NJ Gov. Murphy hints at financial lifeline, 'public good operator' as bus companies falter

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy hinted Wednesday night his administration could consider cash infusions to help beleaguered bus companies avoid shutting down commuter routes in North Jersey — and that the bus routes may be better served by a public entity in the long term.

“I think there's a short-term fix, which is probably monetary-based,” he said on WNYC’s “Ask Governor Murphy.”

The governor said he had “no news” to make with an announcement, “but we’re taking it very seriously — largely through the Economic Development Authority.”

When show host Nancy Solomon asked if that meant paying bus companies to continue operating, Murphy told her: “To be determined.”

Coach USA announced last week it will discontinue three routes on its O.N.E. Bus service, running though East Orange, Orange City, Newark and other Essex County communities, as of Oct. 8. The news came just weeks after the century-old A&C Bus Corp. submitted a petition to the state to shut down its Jersey City bus routes, which serve the city’s congested West Side, by the end of October.

“We attempted to run uninterrupted service on those lines, but with decrease in ridership, driver shortages, inflationary pressures on all operating expenses, and our strong desire in providing the most affordable mode of transportation, it simply became untenable to continue,” Newel Scoon, Coach’s vice president of the East, said in an announcement from the company.

He said Coach was “acutely aware” of the importance of its bus lines to the Essex communities, but unlike NJ Transit, ”we are not provided with an operating subsidy.”

DeCamp Bus Lines, based in Montclair, ended its own commuter service earlier this year. Like Coach and A&C, its officials said they suffered steep ridership losses in the pandemic and never recovered. In response, NJ Transit and a private bus company both modified service to pick up some DeCamp’s former passengers.

On the WNYC show Wednesday night, Murphy suggested the long-term solution for commuters involves asking “in what parts of society are we better off with a public good operator” serving residents’ needs. He said a utility or a public authority like NJ Transit could weather losses a private operator can’t.

Yet NJ Transit, which also suffered serious ridership losses in the pandemic, is facing its own fiscal cliff.

The agency operates at a loss, and has been criticized frequently for not having a permanent, dedicated revenue stream — though administration officials contend a 2021 agreement to transfer funds from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to NJ Transit until it can become self-sustaining in fact constitutes such a dedicated revenue source. NJ Transit also relies in part on funding shifted from other programs in the state budget, including $70 million this year from the Clean Energy Fund.

Just more than a quarter of this year’s NJ Transit operating budget comes from anticipated passenger fares. Slightly more comes from federal pandemic aid that won’t be available after NJ Transit spends it down in 2025. On Wednesday, Murphy acknowledged New Jersey will have to close the gap.

“So no news to make tonight, but that's something that we've been open minded to,” he said.