DeLovely, DeLightful, DeCamp?

Nothing more stylist than that scary looking garage on their homepage.

Nothing.

Except maybe the burst of hot, smelly air that slaps you upside the head when you arrive or leave from Port Authority in the Summer.

Priceless!

I like the cool animation of the bus's headlights and moving wheels on the DeCamp's homepage. There's also an "ALERT MESSAGES" section which currently has the following information: "We are experiencing some errors in the Schedule and Route section on the new website and currently working with the website people to correct. Please bear with us through this trying time, we will get it corrected asap. In the meantime, ask either a Dispatcher at the PABT or a Driver for a printed schedule (these are correct). Thank you." Seems like they're trying...

Put a pretty dress on a pig and you have a pig in a pretty dress. DeCamp can dress up their customer service "pig" however they like, it takes a lot more than a fancy website to deliver actual service to the customer. unless things have changed dramatically, DeCamp and customer service concepts do not mix.

It's DE-meaning, it's DE-structive, it's DE cra-ap!

"In the meantime, ask either a Dispatcher at the PABT or a Driver for a printed schedule (these are correct)."

Personally, I am very afraid of the dispatcher at the PABT. She apparently has a bit of a temper. Also, I'm guessing they took her phone away, because she's now taken to screaming on the pay phone opposite gate 410. I preferred it when she screamed in her little room next to the gate.

Well, I will say this: it loads a lot better than the old one and is easier to navigate.

As a kid, I loved those night time rides to NYC on DeCamp. Coming home was the best, riding through the pitch black wetlands after exiting the Tunnel in a dimly lighted bus, gently swaying back and forth, as I fought off sleep to stare out into the blackness. Then my mother giving me a shake after I did fall asleep. We were back at William and Parkway Drive and it was dime to decamp.

You were high, Mellon, on the fumes from the then-ripe garbage dumps that dotted the meadowlands in those days. You bounder!

And did I hear Miss M. say something nice about DeCamp? Good lord, pinch me I must be dreaming.

I love that rotting smell, just as long as it's from a distance. Reminds me of the seashore.

Try sniffing glue.

It almost escaped me, but today's a Liz Day! Oh joy! Rapture!

I hereby offer this little ditty for the Joy of My Life (namely, Liz):

Liii-iz, my belle.
These are words that go together well,
my Liii-iz.

Lii-iz, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I love you, I love you, I love you.
That's all I want to say.
Until I find a way
I will say the only words I know that
you'll understand.

Liii-iz, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I need to, I need to, I need to
I need to make you see,
oh, what you mean to me.
Until I do I'm hoping you will
know what I mean.

I love you.

I want you, I want you, I want you.
I think you know by now
I'll get to you somehow.
Until I do I'm telling you so
you'll understand.

Liii - iz, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I will say the only words I know
that you'll understand, my Li-iz.

Merci beaucoup!

Mobile Alerts? Most of the time the dispatcher doesn't know where the buses are.

DECAMP ALERT
7/1/08, 7:35am

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE 7:15 33 GROVE FROM MONTCLAIR TO NYPA WAS CANCELED AS THE DRIVER DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR WORK THIS MORNING. SINCE YOU ARE ALREADY AT THE BUS STOP AND DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER OPTIONS, YOU MIGHT AS WELL WAIT FOR THE 7:45AM 33 GROVE, WHICH WILL BE STANDING ROOM ONLY.

I am pleased and impressed that DeCamp made the effort to create a map that depicts the route travelled. It's an improvement, and I'll give them credit for it. It seems some people just can't be happy unless they're griping about something.

It's a fantastic improvement just to have the schedule and fair information on there. I don't know if it was before... I don't think so. When I moved into the area someone said, "there's a bus that goes into the city from here". But no one would tell me what number or when it came.

I've only been here a year, so maybe I'm unrealistic, but I'll take this at face value that DeCamp is trying to modernize and become more friendly (no more humanity proving themselves unworthy).

I just hope they can make back the fees they must be paying to have the website run for them.

"Safely"? Perhaps for the passengers! My child and I were almost smeared by a DeCamp bus last week while in the middle of a crosswalk. The bus plowed through a red light, turning right onto Lorraine, without looking. You can only imagine the words I had for the awful driver!!! My kid still talks about almost getting hit by the bus.

My personal pet peeve is how the DeCamp bus drivers try to run you over after dropping you off. Whenever they drop me on the corner before making the turn onto Park, they run the right on red as fast as they can so I can't cross the street first. Oh...and many of the drivers habitually make a right on red from Grove onto Mt. Hebron--which has a "No Right Turn on Red" any time sign. I'm wondering if anyone has ever witnessed a DeCamp bus pulled over for a traffic violation?

"The food here is terrible!"

"Yeah! And such small portions!"

I, too, came a split second from being hit by a Decamp bus in the middle of a crosswalk crossing a sidestreet along Bloomfield avenue. The bus was turning left off of Bloomfield.

My husband had to literally run up behind me and push me out of the way, just like in the movies. (Fortunately, unlike in some movies, he did NOT then get hit himself).

For a split second, I turned my head to say "hey, what gives" and I just saw the front of the bus right there and then heard a loud screeching noise - the guy had only just then touched the brakes! I hadn't heard a horn, brakes or anything to let me know that a bus was coming at me from behind.

My only complaint with the company is their inability to reliably provide buses along their routes in a timely manner. Specifically the 33Broad. Does it really help me if they send 2 buses together, every 30 minutes? or does the complex mathematics associated with time tables escape Pard?