Jon Hilkevitch
Mega traffic woes hit Canal
Union Station area a hub of congestion
Published October 23, 2006
The streets surrounding Union Station mark the transportation hub of downtown Chicago, and they are long overdue for a traffic makeover that city officials now are considering.
Canal Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard is the nexus of downtown commuting activities anchored by Metra, Amtrak and Chicago Transit Authority buses, serving more than 200,000 travelers daily. It is the place where several city agencies are studying a re-engineering of traffic patterns to ease congestion and improve safety.
Entrances to the sprawling Union Station complex, a magnet for foot traffic, are on both sides of the street on the one-block section of Canal. Many pedestrians can recite personal horror stories about close calls with vehicles during frenzied rush periods.
A busy CTA bus stop, where 286 buses operating daily on several routes not only pick up and unload passengers but often dwell for extended periods, occupies the entire curb space on the west side of Canal along with a CTA buses-only passing lane.
On the east side of Canal is a cabstand that was relocated there for security reasons after the 9/11 attacks from its former place on the underground circulating drive inside Union Station. The mix of taxis and bus stands on the east side of Canal has proved to be an extremely poor--and often dangerous--fit.
Taxi drivers dropping off or picking up riders weave in and out of the cabstand. They compete for space against CTA buses, private buses shuttling Metra commuters from Union Station to their jobs in the Illinois Center and other major office buildings and the Amtrak-commissioned intercity buses that all dock on the east side of Canal.
"We have a lot of different uses for one block and we recognize there is a broader issue that needs to be addressed," said Rich Hazlett, coordinating planner in the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Mega traffic woes
The already bad traffic situation reached the tipping point in April when Megabus, a super-low-cost bus company, joined the fray on the east side of Canal. Megabus serves eight Midwestern cities daily from its Chicago hub along the public bus-staging area on the east side of Canal.
"Even though most Megabus departures are in the off-peak period, traffic volumes exceed the capacity of that curb space far too often," said CDOT spokesman Brian Steele. "Everyone recognizes the status quo is not acceptable."
The city is considering changes in the use of the curb space at Union Station and alsois reviewing possible modifications in the street meter parking in the area, Hazlett said.
Alternative locations for Megabus are under review, Hazlett said. They include moving the Megabus staging point to the existing CTA bus lane on the west side of Canal; north of Adams on the east side of Canal; and south of Jackson on the east side of Canal.
The CTA is concerned because any changes could involve moving some current CTA bus stops on the east side of Canal.
"We have a limited amount of curb space and we have already made adjustments in our schedules to meet the capacity constraints of the terminal," said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.
Up to 20 Megabuses operate daily from the current spot on the east side of Canal between Adams and Jackson. Only one Megabus at a time is supposed to occupy the bus stand, under an agreement between Megabus and the city, officials said.
But sometimes two Megabuses are present if the runs are off schedule, occupying the curb and the adjacent traffic lane and tightening the traffic knot. The buses are supposed to get in and get out quickly, but the loading and unloading of bags and passengers often prevent timely turnarounds.
Amtrak, the owner of Union Station, was first to cry foul. The emergence of Megabus, which offers a $1 fare to at least one passenger on each bus, potentially threatened to take away passengers from Amtrak, although the passenger railroad contends that its fares and service attract different travelers.
Greyhound Bus Lines, which operates its downtown station several blocks away at 630 W. Harrison St., also has reacted to the Megabus foray. Greyhound has been handing out leaflets advertising its services to people waiting at the Megabus stop.
Megabus officials say they are working with the city, Amtrak and the CTA to come up with a solution, but they said the problems on Canal predated Megabus' arrival.
Crunched for space
"The area around Union Station is where we want to be," said Don Carmichael, senior vice president of operations at Coach USA, which owns Megabus. "Our rollout in Chicago has been very successful."
Adding injury to insult for Amtrak, Megabus customers have been camping out inside Union Station while waiting for their buses. To keep overhead operating costs low, Megabus neither owns nor operates station facilities in any of the nine cities it serves.
"Getting in the door of Union Station was like salmon trying to swim upstream," said Amtrak passenger David Johnson, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, describing the scene Thursday morning.
Union Station is a public place open to anyone who transacts business there, whether boarding Metra or Amtrak trains or making purchases in the food court or stores.
But Amtrak responded to the Megabus invasion by instructing Amtrak police to shoo Megabus passengers waiting for buses in the vestibule area out onto the sidewalk on the east side of Canal, where most Amtrak passengers enter and exit the station, which also houses an office building known as 222 S. Riverside. Signs have been posted telling Megabus passengers to wait outside the building.
"Unfortunately, the passengers of this bus operator have been misled to believe it has an indoor facility for its customers in Chicago," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "We have no business relationship with this company.
"The vestibule must be kept open for the flow of passengers to and from the station, and it is the primary point for emergency medical response to the building. It is not a waiting area," Magliari added.
Some visitors to Chicago are receiving a bad impression as a result of the traffic headaches and the dispute between Amtrak and Megabus.
Bill Stern, an attorney from West Bloomfield, Mich., and his family were stranded outside Union Station for 2 1/2 hours Oct. 15 because their Megabus to Detroit did not show up, he said.
Family members included grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the situation "got a little crazy," Stern said.
"The old guys needed to use the restroom during the long wait, but the police hassled the Megabus customers, telling us to go outside and get out of the way," Stern said.
"I wish the police instead went after the bums who were taking people's luggage and extorting `tips' from them for carrying their bags a few feet," Stern said.
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