Getting From Champaign to Chicago

Champaign-Urbana sits about 135 miles south of the Loop, and with the University of Illinois there, the route is busy every Friday and Sunday of the school year. You have three good ways to do it: the train, the bus and your own car. Flying makes sense only if Chicago is where you're catching a connecting flight.

In Champaign, the train and most of the buses use the same building, Illinois Terminal at 45 E. University Ave. downtown. For the Chicago end, our getting to Chicago page has the stations and the L connections.

By train

This is the one to take. Amtrak runs three trains a day each way between Champaign-Urbana and Chicago Union Station, and the ride takes about two and a half hours, which is about what the drive takes on a good day. The difference is you can read, sleep or work the whole way, and you arrive at Canal Street in the West Loop instead of looking for parking.

• The Saluki is the morning train south from Chicago and the late-morning train north from Champaign.
• The Illini runs south in the afternoon and north in the evening. Both are short corridor trains that run between Chicago and Carbondale, with stops at Homewood, Kankakee, Gilman and Rantoul on the way.
• The City of New Orleans is the long-distance train to Memphis and New Orleans. It leaves Chicago in the early evening and heads north through Champaign in the middle of the night, getting to Chicago in time for breakfast. Handy if you want a full day in the city. Less handy if you have to be at the station before 5am.

Book ahead for Thanksgiving, the end of the semester and big football weekends, because those trains sell out and the fares that are left climb fast. Check exact times on the Amtrak timetables page, since they shift a little with each schedule change.

By bus

FlixBus leaves from Illinois Terminal a few times a day and takes about two and a half hours to the Greyhound station at 630 W. Harrison St., a short walk from the Blue Line's Clinton stop. Fares are often lower than the train. Watch for the Greyhound run on the same ticket site, which stops all over and can take six hours or more.

Peoria Charter Coach is the local favorite, especially if you're flying. Its buses pick up at Illinois Terminal and at two campus stops, the Armory and Illinois Street Residence Hall, and go straight to O'Hare and Midway, with some trips stopping downtown and in the suburbs. Online fares start at $46 one way (timetable). Downtown, the bus no longer stops at Union Station. Since 2023 the city has had it use the west side of Desplaines Street between Congress and Tilden, under the I-290 bridge and across from the Greyhound station (Peoria Charter stops). At O'Hare, it picks up at the Multi-Modal Facility, so leave time for the airport train from your terminal. The downtown run takes about three hours, and O'Hare closer to four.

Megabus used to be the cheap way to do this trip. It's now a booking site for other bus companies after its parent went through bankruptcy in 2024, so if you buy through megabus.com, check which company and which stop your ticket names.

Driving

It's about 135 miles, nearly all of it on I-57. Figure on two and a half hours if you're going into downtown, and more on a Friday afternoon. The last stretch, where I-57 meets the Dan Ryan (I-94) on the South Side, is where the time goes. There are no tolls on I-57 itself.

Before you drive in, think about where the car will sit. Downtown garages and hotel valet are expensive. Booking a spot ahead with an app like SpotHero helps, and so does staying somewhere near an L stop and leaving the car there. The getting to Chicago page has more on driving and parking in the city.

Flying

American Eagle flies from Willard Airport in Savoy to O'Hare a couple of times a day. It's a connection, not a way to get to Chicago. By the time you've gone through security in Savoy and then ridden the Blue Line in from O'Hare, the train would have had you downtown already. United has announced a return to Willard with O'Hare flights, but the start has been pushed back more than once because of federal caps on flights at O'Hare (IPM Newsroom). Check united.com for the latest. If you're flying on from Chicago, see our airports page.

Photo by Spiffy0777