Greyhound Relocating?

[artthouwill]

It appears that Greyhound has sold a number of its bus terminals.  The new owner of some of the terminals are letting the leases expire and will not renew them with Greyhound.   Dallas will see their current downtown station close in October..

Apparently Chicago's Greyhound station will meet a similar fate, but I haven't seen any announcement yet.  

The closings are nationwide and the company that owns the stations is Allen  Global Caputal which bought 33 Greyhound stations for $140 million back in 2022.  Houston also lost its downtown station. as well as Philadelphia. 

[Tcmetro]

We will see what happens, but they're not going curbside at Union anytime soon.

Maybe the old Megabus stop on Polk between Canal and Clinton?

[artthouwill]

34 minutes ago, Tcmetro said:

We will see what happens, but they're not going curbside at Union anytime soon.

Maybe the old Megabus stop on Polk between Canal and Clinton?

Did Megabus move?  I thought they were still on Polk.   But Greyhound could wind up there if they aren't able to find a suitable place to go.  They are doing curbside stops in Dallas and Philadelphia 

  Flixbus  might go to curbside services with Greyhound. 

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Apparently Chicago's Greyhound station will meet a similar fate, but I haven't seen any announcement yet.  

Sun-Times has mentioned this for quite a while. See, e.g.: How could potential sale of Greyhound station in downtown Chicago affect bus riders at regional hub? (6/26/23); City Hall thrown under the bus: Report rips 'do nothing' effort to save Greyhound terminal (5/7/24); Transit advocates make final push to save Greyhound station, blame city for inaction.(6/12/24)

[Tcmetro]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

Did Megabus move?  I thought they were still on Polk.   But Greyhound could wind up there if they aren't able to find a suitable place to go.  They are doing curbside stops in Dallas and Philadelphia 

  Flixbus  might go to curbside services with Greyhound. 

Megabus only has one route from Chicago now (which is actually a Burlington Trailways route that they sell tickets for) and it operates out of the Greyhound terminal.

Flixbus purchased Greyhound last year. I believe their new buses will carry both names.

[artthouwill]

23 minutes ago, Tcmetro said:

Megabus only has one route from Chicago now (which is actually a Burlington Trailways route that they sell tickets for) and it operates out of the Greyhound terminal.

Flixbus purchased Greyhound last year. I believe their new buses will carry both names.

O know Flixbus purchased Greyhound which is why I said that Flixbus might go curbside with Greyhound

  Curbside reduces overhead costs like owning or leasing terminals.

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, artthouwill said:

Curbside reduces overhead costs like owning or leasing terminals.

But, as the S-T notes, it P.O. the passengers.

[Busjack]

Sun-Times article that The Hound has until mid-Sept.

[strictures]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

Sun-Times article that The Hound has until mid-Sept.

Greyhound is demanding the city find a new location for them to stop.

That's not the city's job, just because their management made a mess of it!

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

Greyhound is demanding the city find a new location for them to stop.

That's not the city's job, just because their management made a mess of it!

While it's not the city's "job", the city could do much better.

 

It seems like Greyhound was caught off guard by Alden's decision to not renew Greyhound leases at the terminals sold to Allen.  Maybe Greyhound assumed that they could just renew the leases while Allen never intended to renew the leases but only gave Greyhound the legally required amount of notice that the leases wouldn't be renewed. 

Chicago is a major origin and destination point as well as a major transfer connection point for Greyhound.   Mayor Johnson always talks about the disenfranchised.  This is an opportunity to put his money where his mouth is.  While Greyhound searches for a new permanent location, Chicago could offer someplace like McCormick Place West  besides I-55 west of King Drive as a temporary location for Greyhound buses and its passengers.   Of course if a convention had to be held at McCormick Place West,  the convention center would still be accessible  on the west side of the building.     It's out of the way of residents, expressway accessible for Greyhound  and with some medications it's passengers friendly ( out of the elements).   

The city could reinstate the reverse flow lanes CTA use to use on Canal in front of the Great Hall building either for Greyhound to use temporarily or move the CTA buses back there and let Greyhound use the current Union Station terminal for CTA buses.  It would be to the city's advantage to work with Greyhound rather than have residents complaining about Greyhound passengers and Greyhound passengers complaining about the lack of everything from Greyhound and the city.  

Right now I don't have any ideas on where to build a permanent terminal. 

[Busjack]

Schwieterman, who the Sun-Times thinks knows everything, seems to want a Port Authority Bus Terminal in downtown Chicago, without a Port Authority. The city barely does anything for CTA, and I don;t see it bailing out another private capital deal, almost identical to that which put the Tribune in its current state, as Axios put it: "Greyhound bus stations nationwide ... are closing and relocating outside central business districts after being acquired by an investment firm that rose to infamy for its acquisition and gutting of American newspapers. ...

Twenty Lake Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, purchased 33 Greyhound stations from U.K. conglomerate FirstGroup late last year.

FirstGroup acquired Greyhound in 2021 and sold the bus service to German transport company FlixBus for $172 million but retained the stations until the sale to the Alden subsidiary.

The big picture: Multiple downtown Greyhound stations closed and relocated to less formal locations after the sales, including ones in Oakland, Philadelphia, Louisville and Cleveland."

All I know is that greyhound used to stop at 95th and the Skokie Swift. The city has about as much obligation to buy out Alden or build a bus terminal as it did for Stagecoach's Megabus--none.

"

[strictures]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

All I know is that greyhound used to stop at 95th and the Skokie Swift. The city has about as much obligation to buy out Alden or build a bus terminal as it did for Stagecoach's Megabus--none.

