PUBLIC GROUND TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM MADISON

Bus Service to and from Madison

There are a growing number of bus services to Madison (but no rail service), almost all currently stopping at Memorial Union or the Chazen Museum right on the UW campus:

Van Galder Bus Co. (phone 1-800-747-0994) runs a bus to and from Chicago's Amtrak Station three times a day which can be code shared and ticketed with Amtrak. (There is also far more frequent service to and from Chicago O'Hare airport, as well as to and from Chicago Midway airport.)
Badger Bus (phone 1-877-292-8259) runs a bus several times a day between Madison and downtown Milwaukee.
Greyhound Bus Co. (phone 1-800-231-2222) along the major interstate routes (Rockford-Chicago, Milwaukee-Chicago, Minneapolis, La Crosse).
megabus (phone 1-877-462-6342) offers low-cost bus-service to and from Chicago and Minneapolis.
Lamers Connect (1-800-236-1240) offers once-daily bus service to and from Columbus-Fond du Lac-Oshkosh-Appleton-Green Bay, Dodgeville-Plateville-Dubuque, and Portage-Stevens Point-Wisconsin Rapids.
Jefferson Bus Lines (1-800-451-5333) offers service to and from La Crosse-Winona-Rochester-Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

(See also Wanderu's guide for more information on buses to/from Chicago.)

Connecting at Chicago O'Hare airport to points beyond

Note that for travel between Madison and points beyond Chicago, one can easily connect via the Van Galder Bus Co. at Chicago O'Hare airport (see here for details), including the following:

University of Chicago on Chicago's Soth Side: either the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) or the Omega Shuttle (phone +1-773-734-6688)
University of Notre Dame and South Bend: United Limo (phone +1-800-248-8747)
Urbana-Champaign: Peoria Charter Coach Company (phone +1-800-448-0572)

Prepared by Steffen Lempp (@math.wisc.edu">lemppmath.wisc.edu)