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| How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours (322914) | |
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How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by gold_12th on Sun Feb 26 11:52:58 2017 http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/john-cichowski/2017/02/25/road-warrior-technicality-kills-tiny-bus-firms-dream/98338610/ |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by kcram3500 on Sun Feb 26 17:11:59 2017, in response to How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by gold_12th on Sun Feb 26 11:52:58 2017. I understand Murphy and Barbato feel dissed by the re-issue of the bid invitation, but there are a couple things in play historically.1 - NJT has been challenged or sued numerous times over bid impropriety, and they likely realized a lawsuit could happen again. 2 - The last time the Bergen contract went to a small company, it ended up being pulled and NJT actually had to run it themselves from Oradell for a number of months. The company was County Bus Lines, who had previously been running the B-10 Bergen Community College route (which was issued directly by Bergen County separately from the main Bergen contract by NJT). County Bus went after the big contract and got it... but the service was so bad and so many trips were missed, that Assembly and Senate members in Trenton got involved. NJT gave County just a number of months to get it together and monitored daily - County still failed, and NJT was forced to quickly take back the buses, moved them to Oradell, and ran the routes themselves for the remainder of the contract. This was in the late 80s. After County's failure, the Bergen contract has only been run by Community/Coach USA, Academy, and TCT (later Veolia, then Transdev) - all major companies with lots of experience. SRT has plenty of experience with charter and tour service, but they have never run local transit before. Not implying they couldn't succeed, but this is not like taking Rockland Coaches' GWB routes which see very little service. Heavy routes like the 756 and 780, complex routes like the 751/755... you have to get those correct out of the gate. Ironically, County Bus Lines was just the second private carrier to run the contract. The first was Bergen-Passaic Bus, an operation set up by (surprise) Community and ShortLine in their pre-Coach USA days. In the article, Barbato said "But for a small company like ours, Bergen would have meant everything. We'd be out there every day polishing those buses and making sure they delivered topnotch service." Shiny Alcoas are all well and good, but when you're the new kid on the block in the local transit picture, missing a trip or making a wrong turn gets noticed by everyone involved. Blatant error in the article: In nearly every case, these contracts are won by national firms with big local operations, such as the 2,000-bus fleet run by Coach Community in Paramus, and Hoboken-based Academy, which commands 1,200 vehicles. Midsize carriers, such as DeCamp in Montclair and Lakeland in Dover, supplement NJT’s coverage of Essex and Morris counties, for example, but typically these carriers operate under longstanding agreements with the agency. Coach USA may have 2000 buses, but they're sure as heck not all in Community's garage in Paramus. Same with Academy, who operates their 1200 units all over the east coast, not just from Hoboken. Lakeland is subsidized by NJT after the Midtown Direct lawsuit... DeCamp does not have any contracts with NJT, and while they too sued (over the Montclair Connection), their claim was denied as the judge ruled DeC then had exclusive access to the passengers previously served by the Boonton line east of Montclair. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by kcram3500 on Tue Apr 18 18:05:39 2017, in response to Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by kcram3500 on Sun Feb 26 17:11:59 2017. The new proposals for Bergen County are due May 11, according to the NJT procurement calendar. Will SRT try again? We'll know soon. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by orange blossom special on Tue Apr 18 18:21:11 2017, in response to How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by gold_12th on Sun Feb 26 11:52:58 2017. In this day and age, with the technological disruption of regulated industries, and since it's not 1950 anymore, maybe it's time to get the gov't out of this heavy regulation of bus routes. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by kcram3500 on Tue Apr 18 20:47:23 2017, in response to Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by orange blossom special on Tue Apr 18 18:21:11 2017. In this instance, it's not regulation. These routes are owned by NJ Transit and they are simply contracting their operation. Unlike NY, routes in NJ are not franchised by some overriding authority - companies in NJ own their routes outright and are free to contract them to other operators. If you think you can do better than NJT or any private operator on a given route, you can go for it. That's where all the jitney operators came from in Paterson and Hudson County. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by 3-9 on Wed Apr 19 00:04:58 2017, in response to Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by kcram3500 on Tue Apr 18 20:47:23 2017. If you think you can do better than NJT or any private operator on a given route, you can go for it. That's where all the jitney operators came from in Paterson and Hudson County.Really. On the occasion I go out to Jersey by bus, I see those jitneys everywhere. I was under the impression they simply got the rights to go wherever, including duplicating existing routes, like Paterson and route 190. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by NJT Oradell on Wed Apr 19 11:49:43 2017, in response to Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by 3-9 on Wed Apr 19 00:04:58 2017. All those jitneys started out illegally. Back when NJT could have stopped them they took little action. Mostly NJT just flooded the routes involved with extra sections and thought that would work. Of course it didn't since NJT buses are highly regulated and the jitneys can be flexible. So in time the jitneys got more and more popular through more frequent and less expensive service, primarily on runs through minority area and highly lucrative ones like Blvd East in Hudson County. Inter vehicle radios, which NJT buses don't have, helped the jitneys stay ahead of the buses. And, in time, they obtained licensing and credibility with the police and regulatory agencies. That monster was allowed to grow by inaction. Today they operate a fleet of vehicles almost as large as the buses. |
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Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours |
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Posted by kcram3500 on Wed Apr 19 12:28:14 2017, in response to Re: How NJ Transit ruin a little bus company: Saddle River Tours, posted by NJT Oradell on Wed Apr 19 11:49:43 2017. The big guys have done it too... Suburban took on NJT for the 139... NJT responded by flooding US9 with enough buses to lower their average low to 37 per bus (this was the mid 80s, so it was 49-passenger MC-9s at the time). Ended up in court, and NJT was forced to pool with Suburban because the federal judge was blocking NJT's allotment of the 1987 MC-9s. That's also how Suburban got some of the Eagles.Several of the IBOAs drove Public Service/TNJ/NJT from routes in Newark and Hudson County, usually by undercutting the fares while running the same full-size buses. (Ironically, some of the Hudson County routes that had been run by PS/TNJ and were taken over in full by IBOAs later returned to NJT ownership.) |
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