Dive Brief:
- The Chicago City Council voted 38-10 Wednesday to buy and renovate a former Greyhound bus terminal for $19.2 million, saving it from possible sale or demolition. The city will finance the project by expanding an adjacent $50 million tax increment financing district to include the bus station.
- Advocates including the Environmental Law and Policy Center and Better Streets Chicago, with help from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, urged the city to take over the bus facility and showed how it could be modernized at a reasonable cost.
- The proposed upgrades “were probably the biggest factor that got aldermen to vote yes,” Chaddick Institute director Joseph Schwieterman, who attended the council meeting, told Smart Cities Dive.
Diving knowledge:
Chicago joins Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York and Los Angeles in renovating or providing new downtown bus terminals as the number of intercity buses grows.
“Coach provided more than 350 million passenger trips on nearly 44 billion passenger miles by 2025, making our industry a critical part of America’s transportation network,” Fred Ferguson, president and CEO of the American Bus Association, said in an email. “Reliable and affordable terminal access is essential to safety, accessibility and the passenger experience.”
Greyhound, which was acquired by FlixMobility in 2021, upgraded its fleet with 185 new buses over the past two years and has 80 more on order, according to CX Dive. The company changed its name to Flix in 2022.
“We appreciate the action of the City of Chicago to support continued access to a central intercity bus facility for the city,” Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, said in an email. “This is an important result for the thousands of commuters who rely on affordable intercity bus service in and out of Chicago every day.”
An illustration shows the back of the bus terminal with proposed renovations.
Permission granted by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University
Greyhound has used the 1989 Chicago station on a month-to-month basis since its lease expired in 2024. Greyhound will continue to operate the facility for a year after the ownership transfer while the city looks for a suitable alternative to run it, according to CBS News.
Greyhound, FlixBus, Jefferson Lines and Barons Bus service the terminal. Schwieterman estimates the station handles about 90 arrivals and departures on busy days and more than 450,000 passengers a year. The Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line Clinton station is a five-minute walk from the terminal, and Chicago Union Station, which serves Amtrak and Metra commuter rail, is about a 15-minute walk from the bus terminal.
The Chaddick Institute, Better Streets Chicago and urban planner and architect Nathale Nicoletti presented potential improvements to the bus terminal in March. Renderings showed a new glass entrance and more signage and street art along the station’s facade. The street would include a bike lane and a pick-up and drop-off lane for vehicles and taxis.
