New to the area - looking to take the 139 from Sayreville into the Port Authority in NYC.

Can you pay your fare on the bus with a debit/credit card - or is there another method?

Comments

mle622 t1_j1hm9co wrote on December 24, 2022 at 12:29 PM

NJ Transit App. You can buy bud and train tickets on it.

tony_boxacannoli t1_j1i0jf6 wrote on December 24, 2022 at 2:53 PM

>You can buy bud

...that's so progressive!

NJ is first again 🥇

lol

remarkability t1_j1il5vz wrote on December 24, 2022 at 5:34 PM

NJTRANSIT: The Way To Go (Higher)

mle622 t1_j1kdcc4 wrote on December 25, 2022 at 1:46 AM

Lol whoops!

Mercurydriver t1_j1i0cpj wrote on December 24, 2022 at 2:52 PM

Yep. Ever since Covid this is exclusively how I’ve been buying my NJ Transit monthly bus tickets. Super convenient.

DaGabbagool OP t1_j1ihomi wrote on December 24, 2022 at 5:08 PM

Thank you!

remarkability t1_j1i2xms wrote on December 24, 2022 at 3:14 PM

Cash only on board the bus towards NYC, or buy tickets on the NJTransit app (accepts credit/debit and Apple/Google pay/PayPal), or get paper tickets from a ticket vending machine at major stops (Old Bridge P&R has them). You must have a paper or app ticket when returning from NYC, cash is not accepted outbound.

You’re probably going to the Old Bridge Park&Ride, that’s $12 one way, 9 zones interstate, full price one way tix never expire until activated. That’s the last stop before NYC. You can’t just tap a card like NYC because unlike NYC and its massive one fare zone, NJ has wayyyy more zones, roughly correlating with distance.

There’s discounted 10-trip and 20-trip “flex” bundles of one-way tickets, the 10-trip tickets are 15% off and valid for 20 days from purchase, the 20-trip tickets are 25% off and valid 30 days from purchase. Monthly passes are for unlimited travel in a calendar month.

Wave to the bus to signal for it to stop and pick you up. Activate the pre purchased ticket in the app and show it to the driver/scan with the QR reader. PABT is the last stop.

When returning, pay attention to the scheduled departure time and number (139) of your bus. On weekday afternoons, not every 139 bus will stop at Old Bridge P&R. Check the box in the schedule for accurate departure gates or talk to information at PABT. Weekends/holidays are much more straightforward, everything is a local and will stop at Old Bridge (press the stop button before then, anyway)

Schedule: https://content.njtransit.com/pdf/schedules/bus/139

DaGabbagool OP t1_j1ihnr2 wrote on December 24, 2022 at 5:08 PM

Thanks so much!!!

hopopo t1_j1j02m5 wrote on December 24, 2022 at 7:19 PM

How would someone know what zone ticket person uses. Especially when going from Manhattan back home.

remarkability t1_j1kx1dg wrote on December 25, 2022 at 5:03 AM

That’s the difficult bit to figure out, but there’s a few ways.

Look at the schedule PDF for the bus number you’re taking and there’s an abstract map of the route. The dashed lines indicate zone boundaries. Count the total number of zones you travel through and there you go. Find schedules on the app in schedules > printed timetables. Or online at the bottom of https://www.njtransit.com/bus-to in the “download PDF schedules” section.
Or use the Rider Tools > Trip Planner in the app. Search for your start/end addresses on the date/time you want, then it has suggested trips and will tell you the number of zones for each leg.

I’d love for everything to be automatically calculated with a tap in/out card, but that’s not how it works now.