Century-old NJ bus company shuts down as NJ Transit swoops in yet again

🚌A 100-year-old North Jersey bus company is shutting down

🚌 Broadway Bus Co. cites post-pandemic drops in ridership

🚌 NJ Transit will relaunch the lone remaining line with a more efficient route

BAYONNE — NJ Transit will take over a key bus route for the seventh time since 2023 as a 100-year-old bus company goes out of business.

Emil Massa, the third-generation owner of Broadway Bus Co., which once ran 41 buses on four routes, told NorthJersey.com he was ending operations at the end of November. Like many of the other companies that NJ Transit took over routes from, Massa said reduced ridership and little financial help from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the decision.

NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said the one remaining route will be renamed the No. 12 Broadway Route and operate every half hour. The route will not continue with the same stops and will be “structured to provide more efficient coverage with better connections.” The updated schedule has not yet been made public.

“I am extremely proud of the work our bus operations team has done to maximize existing resources to accommodate service on routes abandoned by private carriers,” Kolluri said in a statement. “It is another example of NJ Transit’s stewardship and commitment to meeting the needs of our customers.”

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A growing pattern of collapsing private bus carriers in New Jersey

Kolluri said that many of the routes taken on by NJ Transit have led to addtional service being created in some cases. The routes NJ Transit has taken in the past three years include:

DeCamp ended commuter service into New York from Essex County in 2023, which led to four additional routes.

TransDev ended seven routes in Monmouth County in 2023.

O.N.E. Bus, a CoachUSA company, took on three routes in Elizabeth, Newark and Orange in 2023. Another three routes in Hudson County were abandoned by the company in 2024

A&C Bus ended service on five routes in Jersey City, which led to the creation of new routes

Coach USA's 17 routes in Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties were picked up by NJ Transit after Coach filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024. Coach also walked away from three of the five contracts it held with NJ Transit. The routes were eventually contracted to another operator.

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