Monday, June 14, 2021

New Jersey Bus Service Update

 As New York and New Jersey begins to reopen, private New Jersey carriers are slowly coming back with service restored to many lines.  As of today, DeCamp has returned for the second time since it suspended service completely last summer.  It began running limited rush hour service on its 33, 44 and 66 lines.  Timetables available  at Decamp.com.  Other NJ private carriers such as Lakeland, Short Line, Community, Suburban have been  operating rush hour service only to and from New York on most of their routes for the past year, with little or no off-peak or weekend service as of now.  Rockland Coaches is only running a few rush hour runs, and its 14 and 21 lines still remain completely suspended.  NJ Transit has been running its regular bus and rail schedules with just some minor adjustments.  

In other news, Academy has lost all of its contract work with NJ Transit, with Coach USA about to take over the 2, 10, 22, 23, 88 and 119 routes.  Details here.   Academy was hit with a whistleblower lawsuit alleging many missed trips and doctoring missed trip reporting over many years.  NJ Transit has subsequently removed Academy from all of NJT's contract operations.  

And finally, some good NJBus news.  There has been movement in replacing the crumbling Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown.  The Port Authority has released new designs and is holding virtual scoping meetings on June 23 and June 24th and is accepting public comments through July 19th.

We hope everyone has stayed safe and is doing well and looking forward to better days ahead.