Columbus Bus Station

The Columbus Bus Station was an intercity bus station in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The station, managed by Greyhound Lines, also served Barons Bus Lines, Miller Transportation, GoBus, and other carriers. The current building was constructed in 1969. From 1979 until its closure in 2022, with the demolition of Union Station and a short-lived replacement, the Greyhound station was the only intercity transit center in the city.

Columbus has seen intercity bus transit since 1929, when a union station opened on Town Street. Sixteen companies, including a Greyhound bus company, operated there. In 1932, a competing bus terminal opened on State Street, operated by Greyhound. By 1940, the station was replaced by another Greyhound terminal, in a space neighboring the current bus station site. The 1940 terminal was lauded at its opening, though in following decades, it reportedly deteriorated and became a place of refuge for the homeless. The current bus station was built from 1968 to 1969 in a modern style, and featured numerous traveler amenities. Efforts to keep the station safe were successful early on, though the Greyhound Corporation proposed its sale by 1988. In 2021, following a shooting incident and reports of frequent police visits, the property was declared a public nuisance. Agreements were made to increase security, and the local mass transit agency, COTA, agreed to purchase and redevelop the site. Intercity bus services moved to a COTA facility in 2022, and COTA plans to demolish the 1969 station and create a mixed-use development on the property.

The Greyhound station building sits on a 2.45-acre (1.0 ha) site, taking up most of a city block. The terminal is roughly bordered by Town and Rich streets to the north and south, and 3rd and 4th streets to the west and east. The property includes the 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m²) station, two smaller buildings, and a parking area for the intercity buses. The station is built of brick and concrete, and has 20 bays for boarding buses. A landscaped pedestrian mall connects the building's set-back entrance to Town Street. The station was open 24/7, and has entrances at every side; some were permanently closed.

The bus station, managed by Greyhound Lines, also served Barons Bus Lines, Miller Transportation, GoBus, and other carriers. Flixbus coaches stopped on the south side of the station. In 2021, the station saw about 34 buses stopping per day.

The Greyhound site is considered an important property to city officials, given the scale of development taking place around it, as well as its location by Columbus Commons and the busy 3rd and 4th streets.

Among the first intercity bus stations in Columbus was the Union Bus Station, which opened around 1929 at 47 E. Town Street. 150 buses were estimated to use it per day, with platforms allowing for 12 buses to unload at once. The Union Bus Station was to have a 110-seat waiting room, restaurant, restrooms, soda fountains, news stands, tobacco shops, a barber, and a tailor. Sixteen companies operated out of it at opening, including the Greyhound Lines Columbus-Zanesville Transportation Company.

On April 23, 1932, a new Greyhound bus terminal opened at 45 W. State Street (some reports gave its address as 40 or 43 W. State). The building cost $55,000. Its opening included a series of events and celebrations, including a parade showing the evolution of road travel, reportedly including a Native American on a horse, an ox-cart pulled by oxen, a stagecoach, pony express, a tally-ho, Victorian phaeton, covered wagon, buck-board, horse and buggy, tandem bicycle, early automobiles and buses, a twin coach, and a then-modern Greyhound overnight coach. The new station had loading space for six buses, as well as a waiting room, ticket office, information desk, restrooms, and offices. The station was operated by the Pennsylvania Greyhound Co., a subsidiary of Greyhound Lines. Five days after the new station's opening, Union Bus Station operators filed a lawsuit against Greyhound, alleging that Greyhound and other companies already entered into a contract to utilize the Union Bus Station from 1929 to 1939.

On February 24, 1940, the Greyhound Terminal of Columbus opened at 81 E. Town St., at Town and 3rd streets' southwest corner. The new building was claimed to have the most complete layout of any Greyhound station, given thought-out passenger handling as well as an adjacent garage built to the rear of the station. The station was owned by the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Atlantic Greyhound Lines. It featured a waiting room, restaurant, ticket offices, restrooms, bedrooms for dispatchers, a baggage room, and express office. By 1967, the station was owned by the Pontifical College Josephinum.