What's the best way to get between Chicago and Madison?

November 12, 2023 3:57 PM

As the title says, what's the best (not "drive yourself") way to get from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin? As far as I can tell, my options are basically fly ORD->MSN or take the Van Galder bus, either from downtown or O'Hare. Do you have experience with either, or do you know of a decent third option? Travel is in December but well before Christmas.
posted by Charity Garfein to Travel & Transportation (14 answers total)

I'm just some guy on the internet who doesn't live in either city but Amtrak seems to have various trains on that route.
posted by sheldman at 4:04 PM on November 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Greyhound. Is Megabus still in business?

Amtrak has service to Madison, but I can't tell from a quick look if it's Empire Builder (one train/day) or Hiawatha to Milwaukee and then a bus. Or just a bus the whole way.
posted by hoyland at 4:05 PM on November 12, 2023

I'll add that I've taken Megabus between Chicago and Minneapolis many times, but over a decade ago. It's generally fine, though Megabus occasionally goes sideways and departs hours late for no apparent reason. Don't go on the overnight bus--one time the driver was clearly falling asleep.

Greyhound will take longer because it stops more frequently.
posted by hoyland at 4:08 PM on November 12, 2023

Van Galder is easy and reliable. I've taken it loads of times. Amtrak does not have train service from Chicago to Madison (Hiawatha goes from Chicago to Milwaukee)
posted by sulaine at 4:09 PM on November 12, 2023 [14 favorites]

Response by poster: (There is not train service between Chicago and Madison. Megabus does not go between Chicago and Madison.)
posted by Charity Garfein at 4:15 PM on November 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Hi, I have done this a lot. I haven’t ridden Van Galder in a long time, but it’s pretty comfortable as intercity coach goes. Traffic on I-90 is a real wild card and that’s the major reason I don’t use it these days — you need to allow a lot more time than I feel like allowing. These days, I fly that leg several times a year on United, and I hate flying in general but this flight is really nice. Perhaps because of Epic’s influence on the Madison market, it’s a larger plane than you’d expect for such a stupid small distance, and it’s overwith really quickly. ;) And United is way friendlier as an airline than they used to be.

Technically you could probably also do Badger Bus to Milwaukee and then Amtrak to Chicago. I don’t think I’d do that though unless you wanted to plan to spend extra time in Milwaukee. Too much can go wrong when you go intermodal.
posted by eirias at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Scott Walker ensured that we would not get train service on that very obvious route, and Megabus no longer serves us (boo). I guess you could fly but I have never heard of someone doing such a thing -- it's only like a three-hour bus ride.

Van Galder is totally clean and normal, it won't be a problem.. You could also take the Hiawatha to Milwaukee and then take a bus from MKE to Madison.

(I suspect the Amtrak routes that sheldman is seeing are the connecting buses, which are operated by Van Galder.)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 4:39 PM on November 12, 2023 [6 favorites]

Even if there were a third option (look for a UW Madison student to ride-share with?) the Van Galder would be hard to beat. They’ve been running this route for decades and the process is so smooth it’s nearly flawless. And of course much cheaper than flying.

The buses are very comfortable and the route timetable (I believe about 4 hours downtown to downtown) generally has enough buffer to accommodate the traffic variability. The only downside is that they have to keep to the timetable given the in-between stops in Janesville and Rockford — so the 4 hours is basically best case as well as worst case. But the bus is comfortable and I believe these days it even has WiFi.

At Madison it first stops at a Park & Ride on the east side and then winds up downtown, right on campus. Plenty of buses you can hop from there or easy to arrange a ride.

Also, “baggage check” on the bus is easy and not a problem.
posted by sesquipedalia at 5:00 PM on November 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

Is Megabus still in business?

Yes but I believe they dropped most of their Midwestern routes, not just Chicago-Madison.
posted by pullayup at 5:08 PM on November 12, 2023

Van Galder, totally. I've taken it a bazillion times (approx). Used to be my reliable way home when a Chicago-Madison flight was late or cancelled and I only had carry-on baggage. I think the coaches even have wifi these days.
posted by humbug at 6:09 PM on November 12, 2023

Van Galder is part of Stagecoach Group/Coach - which also owns megabus. It's about 40 for a one way ticket, 70 for a round trip. Van Galder service picks up at Union Station downtown and makes a stop at O'hare before heading to Wisconsin.
posted by zenon at 6:57 PM on November 12, 2023

Rome2Rio show options: https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Chicago/Madison
Amtrak's Empire builder will take you to Columbus and Megabus will go to Madison from there. Megabus has two routes on Thursday according to their website. The transfer alone would probably make this less ideal than a direct bus and it doesn't seem to save any time.

The site also lists Flixbus, and they list Greyhound (6:45 am) and Flixbus (8:15am) as options for weekdays.

The Van Galder seems like the best option if you don't want to fly.
posted by soelo at 7:25 PM on November 12, 2023

Do you have someone to pick you up at the end in Madison? We've had friends take the train to Columbus a few times but we can pick them up. I wouldn't trust a cab or Uber to be there reliably, so if you need to take transit from the train station to downtown Madison, just take Van Galder. I wouldn't fly unless the flight was cheaper than the bus or you are independently wealthy.
posted by notjustthefish at 7:41 AM on November 13, 2023

100% van galder. Between security, baggage, etc, it’ll take you longer to fly than to take the bus.
posted by juliapangolin at 10:38 AM on November 13, 2023