Culver

Incredibly naive?  I said if funds from the government meant for transit service ended up in their pocket becuase they didn't have as big of a profit they expected at the end of the year.  You are talking about legal loop holes, the key word their is legal, obvious I was talking about pocketing funds not through legal loopholes.  ie pocketing money from the government meant for transit service becauae they wanted to bad their bank account because thier profits weren't as big as they hoped ie NOT legal loopholes.  What I described is stealing...

 

 

 

Ok, you make a point that maybe Mangano might look the the other way BUT Gov. Cuomo, Attorney General Schneiderman, and Nassau County DA Rice are Democrats, why would they look the other way?

Because all it would take to shut them up is a small political donation. We're talking state politicians here, it doesn't take $50,000 on the state level. Veolia is a private carrier and expects to turn a profit on their operations. An increase in state funding doesn't mean it will directly go towards tangible service improvements, whatever their PR says. I never said they would siphon money illegally. There will always be loopholes, whether in the law or the contract (those would be there intentionally) to allow them to make an extra buck. They didn't get the extra state funding (while the MTA had $20 million taken from them) for their good service and kind bus drivers.

 

The Designlines we had were pretty good despite the shortcomings of the powertrain. The build quality seemed to be pretty solid on our units.

The disaster they had in Baltimore on a bigger order makes me feel uneasy about them.

LOL, in the end. I hope it's Designline. But these VanHool AG300s, look damm nice...

 

Question: This order for 90 test buses, is it 90 40ft buses or 90 artic. buses. 

Supposed to be 90 40-foot buses, right?

DesignLine is nothing to write home about either. Their build quality is a joke. Even the non-hybrid-powertrain part of their buses for Baltimore was awful. They had frame cracks and HVAC failures. Between MTS being pretty much done, VanHool building toy buses and DesignLine holding their buses together with tape, this 90 bus order is a waste of money. Whoever it goes to, the MTA will get 90 buses that will last as long as a Kardashian wedding.

And DesignLine's website hasn't been updated in 3 years.

Wow, Sleepy Hollow. I've been there just once, and it seemed so far away. I didn't think it Sleepy Hollow was that close to have Manhattan bus service.

Well, White Plains isn't exactly close by either (seriously, it's far as hell), but the BxM4C exists. And the BxM4D was same thing but west.

WHATT!! Dammm ohh PLEASEE let this order be for VanHool! Damm this is hot!

So they can fall apart after one year of service in NYC? Do any of the depots wanna work with that tight mid-engine placement and lopsided axles? And the seating capacity is below what NFI and Nova buses give. But then again, MTS can't even build one working bus, so why not. It's only 90 buses.

Veolia could not reduce service for NICE to reduce costs becuase the parent company lost money, that would violate the contract.  Also if any Nassau, the State, or federal government gave Veolia money meant for the transit system and they decided to reduce the service and pocket the money instead I'm pretty sure whoever made that decision could be brought up on fraud charges.

With all due respect, that's incredibly naive. That would never happen. Maybe 50 years ago it would, but not in 2013, when they have all the politicians in their pocket legally via campaign donations. They'll use every loophole in the contract to pocket as much of the increase in state funding as possible. Mind you, Mangano won't care if they pocket it. That's part of the deal: they donate to him and other NY state politicians in his party, and they get to keep the contract and siphon as much money from the state as they can. He just needs them to keep service decent enough on their budget to where there are no mobs with pitchforks outside his house. Anything else, he couldn't care less about.

 

@Culver: Please, don't be so general. This is a NICE issue because Veolia Europe does put the customer at the first place. So don't go talk about Veolia in general when it's really only a subdivison of 'em screwing some politics up.

 

Btw, Transdev hasn't made as much profit last year as they did the years before. And they're not gonna make profit this year either with their recent takeover of Connexxion lol. So NICE is gonna feel some pain too when it comes to money unless NICE is gonna make profit this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not. I'm sorry if I generalized Veolia as a whole. My post reflects the corporate culture here in America. I'm sure the base company on Europe is committed to providing good service.

Very interesting.  I agree it's about the money, hey that's what politics is right?  Washington is full of lobbyists funding thier M O...

 

I'd be interested to see what other campaigns Veolia (and the other big transportation companies) fund?  Is it only republic because that's their party of choice or "thier man" who will get them into office.

 

Will there be any public question sessions for Suozzi?  I'd love to hear his stance on Veolia and who'd he'd like to see run the transit system in 2017!

 

Culver, would you agree with me in that Veolia provides more service per dollar than the MTA did?

Depends on what Veolia takes home at the end of the day. As far as I can tell based on posts here, Buschat, and news on the matter, Veolia found some efficiencies (running deadheads as in-service to collect fares and use the fuel productively), but also "saves" money by not bothering with maintenance and buses actually showing up (the n22 and n24 are a joke and a half).

