Greyhound sounding Chicago alarm

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Willbridge said:
Both of those stations are closed during the night. That makes a difference.
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It is notable that, currently, Chicago Union Station is also closed to waiting passengers overnight; creating a conundrum if this is to become the temporary Greyhound terminal, too.

Milwaukee, of course, is another example of a reasonable collaboration between Amtrak and Greyhound (Megabus, when it operated, stopped across the street.)

Still, I think the essential difference is these being regional stop stations (which do serve as smaller hubs for their areas) with a few trains/buses daily versus the sort of major national hub which Chicago serves as, with many buses/trains a day.
 
Amtrak fights back:

https://news.wttw.com/2024/08/14/am...nst-plans-expand-bus-hub-across-union-station

Adding “hundreds” of additional bus passengers to the space each day would require more security and customer service agents — costs that Harris said Amtrak shouldn’t have to shoulder. Rather, he wrote, that significant “financial burden” should be fully paid for by either Chicago or FlixBus/Greyhound.
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Hey, someone must be reading my posts!

In his letter, Amtrak’s CEO gave a few suggestions, including CTA protected bus lanes on Washington Boulevard by the Ogilvie Transportation Center with a nearby food court and a vacant area to serve as a bus ticketing center, and a CTA partially canopied bus lane next to the LaSalle Street station.
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NorthShore said:
It is notable that, currently, Chicago Union Station is also closed to waiting passengers overnight; creating a conundrum if this is to become the temporary Greyhound terminal, too.
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What happens if an incoming train is significantly delayed? I guess they have to keep at least some exits open and some active staff on site until all passengers have left the building.
 
cirdan said:
What happens if an incoming train is significantly delayed? I guess they have to keep at least some exits open and some active staff on site until all passengers have left the building.
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I've had that experience, actually. Amtrak security, and any staff required, quickly, politely, and with organization shuffle passengers out of the building. If there are overnight accommodation requirements for anyone who missed a transfer, I understand they'll take care of that, as part of the process.

As it stands, the Great Hall is cleared, locked, and guarded around 11PM. The concourse area (where the tracks are, and waiting benches there) remain open until about 1 A.M. once the last Metra train has left. I imagine that if there are any Metra arrivals after that, these passengers are also shuffled out quickly. But no one is allowed to stay overnight.
 
Greyhound's and Trailways' solutions to overnight connections (usually misconnects) has been to invite customers to sleep on station benches with the condition that if they left the station, they would not be permitted to come back in till the station opening hour.

I experienced that in SLC when the PDX<>DEN bus was annulled because it was running so late in a snowstorm. The benches in the Intermodal Center were designed to prevent sleeping. I walked over to Amtrak and bought a seat on Train 6.

In longer disruptions, I know that Greyhound has arranged for help from the Salvation Army.

2015 - it's 12:01 a.m. and passengers are waiting for their Greyhound New York City to Los Angeles through bus to return from the Denver garage where it was being cleaned and refueled. Benches had arm rests to prevent sleeping. This wait now takes place in the Bus Concourse of Union Station.
P1030741.JPG
 
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jpakala said:
Two examples of excellent Amtrak plus bus stations are Bloomington/Normal and Champaign/Urbana in IL. They are roomy, clean, well-designed, and well-used. The former is quite new, and the latter is well remodeled.
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I think Boston's arrangement is pretty good with the bus station right over the train station. As bus stations go it is a pretty decent facility with food, rest rooms etc.
 
Willbridge said:
Greyhound's and Trailways' solutions to overnight connections (usually misconnects) has been to invite customers to sleep on station benches with the condition that if they left the station, they would not be permitted to come back in till the station opening hour.

I experienced that in SLC when the PDX<>DEN bus was annulled because it was running so late in a snowstorm. The benches in the Intermodal Center were designed to prevent sleeping. I walked over to Amtrak and bought a seat on Train 6.

In longer disruptions, I know that Greyhound has arranged for help from the Salvation Army.

2015 - it's 12:01 a.m. and passengers are waiting for their Greyhound New York City to Los Angeles through bus to return from the Denver garage where it was being cleaned and refueled. Benches had arm rests to prevent sleeping. This wait now takes place in the Bus Concourse of Union Station.
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I don't think there have been any overnight restrictions at Chicago Greyhound, providing passengers are ticketed. With buses, effectively, arriving and departing at all hours of the day it would be difficult to restrict. I've even arrived in the 4 A.M. Hour to meet an acquaintance whose bus was due early morning.
 