"

I remember it also stopping at the Cumberland CTA station.

There's all the unused bus lanes at the Garfield Green Line station they could use, plus lots of vacant land on the West Side near the Green, Blue & Pink Lines, they could build simple shelters for the riders.  Greyhound is just trying to get the city to pay for a station instead of paying for its own station!

[Tcmetro]

Canal St is going to be ripped up for the next 10 years with the city's four-phase rebuild from Madison to Taylor.

I doubt the city will do much about this, there was a headline I saw today that there's a billion dollar budget gap that Johnson is going to have to figure out.

When the Red Line extension opens in 2029, I would imagine that CTA wouldn't mind renting one of the two terminals at 95th St to Greyhound. Other than that, probably curbside near the existing terminal or some kind of "temporary" lot in the IMD or South Loop.

[Elkmn]

Halsted & Ashland* orange line have busways that could probably support greyhound service (as in, they aren't heavily used, there's sort of an indoor waiting area, and they aren't that far from downtown). 

 

 

*The clearance at Ashland might be a problem

[artthouwill]

36 minutes ago, Elkmn said:

Halsted & Ashland* orange line have busways that could probably support greyhound service (as in, they aren't heavily used, there's sort of an indoor waiting area, and they aren't that far from downtown). 

 

 

*The clearance at Ashland might be a problem

I would disagree and say that both stations are heavily used.  The 8 and southbound 62 goes through the Halsted station and the 44 terminates there.  At Ashland the 9 and X9 in both directions serve the station while the 31 terminates there.  There's no room for both CTA and Greyhound.   However,  35th/Archer could be a solution IF the 62 doesn't pull into the station and the 35 and 39 share a bus bay, leaving only the 50 to terminate there.  Greyhound buses can access I - 55 at Damen and can run to their " garage" at the Heliport on Wood Street  near 13th.    Probably would face neighborhood opposition.  

There's always the Bus Shuttle Center at O'Hare or the Multimodal Center.   Or the closed Wal-Mart on West 83rd Street.   Granted it's not close to downtown,  but there's more room there than the closed Wal-Mart at 47th and Cottage Grove. 

[Busjack]

Sun-Times says city suggests using the transit center next to Union Station, while Amtrak says no nd CTA wasn't consulted.

[artthouwill]

11 hours ago, Busjack said:

Sun-Times says city suggests using the transit center next to Union Station, while Amtrak says no nd CTA wasn't consulted.

Who owns that property?  If Amtrak, Greyhound isn't going to move there.  If the city owns it, there's a chance Greyhound could use it  but if CTA doesn't have to make any adjustments there. GREYHOUND will curtail service to Chicago severely.  Hopefully Greyhound can find a suitable place to build a new terminal in Chicago. But the reality is that they sold their terminals for a reason. 

[artthouwill]

I believe tomorrow ( September 20, 2024) is when the Greyhound Station at 630 W Harrison is scheduled to close. 

I think Brandon Johnson is too busy fighting Shotspotters to care.

Meanwhile Greyhound is gearing up to add more bus service at Gary Metro.  

I don't remember seeing Greyhound at Cumberland or 95th Red Line.   I think Cumberland was removed but I thought 95th still had Greyhound service.  

 

I'm assuming Amtrak is against Greyhound using the transit center on Jackson.  If I get a chance I will try to get a look at the Greyhound terminal and the transit center.

[Busjack]

6 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I believe tomorrow ( September 20, 2024) is when the Greyhound Station at 630 W Harrison is scheduled to close.

Nope. According to the Sun-Times: "the Harrison Street lease ends Oct. 20, and that the move-out date .'remains in flux.” However, there is a current stink that Greyhound is only permitted to have 4 buses that are scheduled to connect with Amtrak stop at Union Station, but Amtrak claims 12 stop there.

[strictures]

The city doesn't have to buy the current station, just tell Alden they won't greenlight any Alden development of the property or any other Alden property unless Alden gives Greyhound a new 15 year contract.  I'm around there on occasion & the area is mostly empty now, with lots of empty one story warehouses & other empty lots, so there's no great need for any residential & certainly no need for any commercial development!  The only problem with that is that Johnson is useless & gutless, other than when his rotten bosses at the CTU order him to do something!

[Tcmetro]

One of the earlier Sun Times articles noted that Greyhound had an option to extend the lease at the station. My guess is that they are trying to offload the costs onto the city.

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, Tcmetro said:

One of the earlier Sun Times articles noted that Greyhound had an option to extend the lease at the station.

That was at least implied in the article to which I linked:

"Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) — who had arranged a meeting between Amtrak and the city about a new potential bus stop — told the Sun-Times this week that Greyhound may be trying to extend its lease at the bus station.

Greyhound did not comment when asked if it was involved in lease extension talks."

 

[artthouwill]

10 hours ago, Busjack said:

That was at least implied in the article to which I linked:

"Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) — who had arranged a meeting between Amtrak and the city about a new potential bus stop — told the Sun-Times this week that Greyhound may be trying to extend its lease at the bus station.

Greyhound did not comment when asked if it was involved in lease extension talks."

 

The lease expiring October 20th wouldn't stop Greyhound from ending service or closing the terminal at an earlier date.  They have equipment and supplies that have to be moved out as well.  Unfortunately time was not on my side today to check out the movements at the bus terminal and Union Station.   But it's rather late in the game to not have a definitive plan.

Update:  Greyhound is still operating out of the terminal for now.