Amtrak Thruway connecting service - Indianapolis to Chicago

[JasonBennett]

Hi all,

I have some questions the Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service. All going well I am going on a trip through the States some time soon and a good portion will be by Amtrak.

I am wanting to go from Indianapolis to Chicago and on the day I am looking the Cardinal is not running. (It only goes 3 times a week). It says I can book a Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service (8051 if this means anything). So the questions are -

1. Is this just a bus? Is it an Amtrak bus or is it outsourced to someone?
2. Does it still go from and to the Amtrak stations?
3. If anyone has used them before what are they like? (I know this is quite a general question)

Thanks

Jason

 

[moselman66]

Hi all,

I have some questions the Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service. All going well I am going on a trip through the States some time soon and a good portion will be by Amtrak.

I am wanting to go from Indianapolis to Chicago and on the day I am looking the Cardinal is not running. (It only goes 3 times a week). It says I can book a Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service (8051 if this means anything). So the questions are -

1. Is this just a bus? Is it an Amtrak bus or is it outsourced to someone?
2. Does it still go from and to the Amtrak stations?
3. If anyone has used them before what are they like? (I know this is quite a general question)

Thanks

Jason

Hi Jason--

1. Yup, Amtrak Thruway is an intercity bus operated by a contractor. Sometimes it's on routes which are contracted (often by a state) to specifically feed Amtrak and may be painted with Amtrak's logo. In other cases it's on a bus which would run with or without Amtrak connection and it may not say Amtrak anywhere on it. For IND-CHI it's the later (Greyhound) and the bus likely won't have any Amtrak markings.
2. It operates from the Amtrak station in both Indy and Chicago.
3. It's a regular coach bus with onboard (US) 110 outlets and wifi, though from all I've heard it's somewhat hit and miss if those two things both work on any given bus.

So here's how to find this sort of information in case you're curious or others want to do the same...

1. When you pop open the trip details on the Amtrak booking site for the trip it says who operates it -- in this case Greyhound.
2. You can go to the bus company website (Greyhound) and confirm the details for the exact trip you'd like to book. Generally for thruway bus service like this they make a point of the bus serving the Amtrak station directly unless otherwise noted, but personally I like to confirm.
3. For Indy the Greyhound site it says "350 South Illinois St" in Indianapolis, and that's the address of the joint Amtrak/Greyhound station.
4. For Chicago, when I first checked I noticed it had a Harrison St address, which isn't Union Station, and that it also arrived earlier than Amtrak said. Then I looked a little further and changed my Greyhound arrival to be Chicago-Amtrak and that indeed has the Chicago Union Station address and the very same arrival time as Amtrak says.
5. The Greyhound site also had the detail about onboard amenities.

As for what they are like, well, intercity busses in the US are a mixed bag. I wouldn't say it's unsafe or to avoid it, but on the flipside it's not luxury travel. Seats are okay, bathroom might well be gross. Shorter routes which run back-and-forth tend to be cleaner and more on-time. Long-haul busses often run behind schedule (and it can be hard to get updates on) and the onboard experience can be...well...a little more funky. If I'm not mistaken IND-CHI Greyhound buses all originate in the Southeast such as Atlanta so even though IND-CHI is only a few hours it's on a bus which is on the final leg of a long journey with some passengers who have been onboard 12+ hours. That increases the odds somewhat that your IND-CHI bus will run late and may well not be a very pristine experience. But just be aware / prepared (don't make hard Chicago plans that are ruined if the bus runs late) and you should be fine.

 

[zephyr17]

Hi all,

I have some questions the Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service. All going well I am going on a trip through the States some time soon and a good portion will be by Amtrak.

