Massachusetts’ bedraggled rest stops offer only a gap-toothed smile to the travelers we’re hoping to impress as we struggle to attract new residents. iStock photo

Here are two things you are unlikely ever to hear in the same sentence: New Jersey and good government.

The state’s rogues like former Sen. Bob “Gold Bar” Menendez make even Massachusetts corruption scandals look like child’s play.

But, as I discovered on a recent family road trip to drop my daughter off at college, New Jersey has the Bay State beat hands down on an issue near and dear to weary travelers elsewhere.

After years of renovations, the Garden State’s highway rest stops are clean, modern, and bright – words no one in their right mind would use to describe the Bay State’s motley collection of bedraggled service areas.

The Wonders of New Jersey

Headed out of state, we stopped at the Charlton rest stop on the Mass Pike, a decision we soon regretted.

There was not a Dunkin’ or any other coffee place in sight. As for lunch, it was either McDonald’s or Papa Gino’s, with Fresh City having closed. We tried to buy sandwiches at the convenience store, but there were none, the refrigerated display case having broken down.

The bathrooms were a true delight, with a traffic cone wrapped in heavy-duty clear packing tape planted atop one of the toilets in the men’s room.

If the Bay State’s high costs aren’t enough to scare away new businesses and residents, a visit to one of our state’s crumbling highway travel plazas will surely do the trick.

New Jersey spent 10 years sprucing up its highway rest stops into modern, food- and amenity-filled service plazas, while Massachusetts’ plazas remain sad. iStock photo

“For a toll road, you get this disgusting abomination,” wrote one frustrated traveler in one of the harsher online reviews of the Charlton rest stop.

So, we were in for quite a shock when, a few hours later, we stopped at one of the New Jersey Turnpike’s newly renovated rest stops.

We found a light, airy modern building where a dingy, 1950s-era relic once stood, with a couple of decent java joints and various options for dinner or a snack, including a Chick-fil-A, a Starbucks and a Pret A Manger.

One big difference between New Jersey and Massachusetts? Nearly a decade ago, New Jersey awarded a 25-year contract to an investment group that now includes Dublin-based roadside retailer Applegreen to operate the food and gas station concessions at more than 15 different highway travel plazas.

In return, the now Applegreen-headed investment group pledged to spend $250 million to renovate and rebuild New Jersey’s travel plazas, with the work completed in 2025.

The interior of a newly renovated New Jersey service plaza in August 2026. Photo by Scott Van Voorhis | Special to Banker & Tradesman

Why We’re in this Mess

In Massachusetts, the Healey administration tried to do the same thing.

Millions of people drive to Massachusetts on day trips or longer excursions to walk The Freedom Trail, hit the Cape beaches, or gaze at sadly unimpressive Plymouth Rock.

And for too many, their first impression of Massachusetts will be formed while stopping to use the restrooms at the worn-out rest stops along the Mass. Pike and Route 128.

But the deal imploded just months after state officials picked a $750 million bid from the very same Applegreen, which had agreed to overhaul the state’s 18 highway service plazas in exchange for a 35-year lease to run them.

However, rival bidder Global Partners, currently a subtenant at the award-winning Charlton rest stop described above, filed a lawsuit challenging the award. Global argued its bid would have paid the state as much as $1 billion more in rent for the right to operate the state’s rest stops, while its lawsuit alleged a cozy relationship between key state officials and members of the Applegreen bidding team.

Last September, Applegreen pulled the plug on its deal with MassDOT, citing threats of litigation.

Scott Van Voorhis

Why This Hurts Mass.

In early 2026, state Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro came out swinging, releasing a report that detailed a bungled selection process by state officials.

Healey then turned to Kevin Sullivan, a top Babson College official who previously served as state transportation chief and then budget chief under the Cellucci and Swift administrations, respectively, to head a revived public-private partnership (P3) commission to straighten out the troubled bidding process.

In a major step forward last month, MassDOT filed a draft request for proposals for the state’s service plazas, which will be split up into three different packages.

The hope now is to have winning bidders in place in mid-2027 – or more than two years after Applegreen was initially chosen to renovate and rebuild the Bay State’s busted-up travel plazas.

New Jersey officials were smart enough to realize that their once-aging travel plazas were a particularly poor advertisement to the millions of travelers who pass through the state each year, some likely for the first time.

By contrast, Massachusetts will be stuck offering the equivalent of a gap-toothed smile to travelers for years to come.

Like throwing to the wrong base, it’s an unforced error for a high-cost state struggling to attract new residents and businesses and keep the ones it already has.

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist and publisher of the Contrarian Boston newsletter; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.