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| Bus options still limited in county |
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By CHRISTINA TATU
ctatu@njherald.com
As the population of Sussex County continues to grow, so do the complaints from county commuters who find themselves stuck in traffic during their work-week commute.
The state is one year into a study officials hope will alleviate traffic by analyzing opportunities for greater access to jobs via buses, shuttles and carpools for commuters who reside in Sussex, Warren, Morris and Passaic counties. There still is a long way to go before any new travel services are brought to the county.
The mass transit study is being conducted by the North Jersey Transportation Plan-ning Authority and New Jersey Transit.
The organizations spent the past year gathering data on the types of transportation available in the four-county study area, the level of traffic in those areas, and travel patterns. Riders using Lakeland Bus Lines and New Jersey Transit also were polled.
“What we are doing now is developing some strategies to try to make some of these bus service improvements. We are still in the process of narrowing it down, there are no route-specific plans yet,” said David Behrend, spokesman for the authority, though he added some plans for transit changes may be released by the spring.
Lakeland Bus Lines and New Jersey Transit are the only two major bus lines in the county. Lakeland travels state routes 15 and 206, and New Jersey Transit provides service to a major park and ride on state Route 23 in Stockholm before traveling to the Port Authority in New York.
County Freeholder Susan Zellman, who also is chairwoman for the authority, said the study revealed the region’s drivers are going to a variety of destinations, and, if they were to take public transportation, would prefer for it to be a “seamless” ride, with as few stops along the way as possible.
According to county transportation planner Tom Drabic, about 60 percent of the county’s workforce commutes outside the county for work, but less than 10 percent of those commuters use some form of public transportation.
Zellman said the lack of ridership likely is due to the limited number of drop-off points, once riders reach their destination.
The majority of work trips are made to metro areas including Morris, Somerset and Essex counties for jobs in pharmaceutical, computer and health service fields. Only about 10 percent of the county’s commuters travel to New York.
Zellman said local officials are particularly interested in developing a bus route that would travel to the train station in Dover. Zellman said Dover’s parking is already limited, with waiting lists to rent a parking spot. A bus route would allow commuters to leave their cars at various park-and-rides in the county and use only one ticket to take the bus and board the train.
Zellman said county officials’ main concern is developing more travel options in the Vernon and Franklin area.
“The Lackawanna Cutoff (train service) coming up to Andover will hopefully be taking care of the Route 206 corridor,” Zellman said. “On Route 206 there is an existing Lakeland Bus, but for Route 23, that bus only goes so far. It doesn’t go up to Franklin or Vernon.”
The county is also interested in creating a “reverse” bus route that would bring visitors from surrounding areas, such as New York, to the area’s ski resorts.
Drabic said it usually takes two years before services, such as park-and-rides and shuttles, can be established. Adding additional bus routes is something that could happen immediately, as soon as a new route is determined.?
Created: 2/14/2009 | Updated: 2/15/2009
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