Oh, Lex. They have quite a reputation around Champaign. I have a few memorable experiences with them: 1.) My mom and I used to plan shopping days in Chicago, and we used to use Lex. Like others have said, it usually involved a random stop at a hotel parking lot in the middle of nowhere and we would switch shuttles and/or drivers. Shady, awkward, inconvenient. 2.) My then-boyfriend had an early flight in Indianapolis, and I booked him a ticket on a Lex shuttle because there were no other options for a 2 am departure. He was the only passenger, and the driver was a pregnant woman. As soon as they got on the highway, he noticed her head bobbing. He asked her if she was okay, and she told him that she was really tired and ASKED IF HE COULD DRIVE WHILE SHE SLEPT IN THE BACK. WHAT. IS. THIS. My boyfriend obliged (...) and drove the shuttle all the way to the airport. Hahahaha! When he pulled the shuttle in to the airport, the lady thanked him and was on her way. 3.) Yes, I have taken Lex even after that. I missed my Amtrak train at Union Station and needed to get to Champaign that day, so I called Lex. Lucky for me, they already had a shuttle on the way. There were a few other people, probably students, riding with me. I was sitting directly behind the driver and could see his hands and face in the mirror. During the whole trip, he had his cell phone in his lap or on the steering wheel and was texting. I mean, come on. I don't even want to know what sort of subject matter caused a 50-something guy to be glued to his phone like that. Just kidding, I totally tried to read the texts but couldn't. I do know that he was an awful texter and driver. He kept veering out of his lane just a little whenever he was looking down. Lex really needs to get their stuff in order and screen their drivers. And yes, their hub is also a jacuzzi showroom or something. It's strange. The only good thing I can say about Lex is that I can usually bribe the driver to take me directly to my house instead of the hub. I've never taken the buses, only minivan-type shuttles, so maybe those are better. I only take Amtrak now-- I'd rather deal with long waits than crazy drivers. read more

So just to update you guys -- NO response whatsoever from the company. I sent him another email that contained the link to all his HORRIBLE reviews on yelp. read more

If you want a 5 hour bus ride down to Champaign (as opposed to the usual 3), this it the bus for you. Oh and sometimes their buses even break down! It's awesome because then you have to wait another hour for another bus to come by and pick you up. But then, the cargo doors lock down so your bags are trapped in the bus until they fix it and then allow you to pick up your luggage. read more

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH . ohmy gosh. Are you serious?!?!?!? Lex is NOT even a real company. Let me tell you about this "company", or as I like to call it, a hot steamy pile of diarrhea. No matter where they tell you they're going on the phone, they'll first stop at like 10 other places. Like, I'm not lying. It's not that it just happened once to me and won't happen to you. Trust me, it WILL!!! They'll probabaly tell you on the phone that they're going straight to your destination, but by the time the very tardy driver will show up, he'll inform you of the multiple other stops, with yours conveniently being last. One time, I was supposed to take lex from chicago to champaign. The driver showed up 2 HOURS LATE. I KID YOU NOT. He then got lost a couple times, probably due to the fact that he was given multiple wrong directions. Finally, they took me to oak brook, where they dropped me off and I had to wait about 45 minutes or a bus to pick me up and take me to champaign. I'll admit, the woman I had to take me back to Champaign was very nice. But, it doesn't excuse the "service" that lex even dares to provide. Another time, this time from champaign to chicago, they dropped me off in matteson where I had to transfer. THE DRIVER WAS DRUNK. Like not horribly drunk, I think more just buzzed, but I hopped in the van because I didn't realize this until we started excessively speeding and sliding into the shoulder. His words were slurred, and eyes were bloodshot. Long story short, Lex kind of makes me want to take a huge dump and leave it on the company's doorstep. Don't bother taking a lex shuttle, it'll be a horrible time, and when you complain, they won't listen to you. read more

1 star is too many for this crack-pot operation, but Yelp doesn't offer a "negative star system". One word to describe this company: Incompetence At Willard Airport in Savoy, IL, they are rarely available to pick up passengers from the last couple of flights into town at night. This will leave you waiting for another taxi company to pick you up. I have also witnessed the Lex drivers being verbally combative towards other taxi companies since they (Lex) apparently "have the contract" at the airport. (which basically means they have the right to be in the terminal, but other taxi companies aren't supposed to come inside) If you're happy to travel on their screwed-up schedule, you'll be fine. Their drivers are paid hourly, not by the number of customers they transport, so they basically leave whenever the hell they please as they will still get paid even though they don't do their job. read more