I'm not opposed to the concept of private operators (Westchester and Liberty seems to be a great partnership). In Westchester, a local company operates the fleet and does so efficiently and with a high level of service and commitment to the service. Veolia is a big company, and to them this is just another "make sure we make a dime, nothing else matters" operation. They have zero investment in the operation other than $9,790 in campaign donations.Veolia/Nassau is a crappy partnership in that it's purely a political favor back-and-forth. Veolia provides service at levels decent enough to where there are no pitchforks, and in exchange gets to pocket any savings from their budget. They then pass off a tiny percentage of that to politicians' campaigns to make sure they keep that contract. The politicians then reward them by getting them more state funding, which then will inevitably get split between Veolia's profits and campaign donations to those same politicians. In the end, Veolia and the politicians win, and the people using the buses, well nobody seems to have actually thought about them in this whole process. Long term, time will tell if NICE is better or worse than LIB.

EDIT: Would've been nice to see Liberty Lines run Nassau's buses (and Suffolk). That's a private operation everybody would support.

For this campaign. I'll check the previous one, too.

Point stands: I agree with your B option. It's about the money. The MTA wants the Nassau contract, and so does Veolia. Veolia's man won the seat, and they'll invest in Mangano now to keep him in power and make sure they have the best chance possible to get the contract again in 2017. Hell, they got a damn funding increase from the state this year despite their service cuts (while the MTA had $20 million taken from them). That's a thank you from the other state politicians who benefited from their donation to the Nassau County Republican office.

[TOO LATE TO EDIT]

These are all 2008-2013 donations Veolia made in NY State that were publicly disclosed (this doesn't count anonymous regional/party SuperPAC donations).

http://www.elections.ny.gov:8080/plsql_browser/CONTRIBUTORB_NAME?LAST_NAME_IN=&NAME_IN=Veolia&position_IN=ANYWHERE&date_from=01%2F01%2F2008&date_to=02%2F15%2F2013&AMOUNT_from=1&AMOUNT_to=1000000&ORDERBY_IN=N

What we're looking for is Veolia Transportation, which started donating in 2012 after they got the contract. A nice thank you from them to Mangano; and then they got more state funding in return in 2013 (which will make their bottom line look nice when their service additions just end up scheduled buses actually showing up).

For this campaign or the last campaign?

For this campaign. I'll check the previous one, too.

Point stands: I agree with your B option. It's about the money. The MTA wants the Nassau contract, and so does Veolia. Veolia's man won the seat, and they'll invest in Mangano now to keep him in power and make sure they have the best chance possible to get the contract again in 2017. Hell, they got a damn funding increase from the state this year despite their service cuts (while the MTA had $20 million taken from them). That's a thank you from the other state politicians who benefited from their donation to the Nassau County Republican office.

It's interesting, I've been doing some googling and interesting reading tonight.  Google Suozzi's name, look at who he associates with and then google them.  Yes PinePower, you are right there was some "funding issues" from the County's end, starting with Suozzi decreasing the County's funding to the MTA (hmm maybe it was a common theme, even a friend of the MTA seems to have gotten sick of the MTA's greed and bloated budget).

 

Under Suozzi Helena Williams was the Deputy County Executive..  Williams began working with the MTA in 1985, she served as "labor counsel" and "chief of staff" at MTA Long Island Bus before becoming President od Long Island Bus in 1993.

 

Helena Williams is President of the Long Island Rail Road (since 2006).

 

Suozzi unsuccesfully  ran for Govenor of NY in 2006 and wikipedia says "Suozzi's campaign was funded largely by big business, in the form of Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, former NYSE CEO Richard Grasso, David Mack of the MTA, and many individuals on Wall Street who had been investigated and prosecuted by Eliot Spitzer."

 

David Mack was a Vice Chair of the MTA from 1993 before resigning in 2009.

 

Now we see Suozzi's "associates."  Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?  I can't wait to see where the election funds come from!

 

Either A)  Suozzi is not influenced by his "associates" with MTA backgrounds and (after already being frustrated with the MTA) Suozzi will see the value in NICE and fund NICE adequately and the county will have a nice transit system ran with proper funding.

 

Or B) (the more likely option)  Money talks and the MTA wants MTA Long Island bus back (or at least big wigs tied to the MTA).  Lets face it without the MTA LIB there are a few less high ranking MTA jobs out there that there "associates" could be holding!

 

Suozzi's "associates" figured they should get an MTA LIB guy  in office and get the MTA back in Nassau.  If Suozzi were to win, he'd be in office until 2018 and the first 5 year term of the Nassau County contract with Veolia ends 12/31/2016...HMMM...

