AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Greyhound has been closing down bus terminals around the country, and Chicago's may be next. A last-minute lease extension will keep the station open for the time being. But as David Schaper reports, passengers worry about where they'll wait for buses as the harsh Chicago winter approaches.
DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: Reverend Joyce Sykes lives in Indianapolis but rides the bus to Chicago and other cities quite a bit.
JOYCE SYKES: I travel pretty much every other week by Greyhound - every other week.
SCHAPER: And the 76-year-old minister, who no longer drives, says she's already seen a lot of service cuts in recent years.
SYKES: They got rid of rapid rewards. They got rid of senior citizen discount, baggage handlers. And now they're getting rid of the station. I'm very, very sad to hear that.
SCHAPER: Travelers like Sykes will be relieved to know that Greyhound's downtown Chicago bus terminal will remain open for the time being as the company that now owns Greyhound, FlixBus, got a temporary month-to-month extension on its lease just days before it was to be shuttered.
When Flix bought Greyhound a couple of years ago, the deal did not include many of its bus stations. Those were sold to a real estate investment firm, which across the country has been selling off many of the prime downtown parcels to developers, forcing Greyhound to close terminals recently in Cincinnati, Columbus, Houston, Los Angeles and several other cities.
A company spokesperson would not say how long the month-to-month extension in Chicago will last. So it could run out right before the busy Thanksgiving or Christmas rush, leaving passengers, like Sykes, out in the cold if Greyhound moves to curbside boarding and drop off as it has elsewhere.
SYKES: I've been on the bus when everybody gets off on the street, and that's not going to help a little old lady like me in Chicago.
SCHAPER: One expert says the uncertainty hanging over the future of Chicago's bus terminal is a crisis for those who rely on intercity buses.
JOE SCHWIETERMAN: We're on the edge of a cliff.
SCHAPER: Joe Schwieterman is a transportation expert at Chicago's DePaul University who has extensively studied bus travel.
SCHWIETERMAN: Well, you know, we looked at this, and we found if we lose this station and they move to a curbside-loading model, we'll be the largest city in the Global North, which is the developed countries, without a bus station. And that's not a distinction we want to have.
SCHAPER: Scores of buses pull into and out of the Chicago terminal every day. As Schwieterman says, the station is the largest intercity bus connection hub in the Midwest, serving about a half a million passengers a year. And he notes that intercity bus lines like Greyhound serve hundreds of smaller towns and cities that airlines and Amtrak do not.
SCHWIETERMAN: You take away connecting points or push people out on the curb to wait, and that whole network just unravels. So it's hugely important for mobility, heavily for people with low incomes, disabled community and many others.
SCHAPER: City officials are in talks with Greyhound and other entities to try to find another location with an indoor waiting area, but there's been little progress thus far. Schwieterman says it's time for public agencies to step up.
SCHWIETERMAN: You could indeed say the intercity bus is a forgotten stepchild of transportation. And people take it for granted.
SCHAPER: The CEO of Greyhound's owner, Flix North America, is getting involved too. He's calling on Congress to fund infrastructure for intercity bus travel just as it does for airports, passenger rail and mass transit. For NPR News, I'm David Schaper in Chicago. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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