Public Service History

Excerpted from Motor Coach Age August-September 1974 and October-November 1974 issues

Public Service Railway Co. was incorporated on August 20, 1907, consolidating the operation of traction routes already controlled by the company's principals. Bus travel began threatening the traction business in the mid-1910's. In 1917 PSRC formed subsidiary company New Jersey Transportation Co.; the first line ran from Tenafly to Camp Merritt. By the mid-1920's the company was renamed Public Service Transportation Co., and began the gradual conversion of streetcar lines to bus lines. The fleet was a mix of varied types of buses that came with acquired companies but it wasn't until the late 1920's that PSTC began updating the fleet with a mix of various manufacturers and body types.

The 1930's saw the development of the "All Service Vehicles" which could run as a trolley bus under wires or as a regular bus without electricity. However, with the advent of the diesel-powered bus, the ASV's became superfluous and PS began ordering strictly diesels.

General Motors buses became the standard for most of the company's operations by the late 1940's. By that time the company distinguished its two main divisions as Public Service Coordinated Transport and Public Service Interstate Transport. The latter operated with GM's luxury parlor coaches, usually an amenity reserved for Greyhound passengers.

But with steadily dwindling ridership since the end of the Second World War, Public Service had to struggle to keep customers, constantly fine-tuning service in some areas and eliminating in others. Public Service updated its fleet again in the 1960's as the General Motors "new look" buses arrived on the scene.

In the early 1970's, Public Service ceased as an identity as the company's name was changed to Transport Of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department Of Transportation entered the picture as a contractor of subsidized bus routes, to be operated by TNJ and others using equipment owned by the state DOT. It is there that the Public Service story ends, but not bus transportation in New Jersey which today is largely controlled by New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, which falls under the purview of the NJDOT.