MTA Orion Bus

I heard 1636, the John Deere bus, was scrapped.  Sad.  The next bus, 1637, is still running strong as I saw it on the n4 earlier.

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/topic/48741-more-nice-buses-gone-including-1636/

So today, I took the 8:48am N1 from Hewlett to Jamaica and right after our bus pass CIP, I saw a group of passengers and a bus driver flagging down our bus(N1). The bus driver on the N6 told the passengers to get on the N1 because their bus broke down. It was an XN40 #1936.

It's alright guys, don't worry. The XN40's might be less than 5 months old and breaking down already, but we have free money and we're going to spend it to run more empty buses on routes little amounts of people care about. - NICE, 2016

I'd download that zip but that means having more of he-who-must-not-be-named's crap on my hard drive.

Piney is somewhere crying right now because he doesn't have everyone's attention.

For Tom Meadow, here's the surprise. We all know PinePowerLI reads this forum, takes information from it, then passes it off in his YouTube videos as his own. Well here's payback, a dump of his hacked and then deleted Photobucket. Keep up the nonsense John, you have been warned: http://www.mediafire.com/download/n565h80e88g1v5e/Btraindash_183320a.zip

40+ downloads and counting. Glad people like the upload. Also, for Tom, no complaints = no virus.

Just thinking out loud:

 

The NICE fleet is CNG -- good for the environment (some say), better cost-wise than those nasty fossil-fuel (diesel) hogs tooling down the road (according to various sources), and IIRC has been that way since Veolia/Transdev started running the joint.

 

So where have all those cost-savings (notably from being more "efficient" and in fuel price volatility) gone over the years, if service cuts are always lurking on the horizon?

 

And then there's that extra $15 million Transdev just got over and above their yearly contracted base as well.

 

Hmmmm.

You're perfectly right to be suspicious. For example, I remember reading about not only NICE saying they saved so much on a new fuel contract that they attributed the ability to do so many things with. But, they also stated the first year they were in service that they made close to half a million dollars on auctioning off used buses when the first batch only sold for up to a couple thousand dollars a bus, no where close to that number when you add them up. Of course, when the announcement was made, there wasn't much proof anymore since Auctions International hides their sold listings after a month or two.

Are there any Orions from Long Island Bus still in-tact at Eastchester?

What is this drama bullshit? I come here to see news about anything-MTA and this is going on. First, if you post on Facebook and don't believe in using your privacy settings, I believe it's fair game to post that stuff here. It's an open internet, and the rules don't say anything about Facebook here. I've posted plenty of stuff from Facebook here. Second, whatever is going on with the staff, if you don't want to operate this site anymore, just leave the staff and have Harry close it. There are possible alternatives like Subchat, and someone could just open up a fresh new forum and people will find it. I find it ridicoulous how someone on the staff here de-rails an entire thread that used to update fleet info to bring this drama in when you could have just opened up a new thread or something. If this is going to continue, I could care less what happens to this place. It doesn't matter to me whether or not I share what I have with other members here. I lurked this place for a couple of years, and now that I'm posting here off and on, this stuff happens. It took me months to get something fixed from the staff when I had a problem with my account, and one of the staff members on here gave me an attitude when I asked a couple of questions because he thinks he owns the place and feels all high and mighty with internet power. I haven't done anything to piss anyone off here(except maybe PinePowerLI, but I could care less about him), but reading about this garbage is preposterous.

Lol, someone got banned real quick!

 

Anyways, IDK where he got that some routes are coming back next pick. It was never mentioned, at least to my understanding.

Someone? I exposed him in the NICE thread he created. Because he supports PinePowerLI, I will not be answering his questions.

Anyone interested in a bunch of cab rides on the LIRR? I happened upon this today. They're a bit old with no sound, but still worth a glance:

https://www.youtube.com/user/henryjpridejr/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd

Here's a photo taken from the dump I posted on the previous page of the thread here. If you download it, you can see the photo was taken January 2, 2008. Anyone remember these:

For Tom Meadow, here's the surprise. We all know PinePowerLI reads this forum, takes information from it, then passes it off in his YouTube videos as his own. Well here's payback, a dump of his hacked and then deleted Photobucket. Keep up the nonsense John, you have been warned: http://www.mediafire.com/download/n565h80e88g1v5e/Btraindash_183320a.zip

Really LIBRU, posting notices about the possible reinstatement of some NICE routes on the elevators at Mineola?

