DeCamp ending commuter buses to and from New York City for North Jersey routes
After 153 years of ferrying commuters from Montclair to Manhattan, DeCamp bus lines will cease all commuter service effective April 7, said Jonathan DeCamp, the company's chief operating officer.
The oldest private bus company in the state, DeCamp will continue to operate charter and shuttle buses, including service to Atlantic City, he said.
With buses to New York operating at only 20% or less of pre-COVID levels, and state and federal pandemic subsidies ending, the commuting part of the business is no longer sustainable, DeCamp said.
Before the pandemic, the line carried 6,500 to 7,000 a day into Manhattan.
"It was exactly three years ago when we stopped service because of the pandemic," he said. "The commuting landscape literally changed overnight."
The commuting lines include Routes 33, 66/66R, 44, 99, 88, 32 and 100, some of which ran into nearby suburbs including West Caldwell, Verona, Bloomfield and Lyndhurst.
DeCamp Bus Lines began as a stagecoach business in 1870; Jonathan DeCamp is the sixth generation in his family to run the business.
In Montclair, the 66 bus line, which ran along Grove Street, has a colorful history. A favorite subject was driver Sal Siano, known for his sunny disposition and playful pranks. Siano was profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker; the latter piece was written by Montclairion Ian Frazier.
When the line stopped running buses to Manhattan in 2020, DeCamp called it "heart-wrenching."
"We have survived two world wars, the Great Depression, fuel embargoes, 9/11, economic collapse, the bubble housing market, but I never in a million years thought I'd see a time when people aren't going to work and going into the city," he said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: DeCamp bus lines ending commuter service to New York City from NJ
