Chicago City Council approves plan to purchase Greyhound bus station in West Loop for $19 million

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a plan to buy the city's Greyhound bus station in the West Loop to avoid its possible closure, which would have left Chicago as the only major city in the U.S. without an intercity bus terminal.

The bus station, at 630 W. Harrison St., has been on a month-to-month lease from the property owner ever since its lease expired last year.

By a 38-10 vote on Wednesday, the City Council approved an ordinance authorizing the city to purchase the bus station for $19.2 million from its current owner, GH Chicago LLC. It's part of a $50 million plan to purchase and renovate the facility.

Greyhound would continue to operate the station for one year after selling the site to the city while city officials work to bring in a new company to run it. Rent paid by bus companies using the station would be used to cover operating expenses.

Among other renovations, the city plans to upgrade the heating and air conditioning systems, and improve lighting and security cameras.

The terminal made headlines in the summer of 2024 when it was in imminent danger of shutting down, as it was about to be evicted from the property.

The city announced moves to buy and renovate the bus station back in February. At that time, leaders from the city's Department of Planning and Development held a public meeting on the plan, which included expanding the Canal/Congress TIF District to include the bus station on Harrison Street.

This would allow Chicago to buy and renovate the terminal using property tax money put in a special pot for economic development.

Ald. Bill Conway (34th), whose ward includes the bus station, said the city can't afford to risk the bus station being shut down when nearly half a million travelers use the facility each year. Conway said, for many of those travelers, buses are the only affordable means of transportation they have for traveling outside of the city.

"Those nearly half a million riders are not powerful people. They don't have lobbyists, they don't write campaign checks, but they are people that matter, and they rely on affordable transportation, and they are our constituents, too, and they frankly deserve to know who stands with them," Conway said. "Doing nothing will leave riders with no bus station, or at best waiting at the stop outside with a large deteriorating site on Harrison Street."

Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), who was among the 10 alders who voted against the purchase of the bus station, questioned if the city can afford the cost when it is facing a projected $1.16 billion budget shortfall for 2027.

Quinn also questioned whether the city should take responsibility for owning and operating an intercity bus station.

"I'm not certain the city of Chicago should be running a bus station. I'm not certain we have the finances today to be pumping $50 to $75 million into this endeavor," he said.

But Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said the city has a responsibility to facilitate keeping the bus station open.

"There are people in our city that cannot afford to go to Midway or O'Hare, or maybe even ride Amtrak, but yet and still, need to have a viable mode of transportation," he said.

The Harrison Street Greyhound station, located right alongside the Jane Byrne Interchange, opened in 1989.

Before that, going back to 1953, the Chicago Greyhound terminal was located at Clark and Randolph streets in the Loo p— at the current site of the Grant Thornton Tower, across the street from the Daley Center and the Thompson Center, and kitty-corner from the City Hall-County Building complex. Buses would enter the old terminal from Lower Wacker Drive.

Despite its prominent location, the old Chicago Greyhound terminal had a documented reputation for being beyond seedy — with a litany of horror stories about kidnappings, sex trafficking, and other crime. In a 2004 Chicago Reader article, writer Steve Bogira wrote that John Wayne Gacy even picked up his first known victim at the old Loop terminal.

Greyhound sought to shake the old, sordid image as it moved its terminal to the Harrison Street location, and Bogira noted that by 2004, security was tighter and there had been a crackdown on loiterers without tickets.

In addition to Greyhound itself, the present-day Chicago Greyhound station is served by Burlington Trailways, Jefferson Lines, FlixBus, and Barons Bus.

Conway said, as part of the city's plan to purchase the bus station, he has been working with the Chicago Police Department to ensure added security at the facility.