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  However, it was recently notified that the bid was retracted on a technicality - because Community didn't have an opportunity to make the required oral presentation for the bid.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.

George Washington Bridge Bus Station Renovation Won't Be Complete Until Next Spring -- Hopefully

To no surprise to the thousands of bus commuters who use the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, the renovations that were scheduled be completed by the end of the year will not be completed.  The project that started over two years ago has been plagued by numerous delays. The Record is reporting that the projected completion date has now been pushed back to April 2017.

Passengers not only have had to brave the elements from the wind and cold, they also have endured trekking up a long staircase to reach the buses.

NJ Gas Tax Likely Increasing 23 Cents A Gallon In October

Governor Christie and Democratic Officials have come to an agreement to end the transportation funding crises by agreeing to a hike to the state's gasoline tax by 23 cents a gallon.  The agreement ends a stalemate since the summer that put a halt to virtually all state transportation projects when Governor Christie pulled the plug on all projects until a deal could be reached.  In addition to the gas tax hike, the NJ estate tax would be phased out by 2018.  NJ State sales tax would also be lowered to 6.625% by 2018.  It remains to be seen whether the gas tax increase and offsetting estate and sales tax decreases will be enough to fund the transportation fund, which has been virtually depleted under Governor Christie's watch.  Click here for more on the story.

Port Authority Bus Terminal Gate Reshuffling - Part 2

For the second time in less than a year, certain buses at the Port Authority will be re-assigned to different gates.  Last September, several private bus lines including Coach USA, Decamp and Lakeland had their departure gates changed with the hope of improving on-time performance at the over-crowded and out-dated terminal.  The last re-shuffle lead to a slight improvement of on-time performance, but the terminal is still in dire need of being replaced with a modern and larger terminal.  This time, certain NJT lines are being re-assigned on September 3, 2016 as follows:


Bus Route 122
​
6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 315
• New gate: 313

Bus Route 127

10:01 p.m. to 1 a.m.

• Old gate: 230
• New gate: 312

Bus Route 139E

3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 316
• New gate: 315

Bus Route 144

3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 313
• New gate: 77

Bus Route 155

3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 213
• New gate: 74

Bus Route 157

3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 210
• New gate: 76

Bus Route 163P

3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Old gate: 224
• New gate: 78

Bus Route 165T

6 a.m. to 3:29 p.m.

• Old gate: 213 / 310
• New gate: 310

Bus Route 168T

6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

• Old gate: 213
• New gate (6 a.m. to 3:29 p.m., 7:31 p.m. to 10 p.m.): 312
• New gate (3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.): 75

Bus Route 194E&T

6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

• Old gate: 233
• New gate: 231

Bus Route 320

6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

• Old gate: 231
• New gate: 213

Bus Route 324

6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

• Old gate: 233
• New gate: 231

MCI to Stop Production of New NJ Transit Buses Until Transportation Funding Resolved

NJT has notified Motor Coach Industries (MCI) that it must cease all ongoing work under a contract to build new buses to replenishg NJT's aging bus fleet.
MCI was awarded a contract by NJT in November 2015  with options for building and delivering up to 1,219 new coaches over six years.  Many of the coaches to be replaced are over 15 years old and in disrepair. 
Last week, Governor Chris Christie issued Executive Order No. 210 declaring a State of Emergency and directing the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation and the Executive Director of the NJT  shutdown of all ongoing work that is funded by the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Account, including work on the new buses.   This was in direct response to the NJ Senate failing to approve Christie's gas tax hike as we reported previously. 
To date, MCI has only delivered five coaches to NJT under the contract.    So there will be NO IMMEDIATE relief for the increased instances of older buses breaking down which causes delays for all commuters.  There will likewise be no immediate relief for bus passengers sweltering in aging coaches with broken air conditioning this summer.  Bravo to our leaders for adding more misery to the plight of daily New Jersey bus riders.