Saddle River Tours 11C, 20/84 and 55 UPDATE

We have received reports that Saddle River Tours is back operating these routes at least for the time being, and likely on an interim basis.  If you plan on taking any of these buses, we suggest calling the carrier to confirm they are in operation, and suggest you have a back-up plan just in case.  We hope resolution is worked out quickly.  

Thanks to everyone who has written and commented to the NJBUS Blog with updates and information and we will try to keep you posted.  Feel free to continue to contact us at njbus86@yahoo.com with any comments, questions, updates, or questions about alternate service.  

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.

Preliminary Plans For New Port Authority Bus Terminal

The Port Authority has released a report describing some preliminary options for replacing its crumbling mid-town bus terminal. Several options involve relocating long distance inter-city bus services to an unspecified off-site location.  Two alternatives are to construct a new terminal somewhere between 9th and 11th avenues which would mean a lack of direct subway access for commuters.  Others involve keeping the terminal near its current location, which would require interim bus terminal facilities for several years while the terminal is re-built.


The report discusses several near-term options for dealing with commuting issues in and out of the terminal which may seem promising:

• Exploring strategies to manage near term growth at the existing terminal:
• Route consolidation
• Hub & spoke operations
• Hudson River ferries
• Service to other transit hubs in NY and NJ (George Washington Bridge Bus Station, Secaucus Junction, ferry terminals)
• Gate utilization

We have long been an advocate of shifting some buses to run via the under-utilized George Washington Bridge Bus Station, and then via the east side as an alternative to the Lincoln Tunnel and the mid-town terminal.  NJT is already coordinating the NY Waterway ferry on its River Road bus service.  Further, the infamous port authority gate re-shuffling has seemed to alleviate some of the pm rush hour commuting delays.

A new terminal is a must for New Jersey commuters.  However, it looks like it will be years of more commuting chaos for NJ commuters to deal with the current terminal, and then years of construction, and alternate commuting as the new terminal is built.

Three Routes Picked for Bergen County Bus Rapid Transit

Bergen County and NJ Transit have picked three potential new routes for a new Bergen County Bus Rapid Transit system.  As we have been reporting, the County and NJ Transit have been studying a Bus Rapid Transit System and have now narrowed the original nine proposed routes down to three. The routes are:

• Montvale Park and Ride to the Secaucus Junction Rail Station via Paramus Park, Bergen Community College and Garden State Plaza.
• Paramus Park Mall to the Secaucus Junction Rail Station via Bergen Community College, Garden State Plaza and Hackensack.
• Englewood Hospital to Paterson via Hackensack and Garden State Plaza.

More details about these routes are available here.  Some of the routes that weren't picked for implementation travelled from Bergen County to New York City.  Officials cited overcrowding at the Port Authority as part of the reason these routes weren't picked.

We welcome any new transportation initiatives for Northern New Jersey but we think alleviating the trans-hudson commuting issues should still be a top priority for NJ Transit. 

It's Official - The Port Authority Bus Terminal is Declared "The Worst Place on Earth"

Check out this VERY humorous clip from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Show on HBO claiming that the Port Authority Bus Terminal is the "single worst place on planet earth."  Click here to view the clip.


Also from this past weekend, The Bergen Record reports on the dismal conditions at the terminal and describes how some bus drivers do laps around the bus terminal in order to meet their scheduled departure time. 

The XBL

With all of the recent news about the Port Authority Bus Terminal finally getting an overhaul with some money allocated for renovations, one question remains:  if you build it, how will the buses come?  A new or expanded bus terminal, which is still light years away, is just one piece of solving the delays at the terminal. 

An expanded or new terminal is useless if buses can't access it.  There has been a lot of talk of how a new terminal is needed, but little discussion on how to improve the flow of traffic into and out of the terminal.

Each morning, thousands of buses use the XBL.  The XBL, short for "Exclusive Bus Lane," (although we think it means "extremely slow bus lane") is a reverse-flow lane set up on Route 495 each morning in the west bound lanes for buses to travel to the Lincoln Tunnel and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  The problem is, it isn't very "exclusive" as upwards of 2,000 buses use the XBL each morning. 

During the morning peak, hundreds of buses line up on the NJ Turnpike - both from the North and the South - waiting to merge to enter the XBL.  Buses from Route 3 also need to merge to access the XBL - those buses actually have to line up and then travel west on 495 for about a quarter mile (and creating even more traffic jams) just to enter the XBL and then back-track east in the XBL to get the city. 

The wait just to merge and enter the XBL often exceeds 30 minutes.  When a bus breaks down in the XBL, the whole thing grinds to a halt for hours and you might as well call in sick to work.

What is mind-boggling is that the local lanes of 495 are often moving well, yet hundreds of buses still line up and wait to use the clogged XBL.  This creates a commute that is often 30-40 minutes longer than if the buses took the local lanes and avoided the XBL.  The original premise of the XBL was for a quicker commute, not a longer one.  We find this incredibly inefficient and frustrating for both bus drivers and bus commuters.

