BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter & Robert Jowaiszas, Community Editor/Reporter
Governments routinely contract for a wide range of services. When a contract term ends, the law requires an open, competitive bidding process in which qualified companies submit proposals, and the contract is awarded to the vendor that best meets the requirements.
Beth Cefalu Director of Strategic Communications for Rockland County Executive Ed Day said in a written statement, “This standard procurement process includes issuing an RFP, (request for proposals) receiving and evaluating proposals from qualified vendors, and selecting a contractor to operate and maintain the bus service once the review is complete. The current maintenance contract has expired, and the call went out for bids on February 11, 2026, and proposals are due by April 9, 2026, for a new contract to be awarded.”
The TOR bus system operates 10 routes across Rockland. Many people rely on this service to get around the county for a variety of reasons. It provides local and commuter connections to neighboring transit systems including Clarkstown Mini-Trans, Hudson Link, Rockland Coaches, Short Line and NJ Transit trains. To show how important the service is, in 2025, TOR provided service to 1.9 million riders, an increase from 1.6 million riders in 2019.
The county owns the buses (about 45 vehicles) but hires a private company to run the system day-to-day service and several local loops across Rockland County. The busses travel roughly 2 million service miles per year at an annual operating costs of around $21 million.
To protect the integrity of the procurement process and avoid any perception of influencing the outcome, the County cannot comment on the service or any related details until the process is complete. The current RFP covers the operations and maintenance contract for the Transport of Rockland bus service.
“The way this works is that it goes through just like any other county project, it goes through our purchasing department, the information is put out in a request for proposals and qualified vendors are able to submit proposals in response to that request and then those proposals are, you know, evaluated over a several, weeks to months and then the process of selecting a vendor happens and then you move forward with creating a new contract based on that process so that’s really just government procurement, but it’s the same thing that we’d be doing for any other contract that the county maintains in this case, this particular one is for operating and maintaining the tour bus service.”
“The public transportation department oversees the TOR service. It’s operated on behalf of the county by a private operator, and that’s the RFP that’s out right now that’s soliciting bids for that contract. This department oversees the TOR contract with the private operator whoever that may be, over time it’s been many different operators. At, at this point in time because we’re soliciting for a new contract term, we wouldn’t be able to say who is going to be the operator next because they’re in the process of submitting proposals.”
More information as to who will be the winner of the next contract, whether it’s the current operator or a new one, should be available next summer.
“Whoever is going to, put up the bid, and I guess you also have to make sure they’re qualified vendors, of course. There’s all sorts of federal and state requirements that they have to meet. Obviously they have to be, an industry, professional, that has all the qualifications required.”
Cefalu pointed out that most of the service is funded with state and federal funds thus there’s all sorts of very serious requirements we have to uphold as we go through this process and as frequent riders know the TOR bus fares are free now.
“It’s been free since COVID. “We and all other operators in this country were provided with federal funds, all of the COVID-related funds that were specific to, helping bus operators sustain service, maintain ridership and basically survive the COVID era. We have been continuing to spend down those funds, and one of the reasons why we’re, keeping the fares, free at this point is because we wanted to ensure that frankly all folks were hit hard by COVID, but we know that bus riders in particular, really rely on the service, which is why we operated full service throughout COVID, without any interruption, without any service reduction, and they’re free because we wanted to ensure that essential workers and other people who rely on the service, had it to use.”
There is no timeline or set date for ending the free fares.
The contract includes handling nearly all operational aspects of the county bus system, including bus drivers and staffing, maintenance of the fleet, scheduling and routing, customer service, safety oversight and accident investigations, fare collection systems and transit technology
Current operator: The current contractor operating the system is Transdev, which runs the service under the county contract.
TOR Puts Bus Contract Out for Bid; Riders Wonder What It Means
Transport of Rockland (TOR) has officially put its operations contract out for competitive bidding, though no major local newspapers have yet reported on the move. The county’s RFP (Request for Proposals) outlines who can manage TOR bus service in the coming years, but details of potential bidders remain under wraps.
Depending on who gets the contract some of the areas that are concerning to users are: service reliability, routes or scheduling, technology like bus tracking, hiring of current drivers and cleanliness
While the announcement has flown under the media radar, passengers are already talking about what the change could mean for their daily commutes.
“I just hope whoever takes over doesn’t cut service on the routes I use,” said one commuter Davis B. who rides from New City to downtown Nyack each day.
Another passenger, who declined to give their name, noted, “I’m worried about fares going up. I rely on TOR for work, and even small price increases make a big difference.”
A third rider Cheryl R. added, “If they bring in a new company, I just hope the buses are clean and on time. That’s all we really ask.”
County officials say the bidding process is open to qualified operators and that they will review proposals carefully before awarding the contract. For now, passengers are left watching, waiting, and hoping for a smooth transition.