New Jersey still has private transit carriers providing "public transit"

In "Revisiting the need for comprehensive transportation planning at the metropolitan and regional scales | For profit services, and White's Ferry, Montgomery and Loudoun Counties" I discussed how the private ferry between Montgomery County Maryland and Loudoun County Virginia hadn't been acknowledged as a "transit service" in those counties respective master transportation plans, and when conditions changed, leading to closure, they had no quick way of responding.  

It's a demonstration of a quirk in planning generally and transportation planning specifically. Mostly, a master plan only covers what the government controls or operates, and usually ignores for profit services, and often, franchised services.

Passengers board an A&C Bus Corp No. 32 bus at Hudson Mall on Route 440 in Jersey City, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey Journal)

It turns out that in New Jersey, a number of "public transit" routes are actually operated by private carriers, not necessarily with public subsidy.  In Jersey City, A&C Transit, which operates 4 heavily used lines, announced it is shutting down.

You'd think that because there is a statewide transit agency in New Jersey, NJ Transit, that they would have a way of responding to this--not unlike how in the 1960s and 1970s privately owned transit companies ended up being acquired by local governments, because they wanted to maintain the services even as the companies shut down.

But apparently that isn't the case (" NJ Transit can’t let A&C bus routes die," Jersey Journal).  From the article:

Everyone seemed to be taken by surprise last week when it was learned that the nearly century-old A&C Bus Corp. would be shutting down the Nos. 30, 31, 32 and 33 lines at the end of October. 

Local officials immediately started banging at NJ Transit’s door, but the response was less than enthusiastic. That may be attributable to a sort of shellshock at NJT as multiple privately operated bus routes have had a hard time recovering from the pandemic, leaving the state’s public transportation system scurrying to find answers. 

Now that the reality has had a chance to set in, the people who depend on the A&C bus lines and the greater community should expect and receive the full support of NJT.

It's the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (commuter railroads) all over again.

You'd think that local, regional and state transit agencies would be monitoring these services, and preparing to step in if there are problems.