Crime concerns halted bus stop set for West Columbia. Where’s it going now?
A proposed bus station that was set for West Columbia has found a new home after concerns over crime rates threatened its approval from the city’s zoning board.
After Southeastern Stages – an intercity bus company with routes to cities like Charlotte and Myrtle Beach – received the go-ahead from West Columbia’s zoning board to relocate its longtime Columbia bus station to an old sandwich shop, a note from the city’s police chief noting the Columbia location’s number of calls made to 911 made the board reconsider.
The waffling on the part of the zoning board, and intense pushback from local residents on social media, caused the company to withdraw its request and move to another location. The bus company moved to 4103 W. Beltline Blvd., right off Two Notch Road, at the beginning of June.
“It’s apparent we’re not going to be a good fit for [West Columbia] so we’re in favor of you denying it,” Robin Jones, a representative for the company, told the city’s zoning board May 20.
The Atlanta-based company had been given initial approval in February to move to 1471 Platt Springs Road, the former home of Steve’s deli which closed in 2023. The move came as the company was being booted from its longtime Columbia location by the expansion of Stanely Steemer, with which it shared a building.
Then the police chief and the S.C. Department of Transportation got involved.
West Columbia Police Chief Marion Boyce sent a memo outlining his concerns about a potential increase in crime and the transportation department alerted the city that it would require a traffic study to determine how a bus terminal would impact the area.
The company pushed back on this assertion, arguing that the reason for the high number of calls was to ensure they were keeping passengers safe.
“We run a tight ship and we don’t allow people on the terminal without tickets and, just like any other business, if somebody is giving us a hard time, we call the police,” Jones told The State.
According to data provided to West Columbia by the Columbia Police Department, the existing Southeastern bus stop saw 528 reported incidents, which included public disorderly conduct, drunkenness and loitering, from January 2022 to 2025. The police department received 155 calls for service between March 2024 and 2025, the letter from Boyce said.
“Given the history of incidents in Columbia, this information may be relevant for considerations regarding licensing, regulation, law enforcement monitoring or other relevant concerns,” his letter read.
The city’s zoning board amended its bylaws, giving it the ability to reconsider previous approvals if new information is presented, in April before voting to reconsider the request from the bus company at the May meeting. At that May meeting, the company withdrew its request.
“They gave us approval and then pulled it out from under us so we just looked for another place and found one. This actually works out for us better anyway, we didn’t have to go through any approval because it’s already [zoned as] passenger terminal,” Jones told The State.
