At 6 a.m., as the moon shines over the township, about 25 commuters park their cars at the PNC Bank Arts Center lot and line up for a bus to Wall Street. No one talks much.
People are half asleep and want to remain that way.
It's dark and quieter than the train. Each weekday, an Academy bus travels non-stop from Holmdel to the Wall Street area while Van Berkel and his cronies snooze. To reach the same destination by rail, commuters interrupt their rest to change trains in Newark. Ed Kvarantan of Holmdel, who spent five years traveling from Matawan to Penn Station on the train, is much happier using the bus. And there are no parking problems here.