NJ Transit to Expand Bus Service to Additional M&E Stations
NJ Transit has enhanced alternate travel options for Morris and Essex (M&E) rail lines customers with the addition of a.m. peak-period express bus service from two new stations along the M&E as part of the summer service changes due to ongoing Amtrak track work at Penn Station New York (PSNY).
Beginning Thursday, August 3rd, customers at Morristown and Madison train stations will have the option of weekday express bus service to the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) in New York between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. with trips departing every 30 minutes. Note: This is a.m. service inbound to New York only. Customers returning from New York in the p.m. should travel to Hoboken via PATH or NY Waterway ferry for westbound M&E trains or board a regularly scheduled Coach USA Route No. 77 from PABT to Morristown.
“We’ve been closely monitoring how our customers are adjusting to the service changes so we can best match our equipment with demand,” said NJ Transit Executive Director Steve Santoro. “Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been getting a picture of when and where our customers utilize our services and we are adjusting accordingly to serve as many customers as possible.”
In addition, as NJ Transit continues to monitor trends in customer travel patterns, additional express bus capacity is being added in Summit and Maplewood, with two more express bus trips being added at each station. Beginning on August 3rd, express bus service at these two stations will now depart at 6:45, 7:00, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00, 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.
To best match service to customer demand, other adjustments are being made to supplemental express bus service. The 6:00 a.m. trip from South Orange and the 6:00, 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. trips from Newark Broad Street will be discontinued due to low ridership beginning August 3rd.
In advance of the July 10th, summer service changes, NJ Transit added additional capacity to the 107X, 108 and 126 bus lines as a contingency for potential crowding conditions. That additional demand has not materialized and, as a result, some of that additional capacity will be reallocated to areas of greater demand.