A really good company. Not only do they offer frequent buses at all hours of the clock but they have many different stops as well. Definitely a great bus service. Also, having done business with them over a charitable cause about six months ago, they are also very responsive to just about anything and will help one in any way they can. Great service to go to and fro Champaign and Chicago. read more

Horrible experience. Driver wouldn't take me to Bloomington airport (he forgot to stop and then said oh well) and left me off at a random gas station. Bus was a filthy pit and the driver was a jack hole. Their idea of customer service was to ignore me. These people were terrible. read more

They changed my bus schedule TWICE from 7:40, to 8:30, to 9:50 because I was the only passenger going from Midway to Champaign. It turns out, on the 9:50, I was also the only passenger; a second didn't' show up. As a businessman, this was very poor service. If I had a meeting to present at, I would have missed the presentation. read more

I would give them negative stars if Yelp allows it. Their staffs are rude and have no respects to the customers. I was 10 minutes late for the bus from Champaign the O'Hare Airport early in the morning. I called their number and asked if the bus is still around the area and asked them why didn't they give me call before leaving. Here was the response: "Do you think that the airlines would call all their customers if they are late? We are doing business here and we are not baby sitting the customers." Well, that is. I will never do business with them again, ever. read more

The bus picked me up and arrived on time to Chicago. Still, it was 4 hours in a car, 1 hour of which we were circling campus picking up students. I was hesitant to embark on my journey back. I bought my ticket the day of my return bus, and it stated the bus would arrive at 6:00 and drop us off at 8:45. The perfect time! It actually arrived at 6:10 due to bad weather (not a big deal), but then we started down I55 (not the way to campus). at 8:45 and nowhere near home, I asked the driver what was happening. He told me he isn't due in Champaign until 10pm. I told him he must be mistaken because my ticket said 8:45. He insisted he stopped at ISU first, then would proceed to Champaign. I was furious. I called customer service but they too told me that it was scheduled to come in at 10. It was as if no one was hearing me. I understood now that I would arrive at 10pm, but why did my ticket say I would arrive at 8:45? I would have never bought it otherwise. The girl on the phone, a minimum-wage worker, couldn't have cared less either. She said it was a new route, and told me to complain online to the owner, which I did in the morning (we got in at 10:30, 4.5 hours of driving on a bus, and I had such a migraine and had to go to work in the morning). I then get an automated response from Mr. Lex about buses being late. My bus wasn't just late, it was re-reouted at the confusion of its own passengers (I was not the only one confused about this timing, as others asked as well why were weren't home yet). I have traveled the world and even in developing countries the service is better, the rides are honest, and people seem to care. Not Lex. I will take Suburban express from now on, or, as I have been thinking about it for a while, buy a car. If Lex cared at all, if the University of Illinois cared at all, it would shut down companies like LEX and CPM, THAT is what the Wall Street protesters are all about. read more

If i could give less than a star I would..I have taken this bus many times because it's the only one that has late drop off times however, they are never on time, never apologetic and tonight I had a cramped van drop me off at a random hotel an hour away from my pick up point and she told me to get out of the van and wait here for another bus that wouldn't be there for another 20 minutes ( this was around 10:40 pm) and then she drove off never once saying sorry for the inconvenience. This company is ridiculous and they think they can treat people like crap just because they are a monopoly. Believe me LEX I will spread the word. read more

The staffs were nice, but the company policy is bad. Imagine your flight was delayed, you have to wait a few more hours at the bus station, and they still charge you $10 to change the reservation while most of the bus is empty. Besides, if you plan early you can probably rent a car and return it the next day for the amount of money that they charge. read more

Am writing this review sitting at O'Hare Terminal because the LEX shuttle didnt show up. We were told that it would pull up in a couple of minutes. 30 minutes went by and no one showed up. We called the office again and were told that the driver was already on his way to Champaign since there were no passengers. We told the office that the driver was lying because there are people waiting at the bus terminal and the bus didnt show up at all, but he didnt want to argue about it. I have had to on LEX for the past couple of years for my trips between Champaign and Chicago airports. And that is because there is no viable option. Peoria Charter ran this route for a few months in 2009 but had to stop it because they were not profitable. To me it seems they didnt advertise their service well enough. There buses were much cleaner, you didnt have to transfer at some remote location into a rickety van and they had free wi-fi to top it. The other service that goes to to Champaign - Suburban Express - needs an advance reservation and a print out for you to take the shuttle. And they have limited runs. If you have an option - go for Suburban Express (Illini Shuttle) over LEX. LEX drivers are not punctual and if you call the office, they would usually tell you that the bus is going to show up anytime now. That may translate into a wait time of 1 hour!!! The only advantage with LEX is that they have more schedules in a day and some of them at really odd hours. So if you are taking an early morning flight from Chicago or landing late in the evening, you have an option. Though they have almost doubled their night fares in the last 2-3 months. read more

