They need to mark it better. I don't do a lot of domestic to intl at ORD and in September I had to do just that.
Took me few minutes to figure out where to go, then when I finally arrived at the station it was closed. No signs downstairs notifying about the closure.
Found the bus and at 7pm there was no problem transferring to int terminal (UA to LO).
I can't imagine transferring during the rush hour with the train down.

As for EWR, at least you can walk from A to B to C and vice versa. You can't do that at ORD, and even if you could, it would probably take an hour for the connection that I did last summer.