Greyhound Boosts role of Gary Bus Station amid looming Chicago Station Crisis + Other Station News

Greyhound Boosts Role of Gary Metro Center as Chicago Terminal's Lease Expiration Looms + Other Station Updates

Intercity Bus E-News Bulletin | September 13, 2024

Greyhound Lines has made significant Midwestern schedule changes that put more buses through Gary, IN, suggesting it is proactive to meet customer needs if the Chicago Intercity Bus ("Greyhound") Terminal closes. Unless the lease at that terminal is extended (it expires in October), the Terminal’s four bus lines must vacate soon, possibly around September 20, to comply with the lease terms. Although reservation platforms still show schedules involving transfers at the Chicago Terminal, the schedule changes would enable bus lines to provide many customers with new itineraries with transfers in Gary if the Terminal is lost and Chicago’s service shifts to a curbside stop. The Gary Bus Station is inside the Adam Benjamin Metro Center transit hub, with a small climate-controlled waiting room and a dedicated Greyhound ticket counter.

Several schedule changes have made Gary a hub for bus service, based only on our independent E-News analysis and a visit to the Gary station.

Greyhound has added Gary to more schedules linking Chicago to points east, including the Chicago to Detroit, Lexington, KY, and East Coast (via Cleveland) routes. These routes naturally pass by the station, so the stops don’t add significant time to schedules.
More surprisingly, Gary has been added as an intermediate stop for eight Greyhound schedules (four roundtrips) to points south and west of Chicago. These are split between the Chicago–Davenport, IA route (with one bus continuing to Des Moines) and the Chicago–St. Louis route (with one bus continuing to Memphis). On buses bound for St. Louis, stopping in Gary after leaving Chicago adds around 30 miles. The Davenport route (via Naperville) requires a reversal in direction, adding around 52 miles. The duration of trips has increased accordingly, over an hour in some cases.
Several schedules now make stops of 15 minutes or more at Gary, indicating a potential need to accommodate large numbers of passenger transfers soon.
Greyhound has also changed two Chicago–Atlanta, GA, and Chicago–St. Paul, MN, schedules to make them “through buses” between Atlanta and St. Paul. These twice-daily long-distance buses are well suited for passenger transfers to Indianapolis, IN, Louisville, KY, and Nashville, TN. However, these buses do not stop in Gary, nor do several other buses on the Chicago–Indianapolis route.

Several general points and developments unrelated to schedules also stand out:

Gary station now has around 25 daily Greyhound and Baron Bus operations (arrivals and departures combined), up from about a dozen in August. Barons Bus already had Gary stops on its Chicago–Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton, OH schedules.
Neither FlixBus nor Burlington Trailways (which links Chicago to Iowa and Nebraska) has added Gary stops. However, Flix does use the Chicago–95th Street transit station, which has a ticket counter and (with Greyhound service included) now sees around eleven daily buses. This south-side spot could also become a transfer point.
We are still determining if there are any schedule reductions. One minor change is that direct service from Chicago to Carbondale and Vienna, IL, via Interstate 57 has been suspended.
We anticipate that the reduced quality of passenger connections, downgrading station facilities, and curbside congestion will necessitate service cuts if the Terminal closes.
We credit Greyhound for not waiting until the last minute to make adjustments, but we are concerned about the future. The situation remains highly fluid. City of Chicago officials have not publicly indicated they will financially support bus lines on a lease extension—a move more than a dozen organizations regard as highly important.

Greyhound has not issued a statement on its website about the Gary expansion but noted the schedule changes in a recent schedule bulletin.

Even a few years ago, the prospect of Chicago losing its role as a connecting hub to Gary would have seemed, at best, improbable. Now, that prospect appears likely. The arguments for a lease extension, provided with municipal or state financial support, appear here. A favorable aspect of the Gary station is that it is served by commuter rail (South Shore Line) and next to a major expressway. However, the Gary station has relatively few amenities, having a “Walk Score” of just 47 (on a scale of 100), which is far less than most bus stations.

What’s next for the Dallas, TX, and Richmond, VA Stations?

The loss of the Richmond Greyhound Station at 2910 N Arthur Ashe Blvd also appears imminent due to another October lease expiration. This fate of the station, used by Greyhound and Virginia Breeze, a state-supported bus line, has generated much press attention. At present, schedules still show operations continuing at the site. Operations could be moved to a curbside spot. The Dallas Greyhound Station could also close by October. The City of Dallas appeared responsive to public concerns about its loss, but no information has emerged. We will share updates as developments happen.

The next few weeks will be eventful for the national bus network. If you missed our Policy Brief released two weeks ago, Chicago could become the largest city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal if its terminal is lost and a replacement isn't found. Regional planning agencies, transportation authorities, and Cook County appear to have chosen to stay on the sidelines as the crisis looms. We believe no attractive short-term options exist other than preserving the current Chicago facility.

There is concern that the alternative chosen will not make space available for bus lines that want to launch Chicago service (several recently left Chicago due to the inadequate bus-stop arrangements), significant expansion by existing carriers, and a high-quality (preferably around-the-clock) waiting room.

Finally, we invite you to the webinar, "State Support for Intercity Buses," hosted by Wisconsin's State Smart Transportation Institute, on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, from noon - 1 p.m. I'll be presenting along with Ben Gellman from Colorado's Bustang. Register here .

Joe Schwieterman

Intercity Bus E-News editor

Captions: Credit for aerial views of Greyhound Stations in Gary, IN and Richmond, VA, appearing above. Google. (2024). Accessed on September 11, 2024. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/maps.

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