I don't know why LEX gets better rates than suburban express. Suburban clearly has cleaner buses and they are mostly on time compared to Lex. I would choose to ride Amtrak if I can make it on time and otherwise I would rather than greyhound or suburban. I was taking the bus from Woodfield to Champaign, leaving at 6pm and was supposed to arrive at around 9pm. The bus stopped at a parking lot in a small mall on the way to Champaign. There the driver started chatting on phone for over 20 min. It didn't seem to be a very important call. After the end of the phone call the bus drove and this time stopped at a gas station in Monee, IL then refilled the oil. Then at around 8pm the bus left Monee. When we were about to leave Monee the driver stopped the bus on the road, got off, and closed something on the back of the bus. So here I doubt whether the bus was a crappy one. The bus was supposed to arrive at around 9pm in Champaign, and what exactly happened was that the bus left Monee, a city that is 2 hours away from Champaign, at 8pm. Since I got on the bus at 6pm, I already spent 2 hours on the bus and was pretty tired. I paid so that I can be on campus by 9pm, no later than that. Spending 4 hours on the bus was extremely tiring too. I used to not like LEX before, so I took it only when I didn't have any choice. They were usually late for about 30 min but I thought that was still acceptable. However getting late for more than an hour, seriously, is a waste of money and time. From now on, I am not going to take LEX for whatever reason. Seriously, I don't think it's worth using my money and trusting them to be on time. read more

The only thing that makes me happy about writing this review is being able to contribute another '1-star, but really 0-star if Yelp would let me'. My reservation was canceled less than 24 in advance (irony, since they charge you for changing your reservation less than 24 hours in advance), I was placed on a 4AM shuttle. At 4:10, it didn't show up so I called them and was told it was on its way and was picking up some other folks. Oh, this was outside Union Station in the rain, by the way. 4:25 was told they were just running late and that the shuttle would be there soon. 4:45? Was told they'd look into it and get back to me. 5:00AM? Oh, the driver will be there in 10 minutes. Yeah. And the staff has major attitude issues. The experience was so bad (many details were omitted for this review) that my last time going to Champaign for a day, I invested in staying at a hotel so that I can just take Amtrak. read more

This thread between me and "Mr. Lex" says it all (they wouldn't take phnone calls) - me: Last Friday (Nov. 11th) I was on a bus scheduled to leave from Follettes book store on the University of Illinois campus at 10:55am and arrive at Woodfield mall at 3:00pm. During the ride, the bus had some sort of trouble causing it to not be able to finish the trip so the driver dumped us at CTA train station in what seemed to be a pretty bad neighborhood near the corner of Lafayette and 95th street in Chicago. They expected us to use our own money to buy train tickets to get to O\'hare then take a shuttle bus to Woodfield. I ended spending $20 on train fares since I had no cash and the ATM only disbursed $20 bills and the ticket machines only accepted cash. I had to ride the train, make a transfer, and then ride another train to O\'Hare and eventually get picked up at O\'Hare at 5:30pm, two hours later than when I was supposed to arrive at Woodfield. While I understand there is nothing you could have done about the damages, the least you could do is be accountable for the expenses I had to pay just to get to O\'Hare, not even my destination. I would like to be fully reimbursed for my bus ticket ($26.05) -in real money, not lex express credit - since I was not delivered to my destination and was delayed well over 2 hours. I would also like to be reimbursed for the $20 I had to spend on the CTA train tickets. Please let me know if there is an issue with that. Thank you. Mr. Lex: Lex Express is sorry that our bus had broken down en-route on your trip. We regret that our service has inconvenienced you in any way. Buses do have mechanical issues and we do pride ourselves on fixing them properly. Lex Express will look over what technical problems this particular situation had so no future incident happens again. I will put $46.05 on your lex account. We do not refund back to credit cards. But you will have that money for a future ride. Thank you Mr. Lex me: May I ask why you don't refund back to credit cards? Are you saying there is absolutely no way I can get my actual money back? I'm upset that I had to contact you and the company didn't contact the customers on that bus. I don't see myself using this service ever again and I won't have any future need for a bus ride since I was retrieving a vehicle using the bus that broke down so credit in my lex account does absolutely nothing for me. Mr. Lex: Danny, That is just our policy that we don't refund back to credit cards. You always have someone else use it. If you were not intending on using us again. Thank you, Mr Lex read more

