New Jersey’s oldest bus company closes after 155 years

New Jersey’s oldest bus company, which started as a stage coach line in the 1870s, will park its buses forever at the end of the month.

Decamp Bus By Montclair, Operations will end on February 28 after 155 years of operation as a charter and commuter bus company, owner Robert Decamp said in a release.

“After 155 years of serving our society, it is with mixed feelings that we advertise the closure of Decamp Bus Lines,” said Decamp, who has been running the company for 57 years. “This decision was not made easily, but it comes when I look forward to retirement and spend more time with my family.”

The message comes close to two years since the company ended all commuter bus connection in April 2023 after Covid-19 pandemic decimated rider.

“The decamp name is legendary in New Jersey and will be missed hard,” said Scott Sprengel, Bus Association of New Jersey president. “Bob is a solid individual when I was young, I could ask him how I fix an engine to send, he was a sting of all trades.”

According to a story on the company’s website, Robert Decamp Jr. and his sister Suzanne retained the company twice, once in the late 1970s and early 1980s after Stuart Decamp’s death and in 1991, when their father Robert Decamp Sr. 64 years in the family business.

Robert Decamp Jr. Bought Suzanne’s holdings in the company when she retired in 1997.

“Reflects on the millions of passengers we have earned and the dedicated employees who have worked tirelessly to make this company what it is that I am filled with gratitude and pride,” he said.

The well -known orange, green and white decamp commuter and charter buses were well -known sights on North Jersey Street and highways for decades.

“Decamp has always been of high quality, their drivers were super professional, union operators,” Sprengel said. “They have beautiful buses.”

The family-owned company was started by a civil war veteran, Union Army-Major Jonathan W. Decamp, who started a Roseland-to-New StageCoach line in 1870.

His son, Benjamin “Cap” Decamp started another stage coach route between Livingston and Orange.

After Benjamin Decamp’s death in 1905, his son Robert StageCoach took over, added a third route to Caldwell and bought the company’s first motor bus in 1909.

The company came to Crossroads in 1915 when Robert Decamp died, and his brother, Dr. Ralph D. Decamp, decided to give up his dentist in Orange to take over the transport service.

He monitored the transition from the last horse -drawn stage coach to motor buses. In 1923, the company had a fleet of eight buses, added a route to Morristown and built a new garage in Livingston.

In the heyday of the company in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the brothers Robert Sr. And Stuart Decamp and their mother Edith the company to have a fleet of 175 buses and 250 employees. It had bus routes between several North Jersey -Momter and New York.

“I look at decamps as legendary people,” said Sprengel, naming them among other families who founded some of the state prominent private bus companies.

As people moved from cities to the suburbs over decades, the company restructured routes and turned to offer bus chart service, which helped to survive where other bus companies went out of service.

“It’s a very hard time, a challenging time. Staying fluently now is very difficult, ”Sprengel said.

Insurance costs have tripled, the price of a bus has jumped from $ 95,000 in 1979 to $ 750,000 now and hiring drivers is difficult, he said.

The Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 took a toll on Decamp and other private commuter bus companies due to remote work to reduce the spread of Covid-19. Ridership continued to fall as employers switched to hybrid work plans where the workers shared the work week between the home and the office.

“Post Covid, on the commuter side, we are at 40% of the prior Kovide revenue and rider,” Sprengel said. “While 80% of commuters are back, but they are only left two to three days a week.”

The pandemic treated small bus companies a double stroke by paralyzing the charter industry and the commuter service. In August 2020, the American Bus Association estimated that the industry lost $ 11 billion, a 71% decrease in the annual business due to Covid-19.

Decamp had restarted limited commute service in June 2020, but was forced to stop it in August 2020 due to a lack of rider. In March 2023, the company announced that it would stop serving its seven commuter routes due to the loss of ridship. It continued to run charter and casino service.

“It’s very difficult to be a source company more, you need to be diversified in transport,” Sprengel said.

To ensure a trouble-free transition for charter and casino customers, decamp said it arranged Panorama -Tours in Wallington To honor all future tours booked with Decamp after February 28th.

“To our passengers, thank you for trusting us with your travels. To our employees, past and present, thank you for your unshakable dedication, ”said Robert Decamp. “The success of Decamp bus lines is a testimony to the incredible people who have supported us along the way.”

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Larry Higgs can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on x @Commutinglarry.