Academy Bus, LLC

I wish I could rate Academy 0 stars. I suffer through the misery of commuting on Academy’s buses daily from Route 9 to Wall Street. (I have no choice because this pathetic company has a monopoly on the route.) Buses are often very late or canceled without notice. It’s a gamble every day, hoping that an Academy bus will show up anywhere near the time the schedule says it will arrive, that is if it shows up at all, or if there are any seats available when it finally shows up. There is no customer service to speak of. When I call to complain about cancelled buses, late buses, standing-​room only buses, the employees express absolutely no concern whatsoever. When I email to ask questions, my messages go unanswered. Academy is just a terrible bus company — the worst I have ever experienced. If you can avoid riding on an Academy bus, do so! It will save your sanity and give you a realistic chance of getting to work or home on time.

Service is totally unreliable, Of 5 commuter trips this week (Lincroft to Wall Street), 2 buses were cancelled — that’s a 40% failure rate. NJT and LIRR add service for holidays — Academy cuts their schedule and then cancels on top of that! Guess they had too many charters to fill. They switch buses/​drivers to cover charters for extra $$. They already have the commuter $$ and won’t lose it since they’re the only game in town except $ 625 mo. ferry. Cancellations peak at holidays, late spring (school charters) and summer (group trips) — coincidence? $ 375 month for this service and we additionally subsidize thru taxes since buses are leased from NJT for $ 1/​yr. Weekend service is every 2 hours and 2 weeks ago driver was 45 min. late — he overslept. PNC parking lot condition is a disgrace — basically potholes surrounded by debris. Lincroft ticket office hours cut to bone. Nonexistent WiFi.

I pay $ 425 a MONTH to take the bus daily from Monmouth Rest area to Manhattan, which is already a sin. What makes it worse, is that this bus provider is consistently terrible. From bus drivers who don’t know their scheduled arrival times, buses that don’t show at all, buses that get cancelled, and bus drivers who just plain can’t drive, it’s never a surprise when things go wrong, because it happens daily. For example, I’m currently waiting in line at Port Authority after a long week on a Friday, when all one really wants, is to get home as soon as possible. They cancelled my bus, without warning or notice. I have been waiting in line for an hour for the 7pm, and no surprise, it’s late. Academy, please show respect to your customers, who pay you more than what a beautiful car and car payment would be, to get treated like scum. Don’t forget, we are who keep you in business.

I’m mad that I even have to give this company one star. Every day durning the week this company shorts out on busses at the busiest time when trying to leave Port Authority in NYC.
Two of the companies employees went on to tell me the reason for lack of busses and drivers is due to incompetent management who feel as though canceling busses instead of hiring more drivers better fits the customers needs.
If you can find an alternate route from the city to your house, I suggest you do so. Academy is constantly never on time or cancels busses all together.
The worst part about it; they drive the Jersey Transit bus for the 119 line so it gives Jersey Transit the bad rep.
Trash company with trash management…

This bus company has a monopoly on a good chunk of the bus service available to Monmouth County and Ocean County, NJ. They’ve somehow also managed to finagle a contract with NJ Transit to offer service on certain runs of the 139 service from the Port Authority, down the Route 9 corridor, from Old Bridge to Marlboro, Manalapan, Freehold, Howell, Jackson, and Lakewood. (You know something is wrong when the government offers a better and cheaper service than a private concern).
Wall Street bus service to the Route 9 corridor is exclusively offered by Academy, and on a recent occasion, I was anticipating a Coach USA/​Suburban Transit bus from Wall Street to Monroe Township, but surprisingly, an Academy Bus rolled up. What is it with this company? Which executive sold his soul to the devil, stepped in dog crap, and somehow managed to get so damn lucky? Anyhow, unless you subscribe to tickets, the drivers REFUSE to make change, if you have to pay cash. You MUST have exact change when taking the bus, if you must use cash. The run to Manalapan (Gordon’s Corner) costs several dollars more than a NJ Transit trip from midtown on the 139 (there’s no good reason why the Wall Street service should be $ 17.50, compared to $ 13.75 from Port Authority), although the same exact stops in NJ are being made. An on-​board water closet doesn’t justify the markup, nor does the WiFi that NEVER, EVER works (good luck trying to connect to the alleged Academy WiFi network. I’m still not convinced it works).
Also, on many a Friday afternoon, it will often take 45 minutes-​1 hour just to get to the Holland Tunnel. Why not instead go through Brooklyn and Staten Island, and get on the 440, which will promptly get you onto Route 9? It seems like a convoluted route, but it can save hours in traffic one incurs when trying to cram dozens of NJ and PA bound Wall Street express buses and scores of automobiles through one measly tube. Just a suggestion.
One of my biggest beefs with this company is as follows: I called on the day of the Ticker Tape Parade for the women’s soccer team to ask how this would affect the 3:30 bus to Manalapan. After 3 back and forth, hemming and hawing conversations, they finally connect me to some dispatcher who tells me that all runs until 5 pm would not be starting from the first stop, but that service would only be available from the last stop in Manhattan, at Worth Street. So I responsibly waited for the bus at the stop there, with a mob of folks who were given the same information, and then when the bus finally pulls up, it’s already crowded! The dispatcher was either ignorantly misinformed, deceptive, or both. I waited in the open sun at that stop for no reason whatsoever, when I could have just boarded by Trinity Place, where the bus from Brooklyn exactly lets out. This was a major inconvenience and an unnecessary suffering inflicted on me by this company.

