CHICAGO– The city of Chicago wants Greyhound passengers to be allowed to wait at Union Station before boarding buses across the street after the transit company is expected to evict its West Loop terminal in mid-September.

Curbside service at the Chicago Transit Authority’s transit center at the corner of Canal Street and Jackson Boulevard is “probably the most viable” option, but would require Greyhound to align its schedules with those of the CTA, city COO John Roberson told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday.

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The plan is not yet final. Negotiations between the city, Greyhound owner FlixBus and the CTA are ongoing, Roberson said.

Moving bus service outside Union Station would allow passengers to use Union Station’s restrooms and Great Hall as shelter from inclement weather, Roberson said. Greyhound already has a ticket booth inside, he said.

“Based on what we’ve seen, we believe this is the best option from the city’s perspective right now,” he said.

The Union Station option would be a short-term solution while the city tries to build a municipal bus station elsewhere, he said.

Roberson fired back at critics, including Greyhound’s CEO, who said the city was not prioritizing finding an alternative location for the Greyhound terminal, which handles about half a million passengers annually.

“Since Greyhound confronted us with this situation, we have been actively exploring various options,” Roberson said.

Tom Carney, the city’s transportation commissioner, said his department is working to reach an agreement before Greyhound is kicked out.

“It’s not an easy problem to solve, but there’s a lot of dialogue and work going on behind the scenes,” Carney told the Sun-Times.

Amtrak, which owns Union Station, rejected the new proposal to use the CTA lanes on Jackson Boulevard, saying congestion there had worsened since Canal Street was closed last year for a major urban redevelopment project.

“Providing dozens of intercity buses to Jackson Boulevard and saying that hundreds of intercity bus users will be able to seek shelter in Union Station each day starting next month are both highly problematic proposals that the city has not yet presented to us,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said in a statement.

Greyhound declined to comment. CTA had no immediate comment.

The Greyhound station debacle began three years ago when the bus operations were sold to Germany-based FlixBus while the terminals went to another buyer. Greyhound is losing stations nationwide as leases expire one by one, catching some cities by surprise.

The city of Chicago considered purchasing the terminal at 630 W. Harrison St. but determined it was not financially feasible because of the upgrades needed, Roberson said. The city’s Department of Transportation had applied for federal funds last year to help purchase the terminal but was not awarded a grant.

“We started looking for alternative locations that could logistically accommodate the schedule and number of buses that Greyhound wanted to use,” Roberson said. The challenge was that there were no covered facilities at the curbs that could accommodate the number of buses, he said.

The city ultimately decided the CTA station outside Union Station was the best option.

“We understood that they wanted to be close to Union Station and other transportation,” Roberson said. “The challenge is that there isn’t a lot of space in that area that can accommodate Greyhound service needs. … And when we looked at that, we realized that there were some conflicts with Greyhound service times and schedules and the peak times that CTA runs in the morning and afternoon.”

Public transit advocates want the city to buy the terminal.

The Jackson Boulevard option is not feasible because it would result in “significant cuts and undesirable schedule changes,” according to a letter signed in July by two dozen groups urging Mayor Brandon Johnson to purchase the terminal.

Another problem is that the Great Hall at Union Station is only open to Amtrak and Metra passengers and is closed in the early morning hours, the letter said. Traffic congestion around the station is also a problem.

Buying the terminal is the cheapest option in the long term, they wrote.

“The cost of purchasing and renovating the station is estimated at less than $40 million – a small fraction of what we regularly spend on major transit, airport and highway improvements. This relatively small investment would provide a significant return to the city and region,” the letter said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire – Copyright Chicago Sun-Times 2024.)