* NBC Chicago in August…

This Labor Day travel holiday could be the last for Chicago’s intercity Greyhound bus station.

The Greyhound bus line has been sold to German operator Flixbus, but much of its real estate has not and could soon be sold to a developer.

The possible closure of the terminal located in the 600 block of West Harrison Street could make Chicago the largest city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal, according to a new report from the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University.

“We may be down to the last few weeks with the station. No real plan has been formed to save it,” Chaddick’s director Joe Schwieterman said. “That’s all bad for lower income and disabled communities. We need a fix.”

Although advocates have been sounding the alarm about a possible closure for more than a year, efforts to address the situation have only picked up in the last few months. Chicago’s Chief Operating Officer, John Roberson, said in a statement that the Johnson administration is continuing to work with Greyhound and other stakeholders to “find a viable solution for intercity bus services and its passengers in downtown Chicago.”

* The Sun-Times yesterday…

Greyhound Bus won’t be leaving its West Loop station just yet, its parent company FlixBus announced Tuesday.

The bus operator said it is finalizing a lease extension with the new property owner that will allow it to continue operating buses at 630 W. Harrison St. after Sunday, when its lease was set to end.

“Our team is finalizing a month-to-month lease extension with Twenty Lake [Holdings], and our operations will continue without disruption,” a FlixBus spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“This is a temporary solution, and we remain actively engaged with the city and other stakeholders to secure a long-term home for intercity bus service in Chicago,” the statement said.

The spokesperson said the lease extension had not yet been signed and could not share more details about the potential arrangement.

* Tribune…

Advocates have been sounding alarm bells about the possible closure of the downtown Chicago bus station for more than a year, saying such a move would have repercussions for the many low-income travelers who rely on Greyhound, residents of communities without easy access to train or airline service, and others who rely on buses to travel between cities, as well as Chicago’s status as a transportation hub. […]

Greyhound stations in other cities have already been relocated, in some cases moved miles outside the city center or shifted to only curbside pickup and drop-off locations, with no indoor waiting areas. For example, in Knoxville, Tennessee, riders have reported waiting hours outside in the heat and cold for sometimes delayed buses, with no access to food, water, restrooms or a station building, according to local reporting.

Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, who has been a proponent of a dedicated bus station, said the lease extension offered a temporary reprieve, but Chicago still needed to resolve what kind of station the city would provide travelers.

“Hopefully, public agencies will feel the need to deepen their involvement to avoid a meltdown that could hurt a critical travel sector,” he said.

* Crain’s…

The city attempted to acquire the site to keep it a transportation hub, but the funds were not available, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, said at a virtual meeting in August. He said it would cost the city around $25 million to buy the station.

If it loses the station, Chicago, would become the largest city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal, joining Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nairobi, Kenya, as the only three of the 130 largest global cities to have no intercity terminal, according to a study by DePaul University.

Flix had been eyeing alternatives after failing to reach an agreement for an extension of its lease at the Harrison Street terminal, looking instead to the traffic lane across the street from Union Station. The Jackson Boulevard location was strongly considered, in part, because there is a Greyhound ticket counter nearby.

However, having a pickup and drop-off location there would mean buses could not operate during peak hours and services would be cut. The proposal also received pushback from Amtrak, which owns Union Station and is concerned about congestion and safety.