Operating costs estimated at $150,000 a year
By: Marjorie Censer
NJ Transit announced Monday it will provide Princeton Borough with an 18-passenger minibus at no charge to allow the borough to operate a jitney.
The minibus estimated by NJ Transit to cost between $60,000 and $65,000 was awarded to the borough as part of NJ Transit’s Community Shuttle Program. Eleven other communities also received buses, and 22 towns already operate community shuttles they received in earlier rounds of the program.
Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi called the bus award a "great opportunity" and said the borough is the perfect place to run a jitney.
The borough "is so compact and so dense," he said. "There’s just no reason why it shouldn’t work."
Because the bus is not scheduled to arrive until late 2007, the borough will now have time to plan the details of a jitney system, Mr. Bruschi said.
The main route recommended in the grant proposal makes a loop along Nassau Street, Harrison Street, Hamilton Avenue and Bayard Lane. The jitney also would travel to the Dinky station on University Place potentially only during rush hour and it could travel to Princeton High School or to Princeton Shopping Center at other times.
Mr. Bruschi’s sample schedule included in the grant proposal suggests a 25-minute loop that stops at the YMCA and YWCA on Paul Robeson Place, the Princeton Public Library, Spruce Circle, Palmer Square and the Dinky station, among other places.
Mr. Bruschi said the borough has several decisions to make regarding the jitney. The borough can operate the bus or it can hire an outside operator. In either case, the borough is required by NJ Transit to have a back-up vehicle readily available to ensure the reliability of the jitney. That requirement might be easier to meet if the borough hired an operator.
Operating the jitney is estimated to cost roughly $150,000, Mr. Bruschi said, adding that the borough will be looking for funding sources. He said he recommends that the shuttle operate for free in order to get a clear picture of its desirability.
"If you can’t make a jitney service operate or be accepted for free, there’s no want or need of it in the community," he said.
Additionally, charging a fee would bring a more stringent set of rules and regulations to the jitney service.
According to a NJ Transit news release, the borough will be eligible for up to $60,000 in start-up costs for the first three years of service.
Mr. Bruschi said he hopes final decisions on the jitney will be made in the next six to 12 months.
"It’s long overdue," he said of a jitney service in the borough.

