A Greyhound bus stop at Northern Illinois University's student center went into effect last week. The bus line goes from the Quad Cities to Chicago and stops in Moline, Dixon and Rochelle.
NIU officials expressed interest in adding a Naperville stop, which was approved by the Naperville City Council last week. The stop was officially added on Monday.
Linda LaCloche, the communications manager for the city, says Naperville has a large commuter population.
"In fact, at one of our train stations, it's over a 10 year waiting list to get a parking spot at that train station," LaCloche said.
Steve Silverstein, a DeKalb resident and the owner of DeCab Taxi, says the service could be good for single travelers who want to go to any of the bus stops. But he says it may pose an issue for those who cannot easily get to the student center.
"There are going to be situations where the Greyhound service will be useful, and there're gonna be plenty of situations where those particular designated times and places are not useful," Silverstein said.
Silverstein says taxi services may be more expensive for people traveling alone, but they are able to transport passengers from their homes straight to the airport or train station.
Silverstein says customers would have more flexibility time-wise, since the Greyhound bus makes two round trips per day. Overall, he says the bus and taxi services would be able to coexist.
Aurora and Naperville are about 35 miles away from the main campus.
According to Brad Hoey, who is the campus communications director at NIU, about 1,096 students from both communities attend NIU. About 171 employees from the area work at NIU.