 

We'll have to wait a little longer and follow the bouncing ball to see what is going on.

And Veolia donated $9,790 to Mangano and the Nassau County Republican office. They didn't get that contract on merit. Money makes the world go round.

 

To be fair, the Van Hool AGG300 needs a little more space when making turns because they swoop a little to the side. And I know because I've seen it happen when commuting in AGG300's lots of times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably wouldn't be an issue on the wider streets in Manhattan, but I don't think some Brooklyn routes like the B44 would have the space.

Is it possible for NYC to have double artics?

Ask the MTA and its engineers. Depends on turn radii, no?

How does the Vanhool AGG300 make turns like that when its a double artic?

Same as single-artics

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I was actually surprised that they do, since this propulsion isn't manufactured anymore!!

I'm quite disappointed they didn't go with an all-new propulsion system. The MITRAC they had on the R142A on / is ass. Bucking galore every time the damn things accelerate.

I'm gonna make this B102 LTD thing work eventually.

Latest "throw shit against the wall" attempt:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202807188220210378870.0004d4388451eefa3aee9&msa=0&ll=40.651732,-73.886833&spn=0.078533,0.154324

Aww its soo sad to see these RTS go. 

Hey, the last years of RTS buses were pretty nice; 4902-5249 will always be cool to me.

i know i was suggesting  to try to combat an issue but whatever works for them and i agree people need to read 

Really not necessary IMO... The signage is bright enough these days on the new buses... People just need to stop being so damn lazy and READ! 

People do need to read. Still, multi-color signs would be nice. Have everything display in the usual amber, but have LIMITED appear in violet.

Any further feedback?

The 10/16 seems to work well, and I like the west-of-Kings Highway station portion of the 5.

And just to think that they are pretty soon going to redo the platform edge Strip at Ditmas... this would be a perfect time to do it, why not do it now? 

nope, instead the ol' MTA logic kicks in, trains will most likely switch after Av X, switch back after 18, then switch again after Ditmas.

At least trains might be flying into 18 Av...

I guess they really need to make sure to stop at Ditmas...even though it has express stops before and after it. Switching tracks for one stop.

I kinda want nuts with this one.....

LOL

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202807188220210378870.0004d242f66485e75f751&msa=0&ll=40.700943,-73.850784&spn=0.313898,0.617294

Can someone explain to me the fascination with Linden Blvd and bus routes in Brooklyn? I lived on or near Linden Blvd in Flatbush and East New York and I've personally never seen the need for such a route. In Flatbush the B35 and B12 bracket the street until Albany Ave where the B35 takes over. On the ENY end the B15 and B20 provide the coverage going east toward the Conduit. IIRC the B20 used to run on Linden Blvd from Pennsylvania Ave out toward the Conduit/Lindenwood area. I believe it was moved south of Linden Blvd to provide coverage for the housing developments located east of Pennsylvania Ave instead of running on the perimeter of those houses. Perhaps B35 or Brooklyn Bus can help me out here. Before the postal facility and the multiplex were built the only trip generator out there was the housing developments and Times Square Stores which was located on the site of the present multiplex. As far as I can see most of the people out there use the B13, B14, B15, and B20 to reach the IRT or IND stations for the most part. Throw in the fact that Linden Blvd (RT 27) is the major east- west truck route in the southern part of Brooklyn and it can become very congested at times. Why propose a bus route that would use this street for a large part of it's route? I really don't recall too many people making that east-west trip on a regular basis to justify such a route, especially since there's now an option to connect to the B6 to make the same trip. Just curious. Carry on.

Not a fascination. Just trying to find out if there would be any demand.

Planned Service Changes for: Saturday, February 16, 2013

 

 

Smith-9 Sts Station is closed for rehabilitation

 

 

 

Jamaica-bound trains run express from Avenue X to 18 Av

 

 

 

Coney Island-bound trains run via the from Roosevelt Av to 47-50 Sts

 

 

 

Jamaica-bound trains run express from Church Av to Jay St-MetroTech

Might as well skip Ditmas. Changing two switch positions (even if they will be in that position all weekend) to stop at Ditmas as is.

There's gonna be a lot of F.I.N.D. and announcement fail on the R160s on the this weekend, to say the least.

Re-did my B102 LTD to be more of a B103 LTD type route.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202807188220210378870.0004d4388451eefa3aee9&msa=0&ll=40.671785,-73.92889&spn=0.078509,0.154324

I didn't know that. I knew that Manhattanville was also rumored to be a CNG depot but that was squashed by "The NIMBYs".

 

***Sorry. Did not mean to go off topic here.***

Off-topic: NIMBYs truly are morons. One of the selling points of CNG is less emissions.

On-topic: Any idea when the FR/SC/JFK swapping business will be all done and assignments back to pre-Sandy terms?