I am wanting to go from Indianapolis to Chicago and on the day I am looking the Cardinal is not running. (It only goes 3 times a week). It says I can book a Amtrak Thruway Connecting Service (8051 if this means anything). So the questions are -

1. Is this just a bus? Is it an Amtrak bus or is it outsourced to someone?
2. Does it still go from and to the Amtrak stations?
3. If anyone has used them before what are they like? (I know this is quite a general question)

Thanks

Jason

That route is Greyhound service that Amtrak codeshares on. It's the "dirty dog"

 

[Willbridge]

Hi Jason--

1. Yup, Amtrak Thruway is an intercity bus operated by a contractor. Sometimes it's on routes which are contracted (often by a state) to specifically feed Amtrak and may be painted with Amtrak's logo. In other cases it's on a bus which would run with or without Amtrak connection and it may not say Amtrak anywhere on it. For IND-CHI it's the later (Greyhound) and the bus likely won't have any Amtrak markings.
2. It operates from the Amtrak station in both Indy and Chicago.
3. It's a regular coach bus with onboard (US) 110 outlets and wifi, though from all I've heard it's somewhat hit and miss if those two things both work on any given bus.

So here's how to find this sort of information in case you're curious or others want to do the same...

1. When you pop open the trip details on the Amtrak booking site for the trip it says who operates it -- in this case Greyhound.
2. You can go to the bus company website (Greyhound) and confirm the details for the exact trip you'd like to book. Generally for thruway bus service like this they make a point of the bus serving the Amtrak station directly unless otherwise noted, but personally I like to confirm.
3. For Indy the Greyhound site it says "350 South Illinois St" in Indianapolis, and that's the address of the joint Amtrak/Greyhound station.
4. For Chicago, when I first checked I noticed it had a Harrison St address, which isn't Union Station, and that it also arrived earlier than Amtrak said. Then I looked a little further and changed my Greyhound arrival to be Chicago-Amtrak and that indeed has the Chicago Union Station address and the very same arrival time as Amtrak says.
5. The Greyhound site also had the detail about onboard amenities.

As for what they are like, well, intercity busses in the US are a mixed bag. I wouldn't say it's unsafe or to avoid it, but on the flipside it's not luxury travel. Seats are okay, bathroom might well be gross. Shorter routes which run back-and-forth tend to be cleaner and more on-time. Long-haul busses often run behind schedule (and it can be hard to get updates on) and the onboard experience can be...well...a little more funky. If I'm not mistaken IND-CHI Greyhound buses all originate in the Southeast such as Atlanta so even though IND-CHI is only a few hours it's on a bus which is on the final leg of a long journey with some passengers who have been onboard 12+ hours. That increases the odds somewhat that your IND-CHI bus will run late and may well not be a very pristine experience. But just be aware / prepared (don't make hard Chicago plans that are ruined if the bus runs late) and you should be fine.

Here's the timetable - attached. There's an additional GL bus between Indianapolis and Chicago via secondary highways that likely is a pleasant ride, but it doesn't go to Chicago Union Station.

For readers interested in the southbound schedule, notice that the second GL Amtrak Thruway of the day is the back-up for missed connections from the West at Chicago. (Hopefully customers from late trains will have this as an option rather than a requirement.)

 

[jebr]

For readers interested in the southbound schedule, notice that the second GL Amtrak Thruway of the day is the back-up for missed connections from the West at Chicago. (Hopefully customers from late trains will have this as an option rather than a requirement.)

At least in 2018 when I missed my connection from the Capitol Limited to the Empire Builder (sleeper all the way through,) the default option given was a hotel room and a sleeper on next day's train, despite there being a Greyhound Thruway available that evening to MSP (my final destination.) They wouldn't even directly rebook me on that Thruway when I explicitly asked about it, instead sending me over to the (now closed) Greyhound ticket counter to have them exchange the ticket to a Greyhound one instead if I wanted to use that option. (It kind of sort of worked out okay, since we were able to get on the one departing at 4 PM and got in late evening/very early morning instead of having to do the full overnight bus ride. Plus Amtrak refunded our fare for the CHI - MSP segment, so that helped.)

 

[JasonBennett]

hank you all for the replies. Especially moselman66. I did dig deeper into the Amtrak site and as people wrote it is indeed a Greyhound bus. Given some of the comments made and some of my own online research I don't think it's a great option. I might look at redoing parts of my itinerary or maybe getting a plane from Indianapolis to Chicago.