An annual permit for Westfield's main commuter lot costs $776 a year. Spread across a working year, that comes to a little over $3 a day. A round trip to the same station on RideUC, the county's new on-demand shared ride, costs $6 once the free introductory period ends. On price alone, the new service doesn't compete with the commuter who already holds a permit. It competes with the $7 daily pass, and on a regular weekday it costs a dollar less.
The fare is only half of it. The other half is the clock, and the clock rules out more commuters than the fare does.
What arrived on October 28
RideUC is a one-year pilot. Union County pays for it, and River North Transit, LLC, which does business as Via, runs it. The Union County Board of County Commissioners approved the contract in June. The service area is roughly a 1.5-mile radius centered on the intersection of State Route 28 and South Avenue, County Route 610, and the county says it covers more than 35,000 residents. Under the agreement, Via provides the vehicles, drivers, scheduling software, customer service, maintenance and performance reporting.
County and town officials marked the launch at the Westfield train station on Wednesday, October 28, and TAPinto Westfield covered the event. Mayor Jeremy Berman told TAPinto that Westfield is "the first municipality to introduce this service."
The mechanics are simple:
- Booking: Use the RideUC app from the App Store or Google Play, the web portal, or call (908) 304-9138.
- Timing: Rides can't be booked in advance. Via advises requesting one 15 to 20 minutes before you need it.
- Pickup: Pickups are corner to corner, not door to door. The app assigns a "virtual bus stop," usually at a nearby corner, so riders heading the same way can share a vehicle. Riders with accessibility needs can ask for door pickup, and wheelchair-accessible vehicles are available.
- Fare: $3 for one rider, plus $1 for each additional passenger, up to four. Pay by credit or debit card, prepaid card or Google Pay.
- Pets: Service animals ride without restriction. Other pets need an airline-approved carrier.
Rides are still free this week. The RideUC page on Via's site shows the end date of the introductory period, and the $3 fare applies after that.
The station lots set the price RideUC has to beat
The service was launched at the train station for a reason. "We have a very active commuter population and parking lots that often fill to capacity," Berman said in TAPinto's launch coverage. "Providing residents with an affordable, convenient way to get to and from the station without driving can help ease demand for parking and reduce the number of cars on the road."
Station parking got more expensive over the past year. In fall 2025, the town raised the daily rate at Lot 3, the main South Avenue lot, from $5 to $7, and TAPinto reported that the rate had not changed since 2005. The town also began selling daily passes for Lot 6 on Watterson Street at $5. Daily passes are sold online now, through the town's parking portal, so nobody has to buy one in person from a police officer at the lot anymore. Town Administrator Jim Gildea told the council that under the old system, commuters or their spouses sometimes showed up in their pajamas to buy a pass.
Annual permits went up on January 1, 2026, the first increase in a decade according to TAPinto. Lot 3 rose from $696 to $776 for a full year and from $420 to $460 for six months. Patch reported that the Town Council approved the new structure on November 25, 2025, as General Ordinance 2025-20. Commuters who don't have a permit can join the annual-permit waitlist online, according to the town's October 2025 notice.
Here is what a workday at the station costs under each option, using those rates and RideUC's posted fare. The per-day permit figures assume about 250 working days a year and about 125 per half year:
| How you reach the train | Cost for one workday |
|---|---|
| Lot 3 annual permit, $776 a year | about $3.10 |
| Lot 3 six-month permit, $460 | about $3.70 |
| Lot 6 Watterson Street daily pass | $5 |
| RideUC, one ride each way | $6 |
| Lot 3 South Avenue daily pass | $7 |
A permit holder who commutes every weekday comes out well ahead by keeping the permit. Compared with the Watterson lot, which TAPinto describes as about a five-minute walk from the station across South Avenue, RideUC costs a dollar more and saves you that walk, but you still walk to a corner pickup point. RideUC is cheaper than a Lot 3 daily pass by a dollar.
So RideUC fits two kinds of commuters best. One is the person on the permit waitlist who would otherwise buy a Lot 3 pass each day. The other is the hybrid worker who goes into the office two or three days a week, for whom an annual permit sits unused on the other days. For both, the money also stays more flexible. A permit is paid up front, and Patch reports that permits not renewed are forfeited automatically. A $3 ride is charged only when you take it.
The clock decides more than the fare
RideUC runs Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The county release describes those hours as the "minimum" schedule. For a commuter, that window is the real test. The ride to the station only works if you request it after 7 a.m., and the ride home only works if you request it before 7 p.m. Someone on an early train who gets back after dinner can use RideUC for neither leg. Someone who leaves at 8 and comes home at 6 can use it for both.
Add the 15-to-20-minute booking lead and the walk to a corner pickup point, and the morning trip takes some planning. Since rides can't be scheduled the night before, the request goes in that morning while you're getting ready. Coming home, the request goes in once your train's arrival time is clear.
That narrows the commuter case to people whose schedules fall inside regular office hours. It doesn't narrow the service, because most of what a household does on a weekday falls inside those same hours.
The stronger case is midday
The 7-to-7 window works against the commuter and in favor of nearly everything else. Berman told TAPinto the service was meant to go "well beyond commuting," to "a trip to our downtown area for shopping or dining, getting to an appointment or simply running errands." At the launch, Via co-founder and CEO Daniel Ramot named the same uses, connecting to NJ Transit "as well as to get to the grocery store, to get to a health care appointment."
Group pricing helps most on these trips. A parent and two kids going downtown pay $5 for the ride: $3 for the first rider and $1 for each of the other two. Every trip like that is one less car circling for a spot on a weekday afternoon. For residents who don't drive, the phone line at (908) 304-9138 handles booking, and door pickup is available on request.
The county already runs a separate service for some of these riders. Union County Paratransit charges $3 one way for eligible seniors 60 and older, people with disabilities 18 and older, and economically disadvantaged residents. It picks up curb to curb, takes rides by reservation, and runs mainly on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. RideUC has no eligibility requirements, no reservation, and stays on the road 90 minutes later in the evening. The county presents it as an addition to existing transit, not a replacement.
A pilot sized by who uses it
The pilot runs for one year, and the county plans to use it to measure demand. "This pilot gives us an opportunity to hear from the residents and learn from their experiences how this service can best meet our community's needs," Commissioner Kimberly Palmieri-Mouded, who lives in Westfield, said in TAPinto's account. She added that she hoped it "will continue to grow in Union County." Berman was more cautious about early numbers: "Changing how people get around takes time, and we know adoption won't happen overnight."
Via's contract includes performance reporting, so the county will have data on who rides, when and where. Commuters who want the service to start earlier or run later now have a clear way to show it, because a 7:05 a.m. request is the kind of trip that shows up in that data. Feedback goes to [email protected].
Questions about how transit access around the station affects your plans for your home are part of every conversation at The Isoldi Collection. Request a Private Market Consultation, and we'll walk through how RideUC and the station lots fit your household's week.
