Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said he and his team are “pushing Governor [Phil] Murphy and the administration to restore funding” for bus service with A&C Bus going out of business at the end of next month.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Well you know we’re in communication with the state and obviously advocating for a return to the bus service, but fundamentally, when we released our transportation platform, I don’t believe that New Jersey Transit should be in the business of outsourcing to private bus operators,” he said outside of an event at Surf City last night.
“There’s a disconnect between their mission, New Jersey Transit’s mission, of delivering good transportation that generally ends up being at a loss, unfortunately, and the private sector which has an agenda of making money. So that disconnect is very, very hard to reconcile. I don’t think they should resource it.”
A&C revealed in July that they would be going out of business on Halloween, cancelling four key bus routes that primarily serve the west side of the city, with a small portion of the south side as well.
Resolutions have been passed at the city and county level urging for state leaders and NJ Transit to resolve the situation, along with 40 community organizations and leaders petitioning Trenton leadership.
Fulop, the only declared candidate for governor in 2025, ultimately said the decision lies with Murphy and his cabinet, but said Jersey City will continue to push this as a priority.
“In the meantime, we’re pushing Governor Murphy and the administration to obviously restore funding and the next step of this is if they can’t get a resolution, if they’re not being receptive, to organize the Hudson County legislators – the senators and the assembly – and be very clear as a block that we can’t support things throughout the state when we’re not getting the proper resources as it relates to things like the bus service here. And I think that’s there’s a leverage point we can be helpful with.”
When asked if NJ Transit taking over the A&C Bus routes was the only option, Fulop said it was too early to tell, but indicated that it wouldn’t be sustainable for NJ Transit to think municipalities losing bus service could fix the problem themselves.
On WNYC’s “Ask Governor Murphy” yesterday, he said that he believed a short-term fix to save bus companies could be accomplished through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, but declined to go into any specifics.
Following A&C, Coach USA announced last week that three routes operated by their O.N.E. Bus service in Essex County, primarily Orange, East Orange, and Newark, would stop running on October 8th.
