New Year, New Commuting Option In South Orange, Maplewood

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - New commuting options are available Tuesday for residents lamenting their daily commute in Maplewood and South Orange. NJ Transit now has express bus service to the Port Authority Bus Terminal from South Orange and Maplewood train stations.

The new service will be offered during peak morning hours: 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m., and 8 a.m. South Orange and Maplewood officials met with NJ Transit officials to discuss service improvements, timetables, communications, capacity and infrastructure on Friday, Dec. 14.

The meeting followed correspondence from the towns with concerns and suggestions from nearly 1,000 commuters who participated in providing responses to a survey in addition to ongoing concerns and suggestions.

"It's been a tough year for our commuters and we want the public to know that we hear you, we've been advocating for you, and we're holding NJ Transit accountable. Implementation of Positive Train Control coupled with engineer shortages have led to an untenable situation for our NJ Transit riders and right now, we're focused on minimizing impacts and providing better service and certainty to our riders," said Maplewood Mayor Victor De Luca.

Rail tickets or passes from either South Orange or Maplewood respectively to Penn Station New York will be valid and cross honored to utilize this service. Bus service will be an option for train commuters and will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

(Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

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