used lex many times last year. generally, not too bad--and one driver in particular (an asian american man) was particularly professional. still, we'd make the requisite random stop which made the trips 2x longer. but my last experience was the straw that broke... waited for a shuttle 12:10 a.m. on sunday at o'hare. we were supposed to get back to uiuc at 3:20 or something. we got there at 6:30 a.m. this guy comes and picks us up. we all wait in the shuttle for nearly an hour (in the hot summer night) while he's outside doodling--supposedly waiting for more passengers, though no one comes. so we're already late an hour. then we head to the international terminal. but the guy is driving like 15 miles an hour, obviously not sure of where to go. after the international terminal, we head for midway. suffice to say, we get lost. nearly 2 hours is spent somewhere between o'hare and midway. the guy must have driven every nighttime service street--with all the requisite "scenery" in the background (prostitutes, etc.) we also make about 2-3 "stops" in the middle of strange, dark parking lots and truck stops while the driver gets coffee, asks for directions, or goes to the bathroom (he must have gone about 2 times). somewhere down the line, we end up near indiana--this is after i notice HILLS all around us. there are no hills from o'hare to uiuc. so you know we were far from something. eventually, the driver stops a random guy on the street and asks how to get to champaign. the guy blurts, SHIT you guys are like 5 hours away! one of the passengers has a gps on his phone so he offers to sit up front with the driver and does. i ask if the driver is new, while all the other passengers quietly grumble in the back. the driver instead says no, he's been driving over 2 years now but he was not familiar with the midway route--hence our being lost. he then proceeds to complain about how his boss put him on this route suddenly, even though he sucks at it. FINALLY, we manage to find our way back to the uiuc campus at around 6:30 a.m. late 3-4 hours. trip from o'hare to uiuc = 6 1/2 hours. ridiculous. wrote lex with this complaint. and like the other posters, no response. though i'll be losing some money going with their competitor (illini shuttle, the train, or a plane), i don't plan on using them again. they suck. read more

I had the worst experience with this company that I have EVER had with any company. I purchased a ticket to take me from Woodfield Mall to the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University and the buss was suppose to leave at 6:45pm on Monday September 5. I arrived at Woodfiled 20 minuets before the scheduled departure time and the buss was already full. So I waited what I was told would be about 10 minuets (in reality it was about 20-25minuets) for a new bus to arrive. We stopped at two more locations to pick up students, and on the way to the second location the driver got lost. The directions he was given were wrong and he told us the GPS he had did not work. We used the GPS on my phone to try and find the right way, and we were finally able to get there after a parent of one of the students waiting to be picked up found us and we followed him to the correct location. By the time we entered Bloomington we were already 30 minuets behind schedule. About 2.5 miles from campus the buss broke down in the middle of Route 51/Main St. The passengers then walked to a Pizza Hut across the street and the owner there called his sister (who worked as a hotel shuttle driver) and she drove us the rest of the way. I arrived at my dorm two hours later then I was suppose to. Now I do no blame the driver for any of this, he did the best he could in these circumstances. But it is appalling that a company that claims it has had "more than ten years of safe and reliable service" and has "accommodating services, professionalism, and adaptability" (both direct quotes from the website) would leave a driver this unprepared and unequipped. I paid for one thing: to get me from point A to point B on time and most importantly, SAFELY. They failed to do both. I will never use this company again and I will be sure to warn everyone about the unsafe, unreliable, unaccommodating, unprofessional and inadaptable services I encountered with this company. read more

Where does one begin a review on Lex-Lincolnland Express...I guess a list will work the best and get right to the point. 1. The buses are crap. Most of the seats are always broken and the buses sound and feel like they're going to fall apart. On my last trip (and I do mean last!!!) the temperature outside was 80 degrees and the busdriver had the heat on full blast. It was so hot the metal strips on the side of the seats were HOT. All the passengers were smothering. The driver simply said he couldn't turn the heat off until we stopped. Finally, 50 miles down the road he stopped at a rest area, got out of the bus, went back to the engine and manually did something to turn the heat off and the AC on. On my return ride we must have gotten the same bus because it was warm in there w/ no air moving. An elderly man asked the driver if something could be done and she responded in a very snippy way,"Nope. Ain't got no fan and if I turned it on the heat would go on and not shut off!" 2. The drivers are rude and not the least bit helpful. You have to put your own luggage in the compartment below the bus - regardless of age or physical capabilities. The passengers help each other out. 3. The drivers aren't afraid to express their displeasure about having to make an extra stop to pick up an unscheduled passenger and make us all feel "put upon" because of one passenger. 4. I've used Lex 6 times and all but one was an exceedinglOy negative experience. 5. The prices are higher than the alternative companies. One star is way too much for this company! The words "customer service" is definately not in their vocabulary. read more

