Headquarters | 8 Washington Avenue |
---|---|
Locale | Spring Valley, New York |
Service area | Rockland County, New York, Lakewood, New Jersey |
Service type | coach service |
Routes | 6 |
Fleet | 60-70 buses |
Fuel type | diesel |
Chief executive | Chaim Lunger |
Website | www |
Monsey Trail is a private bus company plying a publicly licensed route based in Rockland County, New York. It is operated by the Jewish Lunger family of the Skver Hasidic sect in New Square. The publicly subsidized carrier uses a fleet of about 60 coach buses, a few of which are publicly owned by Rockland County and leased to Monsey, running about 75 scheduled daily commuter trips. While the county-owned Transport of Rockland provides local service and connects commuters with rail transit to New York City, Monsey Trails, along with Short Line, provides private bus service between the suburbanized region and the area's principal city, New York City. A subsidiary, Monsey Tours, provides charter service.
The company's primary area of service is in the heavily Haredi west-central portion of the county, and much of the company's literature is printed in both English and Yiddish. Routes originate in Monsey, a community with a strong Orthodox Jewish but somewhat diverse population, and New Square, a Hasidic village. Many routes also travel to the heavily Haredi Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Boro Park. Another route connects Monsey and New Square with Kiryas Joel, an exclusive Satmar Hasidic community in Orange County.
Monsey Trails made the news in 1994, when a Jewish woman filed a discrimination suit against the company, after she was told by Haredi Jewish passengers to leave a men’s section. [1] The dispute raised questions about how far a company which receives government financing can go in accommodating religious practices. Monsey Trails received mass transit subsidies from New York State amounting to nearly $650,000 in 1993, roughly a quarter of the company's annual revenue. [2] The suit resulted in an out-of-court settlement, in which Monsey Trails agreed not to actively segregate male and female riders for Jewish prayers, and neither to provide a curtain to separate the male passengers from women, nor advertise daily prayers in its timetables, as they had done before.
Monsey Trails also operates service between Lakewood, New Jersey and Brooklyn under the Lakewood Express brand. This service was previously operated by Darkanu Bus Company until it shut down after an accident, and Monsey assumed the route. [3]
Monsey Trails also operates service between Pikesville, Maryland and Brooklyn under the Baltimore Line brand. A bus departs once a week from 14th Ave & 53rd St in Brooklyn, and arrives at 7 Mile Market in Pikesville, Maryland. A bus also departs once a week from 7 Mile Market in Pikesville and returns to Brooklyn at 14th Ave & 53rd St. [4]
Route Number | Route Name | Route Description |
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1 | NYC Route | New Square/Monsey to Manhattan |
2 | Brooklyn Route | New Square/Monsey to Williamsburg/Boro Park |
5 | Forshay Route | Monsey North to Manhattan |
6 | K.J. Express | New Square/Monsey to Kiryas Joel |
7 | Lakewood Express | Lakewood, New Jersey to Brooklyn |
8 | Baltimore Line | Brooklyn to Baltimore, Maryland |
Haredi Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted halakha and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English, a term considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer the terms strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredim regard themselves as the most authentic custodians of Jewish religious law and tradition which, in their opinion, is binding and unchangeable. They consider all other expressions of Judaism, including Modern Orthodoxy, as deviations from God's laws, although other movements of Judaism would disagree.
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state's third-most densely populated county outside New York City after Nassau and neighboring Westchester counties. The county seat and largest hamlet is New City. Rockland County is accessible via both the New York State Thruway, which crosses the Hudson River to Westchester via the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Tappan Zee, ten exits up from the NYC border; and the Palisades Parkway, four exits up, via the George Washington Bridge. The county's name derives from "rocky land", as the area has been aptly described, largely due to the Hudson River Palisades. The county is part of the Hudson Valley region of the state.
Monsey is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The village of Kaser is surrounded by the hamlet of Monsey. The 2020 census listed the population at 26,954.
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