
Some commuter routes are run by private companies, using charters (and even buses) supplied by NJT. NYC-bound buses mostly use the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square, an infamously crowded and shabby bus station that is still the busiest bus station in the world, while Philly-bound buses generally stop at several points along East Market Street until they reach City Hall and end up (somehow) at the rather less impressive Philadelphia long-distance bus station. And there's definite overlap between the areas served by both types. The bus network is a complicated mess of local transit routes within the state's urban areas, and interstate commuter routes, running from suburban areas to New York City or Philadelphia. NJ Transit was at its high point during the 90s when it was considered one of the best mass transit systems in the nation, and was in good shape as recently as 2007, but since 2010 it has been faced with mounting funding, infrastructure, and safety problems that will have to be addressed in order to ensure its future. Today, NJT is divided into two primary operating units: New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, derived from Transport of New Jersey, and New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, derived from the Conrail takeover. (This company is today Public Service Enterprise Group, which is the electric and gas utility for most NJ residents with significant interests outside the state.) Four years later, NJT took over control of the commuter rail services in NJ from Conrail. NJ Transit was formed in 1979 when the State of New Jersey's Department of Transportation purchased Transport of New Jersey, the bus-operation division of the Public Service Corporation, a private company providing public utilities in New Jersey. All public transportation in New Jersey, except for the Port Authority Trans Hudson and Port Authority Transit Corporation Speedline, a few random privately run and county-run bus routes, and the commuter rail station in West Trenton note The terminus of a SEPTA line originating in Philadelphia is provided by NJ Transit.

Because New Jersey is (in the words of so many of its residents) a "transit state," all about people on the move one way or the other across the country (or at least the Northeast), it should come as no surprise that NJ Transit operates an extensive and (all things considered) rather efficient and affordable network of transportation all across the state. "New Jersey Transit" (NJ Transit or NJT to its friends) is the State-owned public transit operating company of the State of New Jersey. When leaving the train, please watch the gap.
