Sieved glass beads 480 μm in diameter are suspended by upward concurrent gas and liquid flow in a vertical bubble column of 7-cm diameter and 4.85-m height. Transient changes in the holdups of gas and solid particles are caused by a step change in the liquid velocity, and the time-dependent behavior of the axial distributions of the phase holdups is measured by sectioning the column simultaneously with 20 horizontal plates. A one-dimensional sedimentation-dispersion model is applied to describe the transient response of the solid holdup. The model developed is in good agreement with the data over an entire column consisting of dense and dilute regions.