After pushback at the prospect of Chicago’s Greyhound bus station closing, the company that owns the intercity bus line says it plans stay at the site a little bit longer.
Greyhound’s lease at the station on Harrison Street near downtown was set to expire Sunday, sparking months of efforts to find a suitable alternate site to serve bus passengers in Chicago.
Five days before the lease expired, Greyhound’s parent company, Flix, said it was close to reaching a temporary solution allowing the bus line to stay at the Chicago station for the time being. The parent company was finalizing a month-to-month lease to extend its time, but continued to work on other, long-term options for Chicago bus service, a Flix spokeswoman said.
Flix declined to answer questions about how much longer the company planned to stay in the current station and what other options could be on the table to replace the station.
Advocates have been sounding alarm bells about the possible closure of the downtown Chicago bus station for more than a year, saying such a move would have repercussions for low-income travelers, residents of communities without easy access to train or airline service, and others who rely on buses to travel between cities, as well as Chicago’s status as a transportation hub.
The concern arose after a series of sales of Greyhound and its properties in recent years. Greyhound’s parent company sold the bus operation to German company Flix in 2021, but much of the bus line’s real estate was not part of the sale. The Chicago station is now among those owned by Twenty Lake Holdings, an affiliate of Alden Global Capital, which also owns the Chicago Tribune.
Greyhound stations in other cities have already been relocated, in some cases moved miles outside the city center or shifted to only curbside pickup and drop-off locations, with no indoor waiting areas. For example, in Knoxville, Tennessee, riders have reported waiting hours outside in the heat and cold for sometimes delayed buses, with no access to food, water, restrooms or a station building, according to local reporting.
Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, who has been a proponent of a dedicated bus station, said the lease extension offered a temporary reprieve, but Chicago still needed to resolve what kind of station the city would provide travelers, many of whom are low-income.
“Hopefully, public agencies will feel the need to deepen their involvement to avoid a meltdown that could hurt a critical travel sector,” he said.
City officials had been involved in talks to find a solution as the lease end date approached. Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the temporary lease extension. City officials have previously said Greyhound had an option to renew its lease at the current station “under the same terms and conditions that it currently operates under.”
Ald. Bill Conway, whose ward includes the bus station, said he was “relieved” a temporary solution had been found.
“A closure this weekend would have stranded thousands, including many women traveling to Chicago for reproductive healthcare,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working together on a long-term solution to establish a permanent multi-modal transportation hub for the region.”
Options to replace the bus station were floated in recent months, including relying more heavily on curbside pickup and drop-off outside Chicago Union Station, already served by a handful of buses. Amtrak, which owns the station, pushed back against that option. Advocates also said failure to have a dedicated bus shelter with amenities for passengers would bring consequences, and pose challenges for those waiting to make transfers or traveling during bad weather.
Greyhound had also seemingly begun adding more service through Gary, Indiana, according to a report from the Chaddick Institute.
Chicago’s Greyhound station now is used by Flix- and Greyhound-branded buses, as well as bus lines Burlington Trailways and Barons Bus.
