Starting Nov. 8, writer-actress Sarah Jones will put the "bus" back in show bus-iness, when her solo, Surface Transit, begins previews at off-Broadway's American Place Theatre.

Transit features slices of the lives of eight ordinary people riding a New York City bus. Old and young, poor and rich, male and female, they're all either victims of hate or the victimizers. Jones performs the characters including Miss Lady, an elderly street person, Joe, a racist Italian-American cop, and Rashid, a recovering addict.

APT's artistic director Wynn Handman directs the piece, which officially opens Nov. 17 and runs to Jan. 2, 2000.

Jones, born into a mixed marriage in Baltimore but raised in Queens, is a 25 year old "zebra" as she calls herself. Other projects have included fine-tuning The Capeman, the poetry piece "Blood" and tracks on the hip hop albums, "Eargasms" and "Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1." A 1997 Nuyorican Grand Slam winner, Jones already presented her Surface Transit: More Sketches of Ordinary People Aug. 26 for an invited audience at the American Place Theatre. She also brought the show to the Roger Smith Gallery in New York City on Oct. 13.

For information on Surface Transit at the American Place Theatre call (212) 239-6200. -- By David Lefkowitz & Christine Ehren