A century ago, Pascack Valley residents gained a new option for getting into New York City. In April 1926, New York & New Jersey Motor Coach Co. opened an express bus line running between Spring Valley and Times Square, with local stops in Montvale, Park Ridge, Woodcliff Lake, Westwood and Hillsdale. The photo above was taken in Westwood.
The bus shown here, nicknamed Miss Spring Valley — the name is visible beneath the driver’s window — was a 1926 Studebaker. The company also operated a 1926 Mack called Miss Pearl River. Both were billed as “large deluxe parlor coaches, spacious and comfortable,” and even featured curtains in the windows.
At first, the line ran to a terminal at Loew’s Theater at Broadway and 45th Street in Times Square. By the end of the 1920s, it had shifted to the Hotel Astor terminal.
In 1928, the line was sold and renamed Spring Valley Motor Coach Co. That same year, lifelong Park Ridge resident Alfred Peragallo (1906–1984) became one of its drivers.
In a 1979 article in The Ridgewood News, Peragallo described the route: “[The motor coach] traveled from Spring Valley down through Park Ridge to Hillsdale, to New Milford, through Teaneck, Forest Avenue in Englewood to the Palisades Amusement Park, across the river on the 125th Street Ferry, down to Schubert Alley at the rear of the Hotel Astor. It made two trips a day. Each trip took four hours, including layover time.”
The ride was not inexpensive. A one-way ticket cost $1.20, while a round trip was $2. Peragallo added that the bus carried 25 passengers and was painted green with red stripes and white lettering, and that drivers wore green uniforms.
Once the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931, the line began using the 168th Street terminal. Travel time dropped from an hour and 45 minutes to just 45 minutes, and the venture grew quickly. By 1932, the fleet had expanded to 18 buses.
In 1935, owner Jerry Sexton sold the company to Rockland Coaches. Spring Valley Motor Coach Co. was later absorbed into Red & Tan Lines.Miss Spring Valley, launched in April 1926, made daily runs to Times Square with local stops in Montvale, Park Ridge, Woodcliff Lake, Westwood and Hillsdale. This photograph was taken on Broadway in Westwood, with the railroad tracks just visible in the background.