Public officials scramble to fill gaps in bus service left by DeCamp's impending departure

Elected officials are scurrying following the announcement from DeCamp Bus Lines that the company will permanently halt its longtime commuter service into New York City on April 7, ending a faltering but still advantageous alternative for riders in remote neighborhoods underserved by NJ Transit.

"My office is monitoring the news regarding the cuts to DeCamp's commuter bus service," Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-Morris, tweeted after the company's announcement on Monday that it was suspending all commuter routes while maintaining its charter, shuttle and casino operations.

"We have been in touch with NJ Transit, who assured us that they are working on the problem and an answer to how the gap in service will be addressed," she added.

Sherrill represents three municipalities served by DeCamp's routes into and out of Manhattan: Montclair, Bloomfield and Belleville.

Montclair, a bedroom community of about 41,000 people, has six stations along NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton rail line. However, residents living in the southwest corner near Verona have relied on DeCamp's buses, which allows riders to hail the bus at any corner along its routes, making direct service into the city available at a short walk from their doorstep.

Meanwhile, many more commuters in Clifton, Verona, the Caldwells, Roseland, Kearny, West Orange, Rutherford, Lyndhurst, Roseland, North Arlington and Harrison ― all of which are served by one state-run train stop (or none at all) ― could find themselves in newly abandoned transit deserts with long schleps to bus, rail or PATH stations.

On Tuesday, NJ Transit did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the agency will bail out the faltering bus company through subsidies or picking up some of its routes, as officials had called for when the already ailing service was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agency released only a brief statement, saying it was "currently assessing the impacts of DeCamp's decision to cease their limited post-pandemic commuter service."

It added, "Part of that assessment is identifying the alternatives already available on existing NJ Transit bus, rail and light-rail service."

Officials at NJ Transit vowed they would alert riders to potential solutions before DeCamp's commuter routes fold on April 7.

Bailey Lawrence, deputy press secretary to Gov. Phil Murphy, said the governor's office would not currently comment on the potential for a state-issued bailout and referred all questions to NJ Transit's existing statement.

Local pols call for relief

"We recognize that many residents rely on the bus line to get to work and we are reaching out to our partners in the state to discuss possible solutions to address the void this will leave for some commuters," Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia stated in a Facebook post. "We are also discussing our options in-house with our shuttle service to our train station and possibly to [the] Allwood Ave park-and-ride."

Venezia assured commuters he would share updates as options are presented to him.

Peter Yacobellis, who serves Montclair's Township Council at-large, issued a statement to residents saying he had contacted U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well as Sherrill and Rep. Donald Payne Jr., D-Essex, and U.S. senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker on the federal level. Within the state government, Yacobellis said he'd contacted Murphy, along with legislators Thomas Giblin, Nia Gill, Britnee Timberlake, John McKeon and Richard Codey to request a stopgap until office work finds ballast in a post-pandemic U.S.

"I do not believe the philosophical debate on ways of working and ways of commuting for those of us in major metropolitan regions is settled," Yacobellis said, "I believe these broader ways of living and working in the NYC region need time to settle before entire options are taken away from us."

In Kearny, where riders rely almost solely on a PATH station in nearby Harrison, Mayor Al Santos said declining transit options had plagued the town for decades.

"A century ago [Kearny] had multiple rail options into Hoboken," he said, but those lines were discontinued in 2002 as NJ Transit invested in midtown direct service between Penn Station and the suburbs. Additionally, the cost of maintaining rail bridges further diverted the agency's focus from Kearny, according to Santos.

"We’re one of those communities that was forgotten," he said with a forlorn sigh. "It’s part of a much bigger issue."

DeCamp riders react

DeCamp, which began as a stagecoach service to and from Newark in the late-19th century, previously halted its New York City commuter lines in August 2020, stating ridership had plummeted to 400 travelers a day, a sharp drop from the 7,000 daily customers it ferried to and from Port Authority Bus Terminal before the virus' outbreak.

In its announcement to riders on Monday, DeCamp said work-from-home and flexible schedules have continued to dig into its bottom line, saying it currently operates with just 20% of its pre-pandemic monthly ridership.

But online, commuters were flummoxed, saying they routinely board packed buses.

"There have been times I've been turned away [because] they are so full," one resident posted in the "Secret Montclair" Facebook group and then suggested the true culprit may be the company's lack of business acumen.

Others were hardly surprised, citing a decline in service that began long before the pandemic.

"Their service has been horrible for decades. Their bus stops one block from my house and I [would] rather walk 1 mile to the train station," replied another resident. "Maybe this was coming."

Staff writer Colleen Wilson contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY commuting: DeCamp Bus Lines departure leaves officials scrambling