Rockland Coaches New Weekend Express Route From Rockland and Northern NJ -- Beginning December 2

Rockland Coaches has announced a new weekend express bus serving Spring Valley, NY, the Exit 14 Park and Ride and the Montvale NJ Park and Ride off the Garden State Parkway beginning December 2.  They are offering express bus service to the Port Authority every 90 minutes from these park and rides with the last trip leaving New York at 11:30PM.  Seems like a good idea considering the only other options from Rockland County and Northern Bergen County are either local buses that can take as much as 90 minutes to get into New York or the slow Pascack Valley line train, other than a couple of express runs to Pearl River on weekends.  We wish them luck and hope the service is successful.  More details are available on the Coach USA/Rockland website here and the schedule is available here.

Greyhound Begins New Service From GWBBS

Greyhound has just started new service from the newly renovated George Washington Bridge Bus Station.  Greyhound is offering 10 weekday and six weekend trips to Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston.  Greyhound has indicated it may expand service and routes in the future.  Greyhound and Trailways both served the terminal with long distance routes until the 1970's.  We applaud the move as a great alternative to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal and hope the service is successful.  Looks like Greyhound is offering low fares to inaugurate the service.  We found fares from the GWB to Washington ranging from $11 to $22 on the Greyhound website.

One of the Sorriest Bus Stops In the USA - Englewood Route 4 --Updated October 2

A bus stop on Route 4 West in Englewood has made the Streetsblog USA Final Four of "Sorriest Bus Stops" in the Country.  The stop is used by Jitneys that run between Paterson and the George Washington Bridge Bus Station as well as NJT's 171 and 175 lines.  The Saddle River Tours/Ameribus  11C  line also serves the bus stop.  Like many of the bus stops along Route 4, there is no bus shelter.  The blog notes that riders have to climb over the guardrail or walk along the busy highway to exit.  The stop is heavily used by bus and jitney riders going to the new housing developments in the area.  There is no cross-over to get to the east-bound side of the highway where there are also new housing developments.  The stop is near the proposed future Route 4/Englewood Hudson Bergen Light Rail Stop along the Northern Branch.  We hope that NJT creates an upgraded bus stop on Route 4 in both directions with direct connections to the light rail extension - if it ever is built.

This also draws attention to the sorry state of the bus stops along the entire length of Route 4.  Many lack shelters, are poorly lit, or require a dangerous walk along the busy highway.  Something should be done to improve the stops before a bus passenger is severely injured.

Unfortunately, Englewood lost to Munhill, PA in the Final Four.  A stop in Seattle just won the title of Sorriest Bus Stop for 2017.  Apparently we can't even be successful at being Sorriest!

UPDATE:  On October 2, 2017, NJ Transit announced that effective October 9, 2017 this bus stop is being eliminated at the request of the City of Englewood and advising riders to use the Grand Avenue stop.

Summer of Hell For New Jersey Bus Riders

NJT Bus Riders switching buses after break down on NJ Turnpike

Riders of NJ Transit trains are not the only ones experiencing a "Summer of Hell" due to the ongoing track work being performed by Amtrak at Penn Station.  The Penn Station summer track work caused cancellations and diverted hundreds of trains away from Penn Station - especially trains on the Morris and Essex Lines.  Many scheduled train runs were cancelled this week due to issues with train crews not reporting to work. 

Fellow bus commuters have also been feeling pain during this summer of hell.  On Tuesday morning, an NJT bus broke down in the XBL causing delays in excess of an hour for riders into the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  On Wednesday and Thursday, it was reported that several NJT bus runs were also cancelled due to "operational issues."  It has also been reported that NJT had to  cancel these trips because drivers had to cover additional bus service implemented because of the rail issues at Penn Station.   Way to prepare NJT!

New Jersey's fleet of "Jersey Cruisers" that travel to New York are now over 15 years old and are constantly breaking down.  You can't miss them pulled over by the side of the road these days.   As we previously reported, NJT was in the process of replacing these buses starting last year, but work on the new buses was halted when our beloved Governor Christie suspended non-essential construction projects for several weeks last summer.  So next time you are stuck in traffic due to a broken down bus, or suffering on one without air-conditioning, you'll know who to thank.  Our wonderful Governor who continues to create "traffic problems" by closing toll booths at the GWB, cancelling the ARC Hudson river tunnel project, and otherwise severely underfunding NJ Transit. 

