NJ Transit moving ahead on giant bus garage

Ridgefield Park facility will handle 500 vehicles

By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... It's been three years since NJ Transit sit began buying up parcels in Ridgefield Park to build a new sprawling bus depot and related facilities.
..... Last year, [2022] the agency added another 17 acres to its footprint in the village, brining the total to more than 53 acres on the site next to Route 46 and the New Jersey Turnpike, where the behemoth bus garage, equipped to handle 500 buses, will go.
..... "The Northern Bus Garage, one of NJ Transit's largest proposed infrastructure projects, is currently advancing to 30% design," Warren Berry, director of zero-emission systems planning at NJ Transit, said during an update about the facility at the November [2023] sustainability committee meeting for board members.
..... The agency "secured the location for the facility and reached out to various utilities and stakeholders to discuss electricity needs, transportation access and other important considerations," Berry said.
..... With the property in place, the agency is also moving along in the planning phase for a new facility, which was approved to proceed to 30% design in October 2021 after Garnett Fleming was awarded a $12.5 million contract, with money coming from the state Transportation Trust Fund and Federal Transit Administration.
..... "The project has achieved 10% concept design and is under review. Review of the 10% design and its continued advancement is part of the path to 30% design," said NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith.

Project faced controversy

..... The project first faced controversy in 2020 when the agency sought to buy the property, which is some of the remaining unused acres that the village has spent more than two decades trying to develop, without success.
..... Village officials took NJ Transit to court over the matter, but they lost. With NJ Transit;s purchase, some $1 million came off the village's tax rolls.
..... As part of getting to 30% design, NJ Transit officials will also be coming up with a funding strategy for the new bus campus, which could applying for federal grants, a design-build strategy and possibly a public-private partnership.
..... It's estimated to cost around $536 million to construct the new garage, according to the most up-to-date capital plan documents.

2,200 buses fro 253 routes

..... Once completed, this garage would be a crown-jewel additions to the agency's suite of 16 bus garages throughout the state, which range in age from 20 to 120 and currently house some 2,200 buses that operate on 253 routes.
..... This year, [2023] NJ Transit buses served on average nearly 11 million people a month and have been the quickest mode within the agency's system to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
..... All but one of the agency's 16 garages is over capacity, with both Market Street in Paterson and Big Tree in Nutley over capacity by more than 50%, forcing the agency to park some buses in adjacent outside lots.
..... The Northern Bus Garage will allow the agency to expand bus operations, provide space to house buses while other garages are undergoing renovation, and advance the agency's zero-emissions goals.
..... "They literally fold the mirror in every night just to be able to fit the buses we have, and we can't fit the 60-foot buses we need because the 40-foot buses are overflowing,: Richard Schaefer, NJ Transit's senior vice president of capitol programs, said at a recent transportation speaker event in September. [2023]
..... The agency is also in the process of designing a new garage in Union City, and in April [2023] it bought a 4-acre bus garage property owned by Coach USA-affilated Rockland Coaches in Westwood.
..... The facility in design for the Northern Bus Garage would be about 1.8 million square feet, with about 1 million used for bus storage of 500 45-foot and 60-foot buses hat are both diesel and zero=emission electric.
..... It will also include charging equipment for zero-emission buses, fueling and maintenance areas, washing and inspection bays, and staff offices. Around 800,000 square feet would be for staff and visitor parking, snow removal vehicle storage, landscaping and drainage.

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