Chicago, America’s third-largest city, is on the verge of losing its only intercity bus terminal, threatening access for many low-income, elderly and minority travelers who have few other transportation options. This is part of a nationwide trend.

Greyhound’s Chicago terminal lease expires next month. Not only would this mean Greyhound could leave the city, but FlixBus, Barons, Burlington Trailways and other lines that also operate from the terminal could also be forced to leave the city. A Greyhound representative told CNN there are no proposals to extend the lease. The city, which regulates curbside pickup and drop-off locations, told CNN it is looking at alternative options for the facilities. Both Greyhound and city officials say they are committed to finding a solution.

“Intercity bus service is incredibly important to so many people,” said Chicago Councilman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who worked to save the station.

If the terminal closes, Chicago will be the largest city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal, according to DePaul University professor Joseph Schwieterman and researchers at the school’s Chaddick Institute of Metropolitan Development.

The terminal serves over 500,000 passengers a year, estimates the Chaddick Institute. Although a large number of people travel on intercity buses, the company says 73% of Greyhound passengers in Chicago make less than $50,000 a year and more than half are black. About three-quarters are minority riders.

Allen James Henry Jr. arrived in Chicago last week by bus from Sikeston, Missouri, a small town about 250 miles south of St. Louis. The Chicago terminal gave him a place to wait during a five-hour layover before the next bus to Iowa. Then we went to Denver. For him, the station is not just a place to rest – it is a matter of dignity.

Potentially being forced to wait on the street for a long layover, he said, is “treating people traveling as if they don’t matter.”

“This bus station has to be here,” Henry Jr. said.

Unraveling the station network

Greyhound and other lines serving Chicago are part of a network of routes that allow passengers to travel several thousand stops on one ticket.

The closure threatens to destroy the comprehensive system of interconnected bus routes, which could result in service disruptions on routes requiring transfers in Chicago, say researchers at the Chaddick DePaul Institute.

Curbside service also cannot replace a dedicated terminal for buses arriving and departing from Chicago. Curb carriers such as Megabus usually only operate between large cities and do not usually offer routes with transfers.

Without an internal terminal, travelers can’t use the bathroom, avoid Chicago’s notoriously harsh winter, or eat something while waiting. People transferring late at night or early in the morning, sometimes with long layovers, would have nowhere to wait safely.

Buses are also often the only way to reach smaller towns without railway stations and airports.

Max Kay takes a bus from Chicago to Davenport, Iowa to visit his girlfriend. A plane to the closest airport to Davenport – across the Mississippi in Moline, Illinois – will cost two to four times more than a bus ticket. And once he landed, he’d still have to get across the river to Davenport.

“I guess I’ll have to take the bus (even if the bus station is closed), but I definitely prefer this one,” Kay said. “Here you have a place to sit, you have vending machines.”

Transportation, environmental, reproductive health, disability and other advocates in Chicago are sounding the alarm about the city’s risk of losing the terminal.

“No practical solution for an intercity bus terminal would directly harm thousands of people traveling to, from and through Chicago every day and would disproportionately burden the most vulnerable people in our community,” the advocacy group said in a statement. open letter last week.

Terminals sold to investors

Closing Chicago would accelerate a crisis in intercity bus transportation in the United States.

Intercity buses carry an estimated 60 million people annually – twice the number of people who travel on Amtrak each year – but in recent decades companies have reduced service and closed terminals. According to research by the Chaddick Institute, cities lost almost a third of their intercity bus service between 1960 and 1980 and more than half of their remaining service between 1980 and 2006.

In recent years, bus depots have closed in Houston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Tampa, Louisville, Charlottesville, Portland, Oregon and other downtown bus depots. Greyhound and other carriers have moved their stops far from city centers, which are often inaccessible by public transport, switched to curbside service or eliminated routes altogether.

In Philadelphia, the closure of the Greyhound terminal and switch to curbside service became a “municipal disgrace” as people waited for hours on suitcases and on the sidewalk and intercity bus lines idled in a lane designated for Philadelphia local buses, clogging the roadway. street – described by a columnist of the “Philadelphia Inquirer”.

The threat of closure has reached a crisis point in Chicago as Greyhound, the largest intercity carrier in the United States, no longer owns its terminals in that city and dozens of others.

Greyhound, owned by German company Flix Mobility (which also owns FlixBus), has sold its terminals to investors for lucrative redevelopment in recent years, including ten to investment firm Alden Global Capital.

Alden is best known for buying up local newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and The Baltimore Sun, laying off employees and selling parts of its downtown buildings. Last year, Alden subsidiary Twenty Lake Holdings bought 33 Greyhound stations for $140 million.

“Intercity bus service, including Greyhound, is essential to the Chicago community, and our top priority is ensuring uninterrupted service,” said a Flix spokesperson. “The mayor’s office helped us find a suitable downtown location for pickup and drop-off. Their efforts encourage us.”

In a statement to CNN, Chicago Chief Operating Officer John Roberson said the city was considering various options for intercity bus service and passengers. “It is important to note that Greyhound has the option to extend its lease at its current Harrison Street location on the same terms under which it currently operates,” he said. (Greyhound told CNN that Alden did not respond to such a proposal. Twenty Lake Holdings did not respond to CNN’s request for comment for this article.)

Calls to public terminal

Some public transit advocates and political leaders argue that intercity buses should be treated similarly to public utility vehicles. They want states and the federal government to step in and play a bigger role in supporting the bus network.

Supporters of the initiative say local, state and federal agencies have not invested in intercity bus travel and rely on private companies to provide basic public services to mostly low-income riders. Some cities are hostile to intercity buses and block efforts to relocate terminals.

“The station crisis can be partly attributed to the low priority our state government has placed on intercity bus travel,” researchers from DePaul’s Chaddick Institute said in a May report.

In Chicago, supporters are calling for a public bus terminal connecting to local transit or Amtrak. For example, Milwaukee and Boston have intercity bus terminals located next to train stations.

One promising model is in Atlanta, where Greyhound opened a new 14,000-square-foot terminal this year with financial support from the state and federal governments. The station is used by other intercity bus operators and is close to public transport.

Chicago Alderman Ramirez-Rosa said the ultimate goal should be a public intercity bus terminal.

In European cities, he visited intercity bus terminals that resembled “first world airports.”

“The United States has a lot of catching up to do,” Ramirez-Rosa said.

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