George Washington Bridge Bus Station Reopens On Tuesday May 16 -- Updated

Good news for riders who use the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.  The long delayed renovation project at the Station is almost completed and reopened for bus passengers on Tuesday May 16. The construction lasted two years longer than anticipated due to problems with the contractors and developers. NJ Transit has also announced that cash fares will no longer be accepted for its routes that service the terminal in order to speed boarding and departures. Riders will have to purchase tickets from either the windows, the ticket machines or use the NJT Mobile App.  There was plenty of TV coverage today about the re-opening including from WNBC-TV, and NY1.  We will have additional reports in the near future.



The new gate assignments for GWBBS routes are:

NJT Route     Gate

171                 12

175                 13

178                 17

181                 14

182                 18

186                 15

188                 11

Coach USA/Rockland

9A              Gate 5

Ameribus/Saddle River Tours

11C            Gate 4

20/84          Gate 4


Express/Spanish Transportation Jitneys

Gates 20 and 21

Saddle River Tours Wins Local Bergen Bus Routes Contract - Until It Doesn't

The Record is reporting that NJ Transit retracted a winning bid by Saddle River Tours for a seven year contract to operate eight Bergen County local bus routes. Coach USA's Community Coach lines has been operating the 751,752,753,755,756,762,772, and 780 routes under contract for the past seven years.  These routes carried almost a million passengers in 2016 according to NJT.  Saddle River actually submitted a lower bid than the incumbent Community Coach, and thought it had won the contract back in September.  However, it was recently notified that the bid was retracted on a technicality - because Community didn't have an opportunity to make the required oral presentation for the bid.  Community is maintaining the contract for another year - at a contract rate that is $720,000 MORE than Saddle River Tours' bid for the year.  That is an additional $720,000 that will be paid by New Jersey taxpayers at a time when transit funding is scarce.

In 2014, Saddle River took over Coach USA's 11C and 20/84 routes that run through Bergen County to the George Washington Bridge when Rockland Coaches abandoned them.  They were the only company to step in to provide the GWB service with the hope of expanding operations in Bergen and other counties.

NJT Board minutes call the contracting process a "competitive procurement process."  We don't see it.   The losing bid came in $720,000 lower than the winning bid for this year.  How is that competitive?  Coach USA likewise has a history of cutting bus service in Bergen County, yet is mysteriously awarded another year on the Bergen contract despite being outbid by Saddle River. We call shenanigans on the NJT Board.

We hope SRT can either successfully mount a legal challenge, or win the contract when it is up for bid in 2018.  This will be a lot tougher now that Coach USA knows its bidding strategy.  

New MCI Buses Rolling in New Jersey

Here is a brand new bus on DeCamp's Route 66 line heading to the Port Authority Bus Terminal at the Lincoln Tunnel Exclusive Bus Lane.  NJT has ordered in excess of 1200 of the new cruisers to replace its aging fleet and recently began delivering the new MCI buses to many of the private NJ bus companies.  Suburban, Community Coach, and Saddle River Tours are some of the other private companies who have begun operating the new cruisers.  More on the story can be read here.

Rockland Coaches Route 20 Re-Route In Pearl River -- Effective February 6, 2017

For our Rockland County Readers, Rockland Coaches has announced that its' Route 20 bus line will be permanently routed in Pearl River, NY effective February 6, 2017.

Route 20 Advisory:
Attention all route 20 customers:
The following serves as NOTICE OF CHANGE to Bus Route #20
...

As of February 6, 2017, the #20 Bus Route will no longer service the following locations:
o Orangeburg Road
o Sickletown Road
o Convent Road west of 3rd Avenue
This bus route will instead continue on Old Middletown Road to Gilbert & Veterans Memorial Highway, and will also now include the Blue Hill Plaza on Veterans Memorial Highway.
Normal service will continue through Rockland Psychiatric Center and East of 3rd Avenue on Convent Road.