Columbia’s lack of Greyhound bus station impacts low-income residents
Cristy Fossum, a 78-year-old retired special education teacher in Columbia, has plans to travel to Athens, GA next Friday. She doesn’t know if she’ll make it, however, because the capital city lacks a Greyhound bus station.
It’s a concern held by multiple low-income families in Columbia, who don’t own cars and can’t afford to purchase an airline ticket amid rising costs.
“I booked a bus ticket out of Elgin, which is 18 miles away, and I don’t know how I’m going to get there,” Fossum said. “I just don’t know. I don’t have a car and Lyft or Uber is just prohibitive on my budget.”
A Greyhound bus tickets goes for around $43 from Camden to Atlanta, while an Uber ride form Columbia to Camden runs at around $43.
Greyhound bus services were halted in Columbia after a shared terminal with Southeastern Stages, which solely operated the facility, ceased operations at 4103 West Beltline Boulevard last October, according to Greyhound spokesperson Karina Frayter.
The closure left Camden and Elgin as the closest locations for travelers to catch a Greyhound bus. But for Fossum and others, the cost of traveling to another city or town, just to take the bus, is extremely inconvenient.
“I asked a friend who had taken me to Camden a few months ago to catch the (Greyhound) bus, and she’s unavailable,” Fossum said. “So, I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to have to find a friend or maybe my grandson to drive me, but with the high price of gas, that’s problematic for everybody to drive those distances.”
LaShelle Upton-More, 56, who relied on the Columbia Greyhound bus service to visit her daughter in college in Daytona Beach, Florida, said not having a Greyhound station nearby has impeded her ability to regularly visit her daughter, who has now graduated and lives in Georgia.
The lack of a Greyhound station in Columbia “impacts me severely,” she said.
Upton-More, who recently had to travel to visit her dying mother, said she felt “lost and hopeless” having to travel to Camden to catch the bus, after losing her car in an accident.
“I had to take the bus from Camden to Atlanta to catch a flight to Alaska, where my mother was,” Upton-More said. “If the bus was late or something happened, I would’ve been stranded. If the bus station was in Columbia, I could have just gone back home and caught the bus the next day.”
History of Greyhound in Columbia
Historically, Greyhound had its own station in Columbia dating back to 1939, which operated till 1987. Most recently, however, Southeastern Stages was the sole intercity bus carrier in Columbia from September 2023 to October 2025, with service to Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, according to Frayter.
For other Columbia residents, not having a Greyhound bus station in Columbia presents safety concerns when having to travel to another location.
Tyesha Cooper, 51, said catching a Greyhound bus in Elgin is “unsafe” due to its location in the “woods.”
“The Elgin (Greyhound) bus stop is in the outskirts, somewhere in the woods,” and does not offer a dedicated station building, Cooper said. “It’s not a safe place to be, especially if you’re a student or young lady and it’s dark,”
Cooper also dismissed the notion travelers needing to use Greyhound without owning a car.
“Greyhound is an intercity transportation service and not a local service,” Cooper said. “It’ll now take you from Camden to New York. So, people need to understand that it’s an intercity service.”
At least one Columbia city council member shares the sentiment the capital city is need of a Greyhound bus stop.
Council member Tyler Bailey said he has heard multiple pleas from Fossum, calling for a bus station and believes the city needs one.
Bailey said he believes the city needs a Greyhound bus station and is open to working with stakeholders.
“We need to figure out a location along with everybody else that needs to be at the table,” Bailey said.
A Greyhound spokesperson echoed the same.
“As a capital city, Columbia would be well served by a proper intermodal transportation center, similar to those in other cities across the Southeast and East Coast,” the company said in a statement . “A centralized facility would improve connectivity for residents and visitors, and support long-term regional mobility. We would support any local efforts toward a Columbia intermodal.”
Proposed West Columbia location
In February 2025, Southeastern Stages had gotten approval to move to a location on Platt Springs Road in West Columbia from its longtime location on Buckner Road, before the city’s zoning board blocked the transfer due to crime concerns associated with the station.
The bus line was booted from Buckner Road after being taken over by Stanley Steemer, which shared a location with the company, according to Southeastern Stages franchise manager, Ted Gohl.
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.
Residents find lack of Greyhound station unacceptable
Still, residents like Fossum, Upton-Moore and Cooper say the lack of stop in Columbia is unacceptable.
“It’s a complicated picture,” Fossum said. “And I feel like it is just one of the many lows against low income people, and in the whole scheme of things, where the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.”
