Coach USA to discontinue ONE Bus service

[DCTransitFilms]

Paramus, NJ – Coach USA today announced that O.N.E. Bus routes 24, 31, and 44, which run in East Orange, Orange City, Newark, and Essex County, will be discontinued effective October 8, 2023. 

Dan Rodriguez, Vice President of Public Affairs at Coach USA said, “We attempted to find a solution that would allow service to continue but none prevailed.”  He went on to say, “Routes managed by operators such as O.N.E Bus, DeCamp Bus Lines, and A&C Bus Corp are legacy lines that in most cases were created long before the New Jersey Transit was, as years progressed and costs went up, became increasingly difficult to make financially viable and fully operational. We have attempted every course of action to have prevented this, but without government assistance there is no alternative.”  

Newel Scoon, Vice President of the East for Coach USA added, “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.”

Mr. Scoon continued, “We are acutely aware of the importance of these lines to those in the communities we have been serving, but there is simply no way we can continue to do so. O.N.E. 

Bus operates very similarly to New Jersey Transit but with a key distinction: We are not provided with an operating subsidy. In an environment with consistently lower passenger counts and higher incurred costs, the losses are substantial. Revenue only covers about half of the current cost of operating the service.”  

Mr. Rodriguez noted that Coach USA “will continue to work with state and other officials so as to make the change less impactful on those customers affected by it.”  

Coach USA has operated the O.N.E. Bus service and has managed bus routes in the Newark, New Jersey area for well over thirty years.  The current O.N.E. Bus service consists of 3 routes: number 24, number 44, and number 31.  

Coach USA has given notice to its unions, New Jersey Transit, the Governor’s office, and elected officials who represent the affected areas. Coach USA is also in the process of informing the customers of this service of the impending changes.  All other existing Coach USA routes continue to operate as scheduled and this announcement does not impact any other Coach USA service.   

 

https://www.coachusa.com/news-and-media/coach-usa-to-discontinue-one-bus-service

[DCTransitFilms]

All ima say is this: this was coming 

[B35 via Church]

Yeah, I also saw those cuts to their service spans as a precursor to complete discontinuation.

 

Quote

Mr. Scoon continued, “We are acutely aware of the importance of these lines to those in the communities we have been serving, but there is simply no way we can continue to do so. O.N.E. 

Slangily speaking, I read this as "...but there's simply no way we can continue to do so.... So, 'one' " (as if to say Deuces... Later.... Peace out...)

[46Dover]

Private companies are taking Ls lately….

[DCTransitFilms]

7 hours ago, 46Dover said:

Private companies are taking Ls lately….

Decamp, A&C, now ONE bus lol

[Gotham Bus Co.]

23 hours ago, DCTransitFilms said:

O.N.E. Bus operates very similarly to New Jersey Transit but with a key distinction: We are not provided with an operating subsidy.

 

Doesn't NJT give them buses free of charge? Wouldn't that count as the subsidy?

[danielhg121]

3 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Doesn't NJT give them buses free of charge? Wouldn't that count as the subsidy?

I’m guessing operating budget subsidy is not the same as equipment subsidy.

[Lawrence St]

4 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Doesn't NJT give them buses free of charge? Wouldn't that count as the subsidy?

Free buses does not cover insurance, fuel, etc.

[B35 via Church]

13 hours ago, 46Dover said:

Private companies are taking Ls lately….

6 hours ago, DCTransitFilms said:

Decamp, A&C, now ONE bus lol

Sadly

[JAzumah]

On 9/9/2023 at 11:47 AM, B35 via Church said:

Yeah, I also saw those cuts to their service spans as a precursor to complete discontinuation.

Seeing this action, my belief is that it was decided AT THAT TIME to discontinue service on these routes. Coach claims a 50% farebox recovery ratio on the ONE system in an NJ.com article along with the following ridership info from July 2023:

5,987 - Weekdays
4,940 - Saturdays
1,608 - Sundays

My guess is that only one route ran on Sundays, but I could be wrong.

It is possible that the 24/31/44 becomes a contract package with interim operation by Coach USA. I don't think the NJT can devour it by themselves financially. The former DeCamp routes operate close to breakeven. ONE and A&C are not the same thing.

[46Dover]

8 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Doesn't NJT give them buses free of charge? Wouldn't that count as the subsidy?

 

4 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Free buses does not cover insurance, fuel, etc.

And lord knows everything’s going up

[BreeddekalbL]

What can cover those routes in their place without njt taking on the route?

[Lawrence St]

14 minutes ago, BreeddekalbL said:

What can cover those routes in their place without njt taking on the route?

No one can. Until the NJ government gets their shit together, expect a lot of the private companies to shut down.

