COLUMBIA, S.C. — The COMET bus system is adding a transfer bus hub, in an effort to decongest traffic in Downtown Columbia.
The location will soon move some transfers from Laurel and Sumter streets to Lucius Road and River Drive in northern Columbia. The downtown stop is not being closed.
“I need the transportation, and they about to make it real hard for me," said Tony Smalls Sr., a Columbia resident.
Smalls told News19, he relies on the COMET bus for transportation. He said these changes in the transfer hub location are frustrating. The current transfer hub is where most routes begin and end.
"This is a good location to transfer," Smalls said, gesturing to the central hub. "If you have to go down to Lucius Road, that’s throwing it off because that’s one-sided if you get what I'm trying to say."
Smalls added that he's concerned about what other changes may follow.
"What are they going to do? Are they going to reroute the buses? Are they gonna raise the cost of riding the bus, again? Are they going to make multiple transfers again?" he asked. "It's hard to keep up with the bus system as it is now."
Director of marketing for The COMET, Pamela Bynoe-Reed, said the current hub will be converted into a "super stop" -- a bus stop that has multiple routes coming to it where connections can be made more easily.
"For many of them, it will allow them to get to their locations and their destinations in a more effective way - the routes that go further out in the Saint Andrews, Irmo, Chapin area," Bynoe-Reed said. "So, they don’t have to go Downtown to get to where they need to go."
Danite Rhinehart said the change will make her commute longer by possibly adding another stop.
"It don’t take but 30 minutes to get to work," Rhinehart said. "They gonna do what they want to do. But it’s going to be an inconvenience for people who work, people who have to travel back and forth like I do."
The new transfer hub is expected to begin by the end of 2022, according to Bynoe-Reed.