I used to ride the 10 regularly and I can attest to the crappy service. I am so happy that attention has been brought to this issue.

No. 10 bus under the microscope
State MVC is conducting another study of rider complaints

Monday, April 16, 2007
By GREG HANLON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A frustrated horde of commuters waited impatiently in the Journal Square bus terminal to board the Red & Tan line's No. 10 bus, which pokes along from the Square to Bayonne's Third Street and has long been the subject of customer complaints.

"It's terrible," said Alvaro Lamsick, 58, who on Friday was in the middle of his long journey back home to Greenville from his job in Manhattan.

"We wait a really long time, sometimes 30 minutes," he said.

Lamsick is not alone in his complaints. Over the past six months, The Jersey Journal has received numerous phone calls from riders lamenting the line's infrequent service and often overcrowded buses.

"There are always people standing, everyone's always squished, and everyone's always complaining," said Michael DeMaria, 32, of Bayonne.

"I've been taking this bus for nine years. I used to think it would get better, but it's gotten worse."

The stream of complaints prompted the state's Motor Vehicle Commission to look into the matter last December.

The agency has the power to issue and revoke the bus line's Certificates of Public Convenience that allows it to operate.

After a cursory investigation, the MVC announced that the service failed to provide adequate service for its riders.

"The claims of the riders who filed the complaints were justified in our minds," commission spokesman Michael Horan said at the time.

Horan said in December that the MVC planned to "call upon Coach USA (the parent company of Red & Tan) and New Jersey Transit to bring about a positive resolution."

However, the No. 10 route is privately operated, and receives no subsidy from NJ Transit, according to Transit spokesman Dan Stessel.

"It's a private company. They can operate however they please and set service levels as they see fit," he said.

The only recourse for government regulators is the MVC's power to revoke Red & Tan's certificate, but according to Horan, "The alternatives are not good. If we pull their certificate, that hurts everybody."

But Damien Newton, the New Jersey coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a public transportation advocacy group, said that the MVC still had the leverage to lean on Red & Tan.

"If you have the power to revoke their certificate, you can exert pressure on them without going so far as to actually revoke their certificate," he said.

The state MVC says that it is currently conducting a more thorough investigation of the level of service, according to Horan.

But it remains to be seen what, if anything, the MVC will do if they find, again, that the level of service is failing the riders.