BlackDiamond said:
I think Boston's arrangement is pretty good with the bus station right over the train station. As bus stations go it is a pretty decent facility with food, rest rooms etc.
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I'll add that the Gateway Transportation Center in St. Louis is good example of a functional and pretty nice Amtrak and bus station.
 
NYC's Port Authority Bus Terminal is an example of a government run station with a mix of public and private busses, both transit and intercity routes. Yet even given this partnership, Bolt, MegaBus & Flix all have or had stops outside of the terminal to cut costs. Growing up in the suburbs I got to hear all the horror stories. As an adult I took the bus out of there a few times and found many of them to be exaggerated. However, it is a dark and cold place, with confusing signage, there is definitely room for improvement.

As for people being residents of bus and train stations, this is a problem everywhere. In my city we have a fairly busy suburban station, with many semi-permanent individuals in the seating concourse. We also have what I jokingly call the circle of homelessness. Our state changed the way local shelter space is allocated to a much more cumbersome statewide system. So now the public sees someone on the street, the police either drop them off at the station or convince them that they need an ambulance. The ambulance takes them to the hospital. The hospital releases them, hospital security tells them to leave, when they don't the police get called and drop them off at the station. The station is patrolled by a transit police and contract security, who basically let them live there. Late at night they close the concourse for cleaning and tell them to leave, they claim they are sick, transit police call an ambulance, and we start the circle over again. There are some seats marked reserved for ticketed passengers and others marked for general seating. I have been there and tried to find a seat, seeing transit police and security standing on the concourse and not moving people out of the reserved seats. While I don't know a solution to homelessness, the effect is a more or less unfriendly train station which does nothing to increase ridership.
 
AFS1970 said:
As an adult I took the bus out of there a few times and found many of them to be exaggerated. However, it is a dark and cold place, with confusing signage, there is definitely room for improvement.
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It's not much different from Penn Station really. You can have strange encounters in both (people asking for money, trying to argue with you, etc.) and both are dark, cold, and have confusing signage. I've been lost in both that's for sure haha.
 
BlackDiamond said:
Although that only applies to Concord Coach. Greyhound, in typical Greyhound fashion, used to have its own bus station on St. John St. but now stops on Marginal Way and Congress St, some distance from the PTC.
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The nearest Greyhound station to Chattanooga, TN, is 92 miles away in Wildwood, GA. The terminal that used to be downtown and then next to the airport is now a 2 interstate freeway ride into rural North Georgia. As far as convenience and connectivity, we were better off in the pre-Interstate highway days of the early 60s.
 
In Springfield MA, Peter Pan busses use Union Station, too. I used them about ten years back to get from Greenfield to New York City via Springfield. At least back then, I found the bus service clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Of course, they cut the Greenfield route some time back--probably due to the addition of the Vermonter and Valley Flyer train service. And, as I was checking to see whether Greenfield is back (it's not), I noted on their website that as of yesterday, Peter Pan has apparently acquired all the Megabus routes in the Northeast corridor, including a new stop in Philadelphia close to 30th St station.
 
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Night Ranger said:
The nearest Greyhound station to Chattanooga, TN, is 92 miles away in Wildwood, GA. The terminal that used to be downtown and then next to the airport is now a 2 interstate freeway ride into rural North Georgia. As far as convenience and connectivity, we were better off in the pre-Interstate highway days of the early 60s.
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Chattanooga does have Groome Transportation - they have shuttle vans that run almost every hour from Chattanooga to Atlanta and Chattanooga to Nashville. Thay may or may not help your travel needs.
 
crescent-zephyr said:
Chattanooga does have Groome Transportation - they have shuttle vans that run almost every hour from Chattanooga to Atlanta and Chattanooga to Nashville. Thay may or may not help your travel needs.
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It's quite surprising how it seems like airport shuttle buses almost have a more robust network than traditional intercity providers do. You may not be able to string together a long trip with them, but in many cities they're the only non-personal auto connection to the rest of the world, or the only other option is a very infrequent (perhaps less than daily) intercity bus or local transit connection to a nearby town.
 

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