Chicago may soon be largest city in Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal

Chicago will have a hard time claiming to be a world-class city if its West Loop Greyhound bus terminal closes as expected in September, a new report says.

Chicago would be the only major city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal, according to a new report by DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

"Chicago will be a global outlier when it comes to bus travel," said Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor, an established transportation researcher and a co-author of the report.

"This is an ignominious distinction for a city that considers itself a transportation hub. It would have been hard to imagine, even a few years ago, that we would be at risk of pushing bus passengers out to a curb," he said.

The report, released Tuesday, analyzed the world's largest 130 cities. Chicago ranks 114th in population with an estimated 2.6 million people.

If Chicago loses its terminal, it will have the coldest weather of any city without an intercity bus terminal.

Only two of the world's 130 largest cities do not have intercity bus terminals, according to the report. Both cities — Nairobi, Kenya, and Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — have substantially warmer weather than Chicago. Chicago averages 26 degrees Fahrenheit in January compared with the African cities' averages in the 60s and 70s during the same month, according to the report.

The report comes less than a month before Greyhound and other bus operators are expected to be evicted from the terminal at 630 W. Harrison St. Greyhound’s lease ends in October, and the company has not formalized a plan with the city for where it will move pickup and drop-offs.

Greyhound has been losing its terminals in cities across the country since 2021, when the company was sold to Germany-based FlixBus but the terminals were sold to other companies.

The city of Chicago has indicated it wants to temporarily move intercity buses to the Chicago Transit Agency's bus hub outside Chicago Union Station. However, Union Station owner Amtrak has said it cannot accommodate the additional half-million bus passengers.

The potential Union Station bus stop, and several other curb-side spots under consideration downtown, would not be considered an intercity bus terminal, according to the report.

Mayor Brandon Johnson's office has indicated it wants to build or purchase an intercity bus terminal and rent it to private bus companies, much like the city-run airports. But the city said it cannot do that now. The city considered buying the Greyhound terminal but determined it would be too expensive.

The city risks the chaos of other American cities that have lost bus terminals. Philadelphia has moved its intercity bus stop several times since Greyhound shuttered its terminal a year ago on two days' notice.

In the two U.S. cities larger than Chicago — New York City and Los Angeles — both have large public bus terminals. New York’s Port Authority Terminal, among the largest bus stations in the world, is being redesigned and expanded, according to the report. Los Angeles County government provides space at the Los Angeles Union Station bus concourse for Greyhound and FlixBus.