixBus/Greyhound.
Already, Harris wrote, Jackson between Canal and Clinton streets is congested to the point that “police already report conflicts on what has become a one-lane thoroughfare” and adding 50 or more buses “will exacerbate existing issues, creating dangerous conditions for both pedestrians and drivers.”
The Metropolitan Planning Council director also panned the idea of adding dozens more daily bus routes to the CTA bus terminal.
An MPC leader said relying on an “already overcrowded” Union Station to handle bus travelers is illogical, and grouping Greyhound and CTA buses at a too-small terminal would create “total chaos for both CTA and Greyhound riders.”
Attempting to schedule Greyhound buses for “off-peak” CTA times is “unreasonable” given that Greyhound buses travel long distances. MPC also noted that Greyhounds typically sit at stations for lengthy periods as travelers board and load luggage, which could “block space for CTA buses” — potentially triggering a disruption of CTA routes.
The organization laid out a scenario of “hundreds of additional riders racing across the road or through a long tunnel to shelter from the weather and access food and bathrooms. There is no place to drop off or pick up passengers, so cars will line up on Jackson and Clinton since there is nowhere else to wait.”
MPC is advocating for Chicago to buy the current terminal at 630 W. Harrison St. from its private owner.
“It’s much more cost effective and efficient to buy the current terminal rather than attempt to build a new one from scratch over many years,” the MPC leader said in an email. “Time is running out for the City of Chicago to invest in this valuable asset and support sustainable, equitable intercity transportation. We are the third largest city in the country and transportation hub of the Midwest. We need more transit options, not fewer.”
When Flix North America bought Greyhound in 2021, the purchase didn’t include the West Loop bus depot. According to reporting by Crain’s Chicago Business, Twenty Lake Holdings, a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns the Chicago Tribune and has a notorious reputation for prioritizing profits, is trying to sell the bus station.
If buying the current depot is unfeasible, MPC suggested Chicago needs to hurry to explore alternatives.
In his letter, Amtrak’s CEO gave a few suggestions, including CTA protected bus lanes on Washington Boulevard by the Ogilvie Transportation Center with a nearby food court and a vacant area to serve as a bus ticketing center, and a CTA partially canopied bus lane next to the LaSalle Street station.
“These locations—and others—would certainly provide a safer experience and improved accommodations for intercity bus riders than that block of Jackson Boulevard,” Harris wrote.
The CEO of Flix North America, which operates long-distance bus providers Greyhound and FlixBus, told the Chicago Sun-Times last week that Chicago could be without a bus terminal by mid-September.
The Sun-Times quoted Flix North America’s Kai Boysan as calling the situation “urgent” and “dangerously close to a major service disruption.”
After making clear that Amtrak has been ignored in conversations so far, with Harris writing to the mayor and CDOT that he requested the administration engaged with Amtrak and others to “undertake a transparent and collaborative planning process” for both a temporary and a long-term bus facility, an Amtrak spokesman said Wednesday that 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a close ally of Johnson, “intervened this morning to set a meeting.”
WTTW News also reached out to Ramirez-Rosa, the Illinois Department of Transportation and Flixbus/Greyhound. None responded to our questions.
A May report from DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development said that Illinois’ intercity bus system is “on the verge of crisis” due to the Greyhound station’s potential closure, which “hurts low-income groups and thwarts Chicago’s development into a premier bus/rail connecting hub.”
The report said to that point, Chicago had taken a “do nothing” approach while state government leaders gave the bus system “low priority.”
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
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