"The humble bus," the war against passenger rail, and the need for cooperation

 

After Amtrak began on May 1, 1971, one of the loudest opponents of the new National Railroad Passenger Corporation was the intercity bus industry. The National Association of Motor Bus Owners, which, after much ridicule at the acronym NAMBO, changed its name to the American Bus Association, once had a spokesman at every Congressional hearing about Amtrak, who urged an end to Amtrak funding. And there was an echo from the media, most notably from New Republic staff writer (1978-1981) and Chicago Tribune columnist (1982-present) Steve Chapman, who waxed poetic about the "humble bus" as the solution to the nation's transportation problems. 

Half a century later, Amtrak is still with us, though still as a sub-skeletal network, while the intercity bus industry is in shambles. Greyhound, the largest American intercity bus operator, sold many of its downtown stations to private capital firms, including, ironically, Alden Global Capital, owner of Chapman's Tribune, whose real estate subsidiary, Twenty Lake Holdings, in 2022 purchased 33 Greyhound stations, including the iconic Cleveland depot (pictured), for $140 million. The result is that in many of those cities, bus passengers are waiting at curbside bus stops with no toilet facilities or even shelter.

Other bus lines are simply shutting down. Burlington Trailways, which cooperated with Amtrak on its routes between Indianapolis and Davenport, Iowa and Indianapolis and Des Moines, abruptly canceled its scheduled operations effective October 18, 2025. Jefferson Lines has since taken over some of Burlington's operations, including the Indianapolis-Davenport route.

One big advantage Amtrak has is an organized coalition of rail passengers, especially the Rail Passengers Association and the High Speed Rail Alliance, along with numerous state and local groups, who have effectively lobbied Congress and state legislatures for maintaining and expanding Amtrak services. Bus passengers have no such lobby group. While rail passengers come from all socioeconomic groups, there are enough affluent and educated people to support such organizations. According to a CNN Business article, "roughly three-quarters of intercity bus riders have annual incomes of less than $40,000." It's unlikely we'll have a Bus Passengers Association.

From the inception of Amtrak, the intercity bus operators have, for the most part, treated the NRPC as a hated competitor, something to be eliminated. Yet there have been many instances of cooperation between Amtrak and the bus operators, though far fewer than there ought to be. When I was a reservation clerk in Chicago, we had several copies of Russell's National Motor Coach Guide in the office, and I became adept at helping people with connecting buses to get them to places Amtrak didn't go. Russell's has been gone for quite some time, but there's still a need for bus connections not listed in the Amtrak website.

It appears to be up to the rail passengers, individually and collectively, to lobby for a coordination of ground transportation operations and facilities. For example, Chicago Union Station desperately needs to be expanded beyond its current size. Amtrak is already planning to use the tracks underneath the Old Post Office south of the station. It would make sense to expand the station over the tracks between Jackson Boulevard and Harrison Street and include an intercity bus terminal. The intercity bus network is too important to be left to die at the hands of private capital.

Note: Chapman took a buyout after Alden Capital took over the Tribune, but he continues to write a monthly column for the paper.

Image: Cleveland Ohio Greyhound Station, 2023. By w_lemay - https://www.flickr.com/photos/59081381@N03/52991753053/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134376615