Academy Bus Lines is a bus company in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

providing local bus services in northern New Jersey, line-run services to/from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

from points in southern and

central New Jersey Central Jersey, or Central New Jersey, is the middle region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation Central Jersey is a distinct administrative division, administrative toponymy, toponym. While New Jersey is often divided into North Je ...

, and contract and charter service in the eastern United States from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. In 2014, Academy acquired Go Buses, which currently operates bus service between Boston and Washington, D.C., and in southern Florida. On September 27, 2023, Academy acquired James River Transportation, which operates in Virginia. Academy is the third-largest motorcoach operator in the United States and Canada. Academy's fleet consists of a variety of motor coaches, including MCI D4500 (in the process of being retired), MCI J4500,

Van Hool Van Hool NV () was a Belgium, Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers. Most of the buses and coaches were built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from C ...

CX35, Van Hool CX45, Van Hool C2045 motorcoaches, and Mercedes Tourrider coaches which are used for commuter and charter services. ENC Eldorado, Nova Bus LFS and New Flyer Industries low floor buses are used for university contracts and charters, such as Columbia Transportation. Services operated under contract to

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

use NJT-owned (and branded) North American Bus Industries buses.

Routes

Under contract to NJ Transit

Under contract to New Jersey Transit (NJT), Academy Bus operates the following routes using NJT-owned equipment. Routes are listed by county. NJT did not renew its contract with Academy for Hudson and Middlesex Counties following a fraud settlement with Academy.

Current

Former

Other contract operations

Under contract to

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

, Academy Bus operated the campus shuttles for the

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

and Piscataway campuses under a 10-year contract, until June 30, 2011, after which time

First Transit First Transit was an American transportation company. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, it operated over 300 locations, carrying more than 350 million passengers annually throughout the United States in 41 states, Puerto Rico, Panama, India an ...

Services, Inc. took over operations of the Rutgers Campus Buses. Academy has filed a lawsuit against the university over the loss of the contract. Despite the loss of shuttle operations, the company continues to provide the chartered bus operations used for tours and other events. Academy operates Columbia Transportation for

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, using both Columbia-branded

transit bus A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...

es and Academy-branded coaches. Academy continues to run a separate operation in New York City for

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and various operations for universities in southern

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and around

. Also, Academy Bus operates long-term parking shuttles around Newark Liberty Airport under contract to the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

using Port Authority-owned and branded Orion VII buses. In January 2014, Academy began operation of the SIM23 and SIM24 (formerly X23 and X24) routes between

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, formerly operated by the now bankrupt Atlantic Express. These routes were subsidized by and operated under contract to the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a public-benefit corporation that serves as the official economic development organization for New York City. NYCEDC gives its mission as strengthening business confidence in New York C ...

. On January 3, 2022, operations of the two routes transferred to the MTA, with minor changes to the operating times and routing. As of October 1, 2014, Academy operates the MTA Maryland Commuter Express routes #410, #411, & #420 under contract to and using MTA Maryland owned buses. The #820 was also awarded by MTA Maryland and began operations on July 1, 2015. Academy operates shuttle buses for

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail service linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach County, Palm Beach, Broward Count ...

in Florida and operates various private and public community shuttles on behalf of municipalities and private communities throughout its service area. In July 2022, Academy Bus took over operations of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

's Cruise Line Bus route. This service was previously done by Mears Transportation, until they lost the contract in June 2022. Academy Bus also added a new Disney World Sunshine Flyer service in November 2022. As of September 27, 2023, Academy Bus acquired James River Transportation of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. As part of the acquisition, Academy took over

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Thruway service between

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

and Richmond that was previously operated by James River Transportation. On June 17, 2024, Academy Bus took over EZRide from Paul Revere Transportation. Academy Bus increased service, while adding new Eldorado buses to run the service. Academy operated under contract BestBus, which provides intercity buses between New York and the Washington area. BestBus was acquired by competitor DC Trails. In 2013, Academy began a contract with the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Con ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

to run shuttles on game days from carrying spectators from local restaurants serving

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

PNC Arena Lenovo Center (originally Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena and formerly RBC Center and PNC Arena) is an list of indoor arenas, indoor arena located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. The arena seats 18,700 for ice hockey and 19,500 ...

