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 adjoining $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 the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University, urged the city to take over the bus facility and showed how it could be modernized at a reasonable cost.
- The proposed upgrades “were likely the single biggest factor that compelled the aldermen to vote yes,” Chaddick Institute Director Joseph Schwieterman, who attended the council meeting, told Smart Cities Dive.
Dive Insight:
Chicago joins Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York City and Los Angeles in renovating or providing new downtown bus terminals as intercity bus ridership grows.
“Motorcoaches provided more than 350 million passenger trips across nearly 44 billion passenger miles in 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 rebranded as Flix in 2022.
“We appreciate the Chicago City Council’s action to support continued access to a central intercity bus facility for the city,” Flix North America CEO Kai Boysan said in an email. “This is an important outcome for the thousands of travelers who rely on affordable intercity bus service in and out of Chicago each day.”
Greyhound has used the 1989 Chicago station on a month-to-month basis since its lease expired in 2024. Greyhound will continue to manage the facility for one year following transfer of ownership while the city looks for an appropriate alternative to run it, according to CBS News.
Greyhound, FlixBus, Jefferson Lines and Barons Bus serve the terminal. Schwieterman estimates the station handles about 90 arrivals and departures on busy days and over 450,000 riders 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 the Metra commuter railroad — is about a 15-minute walk from the bus terminal.
The Chaddick Institute, Better Streets Chicago and urban planner and architect Nathale Nicoletti unveiled possible improvements to the bus terminal in March. The renderings showed a new glass entrance and more signage and street art along the station’s frontage. The street would include a bike lane and a pickup/drop-off lane for ride-hailing vehicles and taxis.