[MNR Beacon Line]

15 minutes ago, BreeddekalbL said:

What can cover those routes in their place without njt taking on the route?

Most likely, nothing. If NJT doesn't take over they are going away forever

[JAzumah]

With fewer customers and rising costs, Coach USA will end 3 N.J. commuter bus routes

[checkmatechamp13]

6 hours ago, JAzumah said:

My guess is that only one route ran on Sundays, but I could be wrong.

It is possible that the 24/31/44 becomes a contract package with interim operation by Coach USA. I don't think the NJT can devour it by themselves financially. The former DeCamp routes operate close to breakeven. ONE and A&C are not the same thing.

All four routes ran on Sunday. They wholesale just cut all of the evening and Sunday service across-the-board.

My guess is ONE Bus is bluffing to try to get NJT to hire them as a contractor for the Newark routes (similar to the #2, #84, and #88). If those routes are running out of the Elizabeth garage, they have all of the overhead costs of operating the garage, for just a fraction of the routes serving it. (If NJT doesn't take the bluff, then I assume they'll still end up eliminating the Newark service, but they might have to renegotiate whatever contract they have for the #2, #84, and #88).

[BreeddekalbL]

22 hours ago, MNR Beacon Line said:

Most likely, nothing. If NJT doesn't take over they are going away forever

No existing alternatives?

22 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

No one can. Until the NJ government gets their shit together, expect a lot of the private companies to shut down.

Then they might as well take them and there are no existing njt alternatives?

[jass]

99% low income riders, so Murphys NJT wont raise a finger to replace service

[Mtatransit]

NJT itself is reaching a fiscal cliff once the federal pandemic money dries up.

On top of that now you have them expanding service to replace these lost routes… it is not looking good in the next couple of years for NJ

 

Rockland Coaches will be the next to go…

Edited September 11, 2023 by Mtatransit

[JAzumah]

4 hours ago, jass said:

99% low income riders, so Murphys NJT wont raise a finger to replace service

I expect that NJT will hire Coach USA to run it or run it themselves. I would place the likelihood at 80%. You have geographic separation with other NJT services and the volume is higher than A&C. I would be shocked if they did not do it.

 

 

2 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

Rockland Coaches will be the next to go…

They don't have a lot left to shrink. They might drop the 9T to avoid GWB rent (if they are even being charged) and the 45/47 combo could become permanent. What else can they cut? The 11A is an overflow bus to an extent.

[Lawrence St]

17 minutes ago, JAzumah said:

I expect that NJT will hire Coach USA to run it or run it themselves. I would place the likelihood at 80%. You have geographic separation with other NJT services and the volume is higher than A&C. I would be shocked if they did not do it.

 

 

They don't have a lot left to shrink. They might drop the 9T to avoid GWB rent (if they are even being charged) and the 45/47 combo could become permanent. What else can they cut? The 11A is an overflow bus to an extent.

Isn't ONE bus owned by CUSA...?

[JAzumah]

4 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Isn't ONE bus owned by CUSA...?

That's correct, but they are an octopus. We don't know which arm it would be assigned to.

[Mtatransit]

6 hours ago, JAzumah said:

They don't have a lot left to shrink. They might drop the 9T to avoid GWB rent (if they are even being charged) and the 45/47 combo could become permanent. What else can they cut? The 11A is an overflow bus to an extent.

Port Authority facilities usually charge per departure I believe 

They will probably just shut the entire division down similar to what they did with Red and Tan and etc

If NYS offers a operating subsidy they could have short line make a couple of stop north of the state border

[JAzumah]

5 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

Port Authority facilities usually charge per departure I believe 

They will probably just shut the entire division down similar to what they did with Red and Tan and etc

If NYS offers a operating subsidy they could have short line make a couple of stop north of the state border

There is a platform fee + a per departure charge, but my understanding is that the PANYNJ has been giving Rockland Coaches a break because they don't want to lose another carrier.

There would have to be real savings in order to shut down Rockland Coaches and I don't know if that is the case. I think they are close to equilibrium right now.

They did fold Leisure Lines into ShortLine a while ago, but the work that ShortLine does is different from Rockland Coaches. I think that merging Community Coach and Rockland Coaches is much more likely, but I don't know what that looks like on the street. Rockland Coaches buses do pop up on the Newark Airport Express and I think boosting service there is a good way to hang on to those 21xxx buses.

[Cait Sith]

20 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

NJT itself is reaching a fiscal cliff once the federal pandemic money dries up.

On top of that now you have them expanding service to replace these lost routes… it is not looking good in the next couple of years for NJ

 

Rockland Coaches will be the next to go…

Transdev(surprisingly) is next, actually.

NJT will take over Transdev operations on October 1st.

Rockland's routes are operated by Community Coach now.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Cait Sith