NJ Transit has improved reliability and increased ridership on some of the bus routes it took over after being abandoned by private companies last year, according to data provided by the agency.
At a cost of more than $30 million — amid historic deficits — NJ Transit recently added or modified 11 routes in Essex and Hudson counties that were previously serviced by DeCamp, Coach USA and A&C. These private companies, which have decades or century-old roots in the area, faced significant financial distress after the COVID-19 pandemic, with Coach filing for bankruptcy last month, A&C folding and DeCamp terminating its commuter bus business in the past year.
Weekday ridership is up on all 11 routes since NJ Transit took over, with the biggest gains on DeCamp’s 195D route that is now the 105 between West Caldwell and Manhattan, increasing 145% between April 2023 and April 2024, along with a 136% increase in ridership on DeCamp’s 199D, now the 109, from Newark to Manhattan.
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On Coach’s No. 31, between South Orange and Newark Penn Station, there was a 111% increase in ridership during the same time period.
There was no data available about A&C’s ridership levels, but in just the first six months of NJ Transit’s takeover of what was the 33 and is now the 8 line, which goes from Bayonne to Journal Square in Jersey City, ridership increased nearly 41%. It's also up 31% on the 14, formerly the 32, which runs through Jersey City.
Residents, riders and public officials from Newark, Jersey City and the surrounding communities who faced a void of service once these routes were terminated, mounted successful pressure campaigns to have NJ Transit take them over.
“People use transit when it’s funded and it’s reliable,” said Zoe Baldwin, vice president for state programs for the Regional Plan Association, a research and advocacy nonprofit.
Resources stretched thin
NJ Transit has not had as much success on seven bus routes it took over in Monmouth County last year, which have seen decreases in ridership.
Unlike in Essex and Hudson counties, the Monmouth routes were not in immediate danger of being terminated and therefore received less attention when TransDev, the private company under contract with NJ Transit to operate those routes, prematurely ended its contract with the agency in September, citing “ongoing contractual losses,” increases in fuel costs and a labor shortage.
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Ridership on the TransDev routes — the Nos. 830, 831, 832, 834, 836, 837 and 838 — went down on average 14.5% in the first seven months since NJ Transit took over, according to agency data.
Competition for commercial drivers license holders "remains fierce and we strive to keep the staffing levels sufficient to serve the published schedule," said Jim Smith, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "The Transdev property is no different from the rest of the system relative to staffing challenges.”
While NJ Transit hired 40 of TransDev’s employees, including 28 bus drivers, trips on these seven routes frequently get cancelled because there isn’t a driver available.
These routes are mostly intrastate — local bus lines that connect students to schools, such as Brookdale College, people to appointments or jobs at the Central State Medical Center, shopping centers that include Costco, Goodwill and Marshalls, or the beach.
“This is a mobility conversation, it’s a public health conversation, it’s an access to jobs and education question and we need to make sure that we’re viewing these from the outcomes perspective,” said Baldwin, of the Regional Plan Association. “What we’ve seen so far is that when those services are returned to being somewhat frequent and reliable people come back.”
The end for privately run commuter bus routes?
The national private bus market is fragile, and New Jersey has felt the effects of that more severely than some other states, according to Joseph Schwieterman, a professor at DePaul University and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
“The era of purely privately run or unsubsidized commuter bus routes may be drawing to a close," Schwieterman said. "The markets or travel patterns are just too weak or erratic to sustain regular service without taxpayer help. New York and New Jersey have long been outliers for having so many privately-run bus routes, making it more vulnerable to post-pandemic changes.”
It didn’t help that private bus companies didn’t receive the same level of federal aid in the three packages passed in Washington that helped stabilize the finances for public transportation agencies and private airline companies at the height of the pandemic years.
The full effects of a diminishing private bus market likely haven’t crested in the Garden State yet.
Last week, Coach announced 11 bus routes in Bergen and Hudson counties could terminate August 16 after failing to find buyers for them as part of their bankruptcy proceedings, leaving NJ Transit with no easy answers about how to fill the gaps in service. Nine Coach routes in Passaic County will be taken over by Academy Express, LLC on Sept. 1. Political leaders from Bergen County have already begun the pressure campaign on NJ Transit to come up with a solution and prevent an interruption in service.
As more private companies leave the business of scheduled bus service, it will hit NJ Transit straphangers who can’t afford a car and therefore rely on the public bus network for work, medical appointments and basic needs — the same riders who saw fares go up 15% on July 1 and will face annual 3% increases each year going forward.
The predicament also leaves public transportation agencies in a tough spot.
They’re faced with either taking over the private routes, which adds an expense to their deficit-ridden operating budget, or bidding out routes in a less competitive market. NJ Transit has already felt the effects of both scenarios.
Last year, the agency added $30 million in expenses to its operating budget after taking over the A&C, Coach and DeCamp routes, and began leasing TransDev's bus garage in Monmouth.
Academy’s five-year contract to operate the Passaic routes was for $85 million, a 70% increase from the prior contract for those routes and for two fewer years of service. Academy, which is still paying off a $20.5 million settlement to NJ Transit for allegedly defrauding the agency over no-show bus trips from past contracts, was the lone bidder on that contract.