On two occasions we traveled between stamford, CT and NYC with Lucky as our driver, best trips with Academy. Let’s make him our permanent driver! …On a more recent trip with Academy, however, we had the unfortunate incident (different driver) where the air conditioning in bus 6562 worked in the morning, but then did NOT function during our return trip. It was an arduous trip back for a group of over 40 passengers. Please make sure the AC is working on this bus! This is a dangerous situation in warm weather!

WORST transportation company ever! My husband went out to Atlantic City and I called them in advance to ask them about purchasing one way tickets back to NYC. I called the (212) # on the bus schedule and he said that my husband can purchase tickets at the Taj Mahal at the kiosk machine by the bus terminal and then catch the 10PM bus at Ceasar’s. My husband went to Taj Mahal to get the ticket and the kiosk machine didn’t print tickets for Academy buses. The agent said the only way you can get tickets for the bus is at the bus depo that was open from 9AM — 6PM, and that’s the only way he can get on the Academy buses. I kept calling Academy to ask if there is another kiosk machine that they were referring to and the Academy bus employees at the Port Authority were super rude, and said they don’t know and were completely unwilling to help me. That I should call the bus depo there, except the bus depo was CLOSED already at the Taj Mahal.
For one, you guys should give people the ability to purchase tickets online both ways. Additionally, your employees need to be better informed about how to purchase tickets — your website doesn’t allow you to buy tickets FROM Atlantic City to NY. There isn’t any information about how to get tickets when you get to Atlantic City. It doesn’t specify anything about the ticketing agents/​window or times that tickets can be purchased. Thank god for Greyhound, my husband was able to get home that night!

What’s the purpose of a bus schedule when they don’t show up on time or even worse, at ALL! Hoping to get on the 7:57 to Wall St from OB P&R, never came. 8:03 never came, finally at 8:17 bus arrives.
When a review is written, it is not only for costumers to rate the service but hoping the COMPANY will improve their system to keep customers happy.

I hate the fact that they do not operate more frequently. Today, I had an emergency and needed to be back in TR, NJ by 2:30 p.m. Unfortunately, I was out of luck. Since the first bus does not leave Wall Street until 2:20 p.m. My options were to either pay NJT $ 19 to get me home (which I was not happy about since I already give Academy $ 455 a month) or go to Port Authority. The problem with that is… I parked at the Terminal so I would have either had to take a cab from Monmouth or Forked River. HOW INCONVENIENT!!!
Update:
It is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (the busiest travel day of the year) leave it to Academy to reduce the number of buses instead of added early buses so that folks can get home. On the 1^st Parkway Express bus out of the City they had to turn at least 20 people away, because the bus was full. Freaking get a clue.

I have never come across a transportation company that can constantly out do its awfulness like Academy can. The amount of times that I have had to endure last minute route and schedule changes, broken down buses and all around atrocious service is astounding. What is most disconcerting is how dispatch doesn’t even know of any of the changes made many times or even how to solve a problem once it arises. It is unfortunate that a business that affects so many people is allowed to be so incompetent.

Tolerably capable on an ordinary day but switches to a completely inadequate schedule on anything they consider a «holiday», like January 2^nd. Three bus loads of commuters waiting an hour for a single bus.
Unfortunately, they are awarded a route monopoly by the port authority, so they don’t care in the slightest.

Had the pleasure of using Academy bus this past Sunday for a New York Jets game. We had Edwin as a driver and he was absolutely amazing. We were scheduled to be picked up at 8am. He was there at 7:45. Extremely respectful and full of energy! He was reliable and safe, I could not have asked for a better driver and overall experience. The bus was spotless and comfortable. All my guest had a wonderful time. I would recommend this company to anyone, especially Edwin! He was the man!

I use Academy’s charter services 2 – 3 times per month for university sponsored trips. It wasn’t until they were unavailable for a couple of my events and I had to work with other companies, that I learned to appreciate the service I receive from Academy.
Features that I particularly like include:
−24÷7 dispatch available
— If a driver is in traffic and running a few minutes late I have received a phone call updating me– which is such a relief
— Quick and simple quotes are provided
— Billing process is swift & standard
— Drivers are courteous and timely
— Pamela is my primary contact. She is wonderful and easy to work with.