But, what can be done? 

There are no immediate plans to build any more tunnels into NYC for vehicular traffic - and the Christie administration scrapped construction of the rail tunnel that would have been the only long term solution for relieving any trans-Hudson congestion.   The Christie administration loves to create traffic jams, doesn't it?

In the short term,  a second XBL should be added during the morning rush in the east bound lanes of 495.  Alternatively, buses should be instructed to use the local lanes when the XBL is clogged and the local lanes are moving relatively smoothly.  It makes no sense for hundreds of buses to have to wait upwards of 30 minutes to enter the XBL when 495 is moving.  Either the Port Authority Police or NJT Officials should be able to direct this at little additional cost.

An XBL outbound at the Lincoln Tunnel should also be set up to help alleviate the overcrowding at the terminal for the afternoon rush.  One lane of the Lincoln Tunnel and westbound on 495 should be dedicated just to buses. 

Ideally, the perfect solution is to build much needed new rail and vehicular tunnels into New York.   Until that happens, making better use of the resources we already have is a no-brainer.

Five Routes Picked For Bergen Bus Rapid Transit

As we reported previously, Bergen County is studying the possibility of creating a Bus Rapid Transit system.  Officials have decided on five potential routes:

• Paterson to the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal
• Montvale Park and Ride to the Port Authority Bus Terminal
• Garden State Plaza to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, via River Road
• Bergen Community College to the Secaucus Junction train station
• Englewood Hospital to the Secaucus Junction train station

A map of these proposed routes can be found here.

Although we applaud the idea for innovative new transit services, the Paterson to the GWB route is duplicative of the current NJT 171 as well as numerous jitneys servicing the corridor.  The Montvale route is duplicative of the Rockland Coaches Route 45 bus.  We don't see how these routes will provide a "Rapid" commute to New York without substantial improvements to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and express bus lanes to the GWB. 

The one interesting route is the proposed Garden State Plaza to the Port Authority via River Road.  This route would avoid the overcrowded XBL at the Lincoln Tunnel and could be a viable travel alternative if River Road can somehow be configured to truly create bus rapid transit.

Vintage Timetable of the Week - Rockland Coaches 10-14K (1981)

To commemorate the final passing of Rockland Coaches 14K line, here is a vintage timetable from 1981 showing combined service with the 10 route.  The 10 was discontinued in the 1980s.  The 14K had full time service to the George Washington Bridge until it was cut back to a couple of rush hour runs in the late 2000s.  Rockland Coaches eliminated the 14K in May 2014.  It still runs the 14E express service to the Port Authority at rush hour.

No Relief In Sight for Port Authority Bus Terminal Commuters

New Jersey commuters have known for quite some time how bad conditions are at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  Riders have to wait each evening in long lines that wrap around the concourse.  Traffic around the Lincoln Tunnel is a nightmare, and getting worse.  Both Bloomberg and The Record have recently reported how the terminal is outdated, overcrowded, in disrepair, but yet there are no immediate plans to remedy the problems.

The Record reports how there is no space to park buses.  They have to travel empty back to New Jersey after their morning runs to park, only to return for the evening rush.  This creates even more traffic jams inbound at the Lincoln Tunnel and at the terminal.  An expanded or new terminal is needed, as well as a garage to park the buses. 

Capital funding for a bus garage, however, was withdrawn.  Yet the Port Authority is planning on spending $1.5 billion to extend the PATH line to Newark Airport. Instead of allocating funding to remedy problems at the bus terminal, the agency would rather spend billions to duplicate rail service that is already provided by NJ Transit.

There is a parking garage for cars on the top level of the terminal.  A short term solution could be to use this space for buses - but this is not in the Port Authority's plans.  We only suppose this is because the Port Authority would rather rake in $45 a day in daily parking fees to fill its coffers as opposed to providing more efficient public transportation.  The parking revenues alone could help fund improvements to the terminal.

Public Service Route 80 Hasbrouck Heights - New York (1971)

This is the old Route 80 from the GWB Terminal to Hasbrouck Heights.  Service over the GWB  was discontinued in the 1980's and rerouted between Passaic and Englewood as the B-80.  The service remains today as NJT's Route 780.

Rockland Coaches/Red and Tan Route 25 (1981)

Here is an old rockland coaches/red and tan lines route 25 schedule from 1981.  This route was merged with the 11C line in the early 1990s.  The 11C, now operated by Saddle River Tours, still covers most of the old 25 route today.

Welcome to the New Jersey Bus Blog

Hi. Welcome to my blog.  I plan to use this blog to post some old new jersey bus schedules from my collection.  If you have any you would like to share (especially from the 1930s through the 1990s), please send them to me at njbus86@yahoo.com.  Here is a classic Red and Tan 11A Schedule from 1987.