How Boxcar found a niche
Bucking the trend is one private company that has found a way to give bus riders a reliable option where NJ Transit or private carrier service has dwindled.
Boxcar is a Cranford-based app company that partners with bus companies to provide flexible but scheduled bus routes into New York City. Customers book a seat on the app per diem or pay a monthly subscription for a seat.
Though more expensive than NJ Transit’s subsidized fares, customers in return get a dependable, comfortable and personable commuting experience. At the same time, Boxcar has the ability to tweak schedules based on demand, a key difference that private companies can't do in most agreements with NJ Transit or other state agencies.
The company began in 2017, growing to four bus routes in less than six years in Morris, Union and Bergen counties. After DeCamp ended its commuter service last year, Boxcar launched its fifth route to help fill in the gaps for those riders, largely from West Caldwell, Verona, Montclair and Clifton, and added a sixth earlier this year from South Mountain.
While some intercity and interstate bus companies, like FlixBus and OurBus, offer flexible routes and scheduling, what Boxcar is doing with the commuter market in North Jersey is unique, Schwieterman said.
“It’s an exciting, new strategy in an otherwise stodgy industry. Bus service has tended to be a laggard when it comes to technology, same schedules year after year, payment systems are always lagging other sectors,” Schwieterman said. “More bus lines around the country are looking at more dynamic scheduling so they have much to learn from Boxcar.”
The cratering of the old-school private bus market, NJ Transit’s long-term challenges to keep up with the voids being left by those companies, and the recent Northeast Corridor rail upheaval from equipment failures, has made Boxcar a solid alternative for North Jersey’s Hudson River commuters, said CEO and founder Joe Colangelo.
“This is how it happened in Chatham, Madison, when we had one bus in the morning and there were 15 people on it, even my business partners were like, ‘This is just losing money … it doesn’t work,’” Colangelo said. “I was like, ‘You don’t understand, these 15 people, I ride the bus, I talk to them, we’ve changed their lives, it has gone from the most stressful hour of their day to the least stressful hour of their day.’”
Word got around, and Boxcar bus seats are filling up.
Because they’re competing with NJ Transit on ridership along the former DeCamp routes, it took longer than expected to make Boxcar’s Essex Express route profitable, Colangelo said. But in little more than a year since DeCamp left the commuting market, Boxcar attracted more riders and now has more than 500 monthly subscribers who take it regularly.
Now, Colangelo has his eye on the Livingston and West Orange areas of Essex County and was mapping out potential routes in the Route 17 corridor of Bergen County, where Coach’s contracts to provide service are ending in August.
“We’re riding buses every day just to understand what’s there and at this point, we’ve identified a number of places where if there’s an interruption in service, it makes sense for us to come here,” Colangelo said.
Schwieterman said there could be an opportunity for NJ Transit and Boxcar to partner, as NJ Transit has been doing with ride-share services to supplement Access Link for senior riders and those with disabilities.
“A little bit of money would go a long way and we’re seeing that with ride services in different cities, using private companies like this can stretch the public dollar,” he said. “I used to be a little more cautious about companies that compete with public transit, but now I think it actually creates pressure on transit agencies to do better and they need that.”
Anticipating future voids
While NJ Transit has shown success with many of the routes it has taken over from private carriers in recent years, it will be increasingly difficult to continue replicating that success because of the shortage of drivers and overcapacity bus garages.
The agency eliminated a signing bonus intended to help recruit bus drivers in the region as part of $96 million in internal cuts and efficiencies to close this year’s budget gap. It could be facing another potential $600 million in budget cuts as part of an analysis dictated by the Murphy administration.
However, the agency will be receiving a new source of revenue created by a corporate transit fee, a five-year, 2.5% tax levied on corporations earning more than $10 million and signed into law by Murphy during last month’s budget approval.
Given these constraints and the potential for future voids in service with fewer private companies in the market, Baldwin said NJ Transit needs to start planning now.
“The agency is going to have to develop a system in which they’re getting in front of these closures and developing context-sensitive plans as they come along because there’s not one solution that will be the correct answer for all of these line closures," Baldwin said. "They happen for different reasons for different localities.”
In addition to the analysis to find $600 million in cuts, which will also focus on opportunities to change service in a post-pandemic commuter environment, NJ Transit is also working on redesigns of its bus networks in Hudson County, Newark and South Jersey.
Brian Antolin, a researcher, bus business owner and consultant for the industry with his Fleetmotum firm, said there could be public-private partnerships NJ Transit could pursue with various stakeholders, such as Amazon, office parks, hospitals and education centers, to provide shuttle service.
"There are multiple employers involved who need to get their employees to work sites," Antolin said. " Public entities like Rutgers, they could stand to help pitch in for their local populations that have to commute to get to class or get to work."
But financial challenges will continue to make any future, wide-ranging decisions difficult, Schwieterman said.
“It won’t have funds to do everything, which will require some tough decisions,” he said of NJ Transit. “They won’t be able to please everybody — that’s for sure.”
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