On the day of January 16, I made a call at 1:30 PM at Chicago Union station waiting for my scheduled bus to come pick me up back to Urbana, Champaign. Little did I know the people at Lex told me that my bus changed schedule and notified me through phone and email. No such thing existed and the lady on customer service said she would be able to move me to a 3:00 PM bus. Therefore, I started to wait outside for my bus til 3:00. I called again to see if it was late. Turns out they didn't even schedule the bus to come pick me up. The costumer service representative gave me a rude attitude and did not even apologize for their careless mistake. I finally got on my bus at 4:05 PM. I made sure that I called back to see who was the person I talked to. It was apparently a person named Sandy. I requested for her last name but she stated she was the only Sandy there was. She hanged up on me before I even finished asking her questions. After experiencing such an unorganized and rude service I decided to never even go on a Lex bus even if someone paid for me. If I was able to give this zero stars, I would. read more

This is the worst company I've dealt with, they cancelled my bus without any for-warning or compensation. When I called to ask where the bus was they treated the situation as a joke. They then kept me in Union Station, under the premise that another bus was coming soon. This was not the case. I ended up sleeping in the station when I could have gotten a motel for the night. THIS COMPANY WILL NOT HONOR THEIR CONTRACTS. THERE ARE CHEAPER, MORE RELIABLE ALTERNATIVES. read more

This company is very dangerous to associate with...I've heard stories of people being robbed by their drivers, drivers getting arrested for DUI while they're driving the Lex van...the list goes on. I worked with someone that used to work in their office, and she said the FBI would come in frequently searching for the owner. How lovely. In my own experience with them, they were always late picking me up, the drivers drove way too fast. One time, I was in one of their vans and the driver was smoking while he was driving the van. Drivers swear like sailors and and extremely rude. Known for yelling at passengers. Don't risk your life with these nutjobs, please. Take Suburban Express. read more

They should change their name to Ghetto Bus Company aka The Bus Company from Hell. My daughter bought a bus ticket because Amtrak was sold out after the Thanksgiving weekend.. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6 PM. from the Oak Brook Mall. After I called to check on the departure time the customer service rep assured me that the driver was on his way. When a bus did arrived at 6:20 it wasn't her bus and the driver said he didn't know if another bus was coming. After fifteen minutes another bus did arrive which was going to ISU. The driver was very unprofessional and it took him twenty minutes to check all of the passengers on. The heat worked for ten minutes out of the two and a half hour drive. She was very uncomfortable. She was scheduled to arrived at 8:35 but didn't get back to school until 9:40. Needless to say she will never take this Lex bus service again!! read more

Multiple people I know, including myself, who paid with a debit card at LEX have had a unauthorized charge on on cards for Experian Credit Report. Obviously someone who shouldn't has access to the card numbers. read more

I disagree with the previous reviewer. I had a pleasant enough experience with lex express. Their buses may not be top of the line but the one I was on got me to my destination. I don't know what people expect when they are using mass transit but I found lex to suit my needs thoroughly enough. I'm giving it a good review because I got exactly what I paid for, transportation from point a to point b in a reasonable amount of comfort. read more

Don't use this SO CALLED TRANSPORTATION "SERVICE" if you can. I used just a week ago, the bus was 30 minutes late and it showed up only because I bitched and called them. They said the driver for that pick up time just decided not to show up and that he was trying "luck" to find someone else. In the meantime the other passengers and myself were wondering if we were going to get to the airport ever!!! Finally this guy shows up and did no less than 80 MPH all the way to the airport. They were not only late but the trip was completely unsafe. The road was foggy and we were doing 80, we were lucky the police didn't stopped us.... that would've been the end of getting on time to the airport. I have used Illini shuttle in the pasta and even the amtrak and is completely different story. Most of the reviews talk about how bad these guys are... I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THEM. read more

I'm very disappointed with the bus service. The bus arrived 45 minutes late for the pickup at Oakbrook. Then the bus breaks down in Joliet. The people have been stuck on the bus for over an hour with the only infomation is the bus driver calling his boss. I called the # for the company at 9:15 and the woman that answered the phone was very, very rude - " I have already answered 50 calls on this" like it was my problem the bus broke down. My daughter is on the bus going to normal and I have a right to know what is going on. As of 9:45 still no tow truck when the women on the phone at 9;15 stated it would be there in 10 minutes. Mgt needs to teach their phone reps on how to deal with situations like this - when a bus breaks down they will get an increase in calls/questions- they should be trained to act professional and handle the pressure. There are plenty of people out there looking for work. read more