Remember those Sunday versions of the Family Circus comic where Bil Keane would use a dotted line to trace the adventures of one of the little scamps who did everything but get the milk they were sent to the store to buy? Well, replace that wholesome scene with an angry, lost bus driver and a busload of worried passengers and you have an idea of what happened yesterday in New Jersey.

The ride on #113 NJ Transit bus from Dunellin, NJ, to Manhattan’s Port Authority Bus Terminal usually takes about 45 minutes to go the 23-mile distance, but something went haywire yesterday morning and the trip took nearly two and a half hours.

The bus usually heads north on the NJ Turnpike (which is also I-95 at that stretch), until it branches off east toward the Hudson, at which point it should go through the Lincoln Tunnel and then a few blocks to the massive terminal.

But the driver erred and kept going north, getting off the highway at some point, apparently circling around — passengers say they passed the same train station three or four times — and then heading all the way toward the George Washington Bridge, which comes across to Manhattan more than 100 blocks north of Port Authority.

Even when the bus finally got to the bus terminal, which is a mammoth building, even by NYC standards, she apparently overshot it. When a passenger pointed this out to the driver, she reportedly yelled “”Are you threatening me?!” back at the passenger.

Passengers, who could probably drive the normal route with their eyes closed, say they tried to help but that the driver refused.

“We felt like we were being held hostage,” one tells the Newark Star-Ledger.

NJ Transit says it is reaching out to the passengers and will take appropriate action pending an investigation.

Hell ride: Lost NJ Transit bus arrives nearly 2 hours late to NYC [NJ.com]

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