, the team's arena. The buses are free of charge for patrons who purchase Pepsi-branded drinks at partner restaurants. Academy formerly operated under contract to Bridj, a private, app-based, on-demand transit service, in the

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

area. Academy Bus also provides

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

shuttle bus service, as of July 2024.

Directly controlled commuter routes

Academy Bus provides commuter line run service along several routes from Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties in New Jersey. The full route is shown for each except for branching. Unless otherwise noted, passengers are carried to and from New York only. ''NOTES'': #Route 9 service via Academy is provided to lower Manhattan only (except for service via Jackson, which is available to midtown Manhattan). Route 9 service to midtown (except Jackson service) is provided on the 139 full-time. #Toms River and Route 549 service via Academy is only provided to lower Manhattan. Toms River service to midtown Manhattan is provided on the 137 line full-time. #All service via the Garden State Parkway (except for Route 9) operates via the Cheesequake park and ride. Shore Points and Parkway Express services also stop at the PNC Bank Arts Center.

Casino line runs

Academy Bus operates several regularly scheduled line services from points in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

to and from casinos in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

Yonkers Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

, and

, with service to the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...

operated in partnership with

Coach USA Coach USA, LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service across the ...

as a Megabus service, the M25 (buses carry Academy markings).

Go Buses

Academy Bus runs an intercity bus

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law (legal system), civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier ...

service under the "Go Buses" brand, servicing the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

United States from Boston to Washington, D.C.. Go Buses markets its service with amenities such as free

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

, electrical outlets, and a free bottle of water upon boarding, along with a frequent rider rewards program. Offering tickets as low as $5 per one-way trip, Go Buses competes with other low-cost intercity bus services, such as Megabus,

BoltBus BoltBus was an intercity bus common carrier and a division of Greyhound Lines that operated from March 2008 until July 2021 in the northeast and western United States and British Columbia, Canada. At least one ticket on every bus was randomly ...

, and various Chinatown bus lines. Academy Bus acquired Go Buses in 2014.

Corporate structure

Academy Bus, LLC is a

limited liability corporation A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the Flow-through entity, pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the l ...

and

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

that owns three operating companies: Academy Lines, LLC, Academy Express, LLC, and No. 22 Hillside Corporation.

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...

, , December 18, 2002

Gallery

File:H3-45 1352.jpg, A 2019-model Prévost H3-45 in Columbia Commuter Shuttle service File:2144 Route W.jpg, An Academy-owned 2017-model Nova Bus LFS in NYU Transportation service File:Elizabeth Berger Plaza 77.jpg, An NJT-owned, Academy-operated 2017-model MCI D4500CT Commuter Coach in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

File:Hudson River Park td (2018-04-03) 18.jpg, An NJT-owned, Academy-operated 2003-model MCI D4000 Commuter Coach in

. This bus has since retired. File:1934 SIM23.jpg, A 2003-model MCI D4500 Commuter Coach on the

express route, a formerly Academy-operated route. This bus has since been replaced with

CX45 and C2045 models. The route was given to MTA NYCT in 2022. File:MCI D4500CT Forked River.jpg, A 2017-model MCI D4500CT Commuter Coach operating on the Parkway Express route that goes to the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

File:XE40 2992 Red Line.jpg, A 2018-model

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing ...

XE40 Xcelsior CHARGE

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

operating for Columbia Transportation File:Boston University Shuttle CRC & MED Route (Academy Bus) - 2016 (MA Bus 39655).jpg, A New Flyer D60LF in Boston University's CRC & MED Campus shuttle service

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.75672, -74.03250, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Intercity bus companies of the United States Surface transportation in Greater New York Transport companies established in 1968 Bus transportation in New Jersey Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey 1968 establishments in New Jersey Transportation companies based in New Jersey