Pascack Valley Line Bus-titution Problems
I picked up the weekend substitute bus schedules for the Pascack Valley line a while ago and finally had a chance to look at them. The timetable shows how poor the service is this summer.
On the inbound side, from Spring Valley to Secaucus Jct., the rail service called for 10 ‘local’ trains (making most stops in New Jersey) and 2 expresses, which ran non stop from Pearl River (paid for by New York’s MTA). The locals were generally scheduled for 1 hour and 1 minutes, while the expresses took 40 minutes.
The substitute stopping ‘local’ buses take 1 hour and 38 minutes, while the non-stops from Pearl River take 1 hour and 8 minutes. Thus travel time over the length of the line is increased by 37 minutes on locals and 28 minutes on expresses, 60 percent and 70 percent, respectively.
Also of interest, there are 11 local buses scheduled and 12 express buses. Thus MTA has beefed up service from 2 to 12 trains, basically supplying an almost hourly (clockface) service. I suspect even the slow service provided by the express buses is superior to riding across the Tappan Zee Bridge and transferring to the Hudson Line. Could you imagine what service would be like if those additional passing tracks had been built?
Outbound service is similar. I haven’t had a chance yet to look at off-peak weekday service.
I’ll leave additional value judgments to the reader on the subject of one-seat rides, differences in attitude between the MTA and NJT, and the general comfort and convenience of different modes of transportation.
Jack May, V.P., NJ-ARP
