Princeton Council has indefinitely postponed a proposed pilot program to run the town’s ‘Muni’ shuttle bus to the Princeton Dinky rail station. The matter came up with discussion of a resolution for funding the jitney program, at the Council meeting of July 28, 2025. Municipal staff had hoped to test whether a free transit option connecting to the rail station might be successful. A commuter route to the rail station was also recommended by a transit study commissioned by Council last year. But opposition from some local residents, who were unhappy with the proposed service change, persuaded Council members to abandon the plan for now.

There hasn’t been much talk of Princeton Council’s ‘Transit Study’ since it was commissioned in June 2024 at a cost of $200,000 (Report via ‘Tap Into Princeton’: “On the Princeton Agenda: Can a Consultant Suggest a Way to Fill Those Mostly Empty Buses?“). In January of this year, Council member Michelle Pirone Lambros said that the study was moving to an ‘outreach’ phase. At that time, a final report was supposed to be ready for the February 24 Council meeting, but that meeting came and went, with no discussion about the promised “comprehensive community transit program”.

It seems that staff have been quietly advancing ideas that came out of the Transit Study, however. In this case, the idea was to run the town’s free shuttle bus from the Princeton Shopping Center to the Princeton rail station during commuter hours, specifically, between 6 a.m. – 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. For the rest of the day, between 8 a.m. – 5.45 p.m., the shuttle bus would run its regular service, which runs all around the town on a very lengthy route, but notably does not go to the Dinky station (Princeton Muni bus schedule as of February 2024).

The new commuter service was supposed to run as a pilot program from August 2025 – December 2025. But when the item came up on the Council agenda, there was forceful pushback from two local residents of a senior housing complex, who said they also had a signed petition from at least 20 more residents. They said that the new commuter route would lead to a cutback of service to their homes, and they would have to look for other, more expensive ways of getting around. Many of the residents at their apartment complex were people in their eighties and nineties, who do not have cars of their own.

Michelle Pirone Lambros said that the final route was still being finalized and that “everyone will be accommodated as much as possible”. But Council members Leticia Fraga, David Cohen, and Leighton Newlin expressed concern about advancing the pilot while it was still uncertain how route changes would affect residents. Council ultimately agreed not to take action on the night, which meant that the proposed pilot did not take effect this month as had originally been planned. Changes and extensions to the Muni bus service may still happen, although it is not clear in what venue potential changes to transit routes are being discussed.

Related materials: (via princetonnj.gov)

• Resolution R-25-48, discussed by Council meeting on 7.28.2025, proposing an expansion of funding for the municipal jitney service to accommodate a planned pilot program
• Engineering Department memo explaining the background for Resolution R-25-48
• Current Princeton Muni bus schedule and route
• Video of the July 28 Council meeting (proposed changes to bus service are discussed beginning 27’35”):