(there were some other places I saw those notices placed at also.... On the windshield of a parked all island taxicab was cute, I'll admit)

 

I'll also admit, I chuckled at one of the Chaminade kids that flat out spit on that damn thing yesterday....

(the one that [was] posted along the glass along the overpass)....

 

Reading the grammar of that thing, I'd say 10 bucks those were the words of Yuki......

How do y'all expect to be taken seriously when....

 

Y'know what... never mind....

We just refer to all of this as "the plague."

@Tom Meadow I found PinePower's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000453775519

And I have another surprise coming soon.

The thing is that NICE does have a point in that the n20 was very delay-prone due to its length. Somebody waiting at say, the Americana Manhasset trying to get to Hicksville has to deal with a bus coming all the way from Flushing, with all the traffic and crowding that has potential to hold up the bus.

 

And the n21/27 use 4 buses combined during off-peak hours, as opposed to 3 buses to run the n27 alone. Plus, the n21 replaces a lot of those n20 short-turns to Roslyn, so your proposal wouldn't really save any money.

 

I do agree that the LIBRU is full of crap. They just go on about trying to maintain every single route, regardless of whether it is near other routes or has very little ridership, while in the meantime, there's densely populated areas of Nassau County with no NICE service. (And then they complain about the location of the meetings instead of why it's necessary to have those meetings in the first place) 

There had to be some money saved by cutting back the n21 or else NICE wouldn't have tried to do it in the first place. Between those buses running empty between Glen Cove and Roslyn, or the consistent dead-heads I see running the entire n20 route or taking the LIE from Queens all the way to Glen Cove Rd, there's just so much money being blown.

They. Should reinstate the n20 Flushin- Hicksville and havr it run hourly andthe n20 to Great Neck every 1/2 hour. ..also the n20 Flushin- Hicksville wouldSKIP the great. Neck loop and go straight down northern blvd(minor ddetour in Roslyn) ...also have a 1/2 hourly n20 from Great Neck-Hicksville

 

N21 should keep its currentroute. Unless is the people who decide the futuree of the n21

I got an idea. How about the n20 just be reinstated to it's original setup, and the n21 go back to being rush hours only. Oh no, we can't do that because of LIBRU's whining.

Why was the n20 extended to Hicksville LIRR in the first place?

To transport all the hicks.

How many times are some of you going to ask whether or not the n20G/H split has been a success? Untl some official statistics come out (preferably from someone other than NICE since I believe many of their statistics are as truthful as what the county spews out), it's purely opinion so just read the last few pages of posts in this thread or even the last pages of the threads in this section and it'll tell you. I mean, come on guys.

You mean cut the buses back from LIRR Great Neck? Wouldn't work, since you lose the connection to the LIRR itself, as well as to the n57/58 (and the shopping/residential district around the station). And where would you turn them around if not the LIRR station?

It's NICE. Let them walk. Where to turn around? Have the buses turn around in that diner's parking lot or one of the 3 gas stations. Given the professionalism of NICE drivers, I'm sure they could all manuever the turn.

1) I don't think FamousNYLover's video proved anything about either argument of the n20G/H change. It was probably the shakiest video I've ever seen as well.

2) I stand by the n20G/H still not being a good idea. Yes, you can save time if the connections match up transferring at Northern Blvd & Middle Neck Rd as opposed as going all the way to the train station. That's if the buses happen to be entering the intersection at the same or close to the same time and you can cross the street. You could have done that with the old NICE n20 as well since nothing ever ran on time during prime hours anyway. Otherwise, take into consideration the percentage of breakdowns, the time lost by consistent traffic lights, and the overall history of NICE, and this is still doomed to fail.

Lol, how do you know my name? I don't believe I've mentioned it to you before.

I've read through a lot of old threads here and happened to see it in a mention of some old Suffolk Transit website somewhere that took it from your Photobucket.

Can we move everything to the Random Thoughts Thread of Suffolk Transit now?

The past 3 pages are the SCT Random Thoughts Thread...

Oh good, I'm not the only one who noticed. Between this and Jose's uploads of old bus schedules being passed between sections, it seems there's a little bit of an unorganizational schema around here.

I know everyone hates wikipedia(because anyone can edit) but according to the site, 1008, 1015 and 1019 are retired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassau_Inter-County_Express

Most of the people who edit that page are either members on here or members who have been banned from here (ie. A lot of the information that gets on there is sourced from members here). I don't edit Wikipedia myself.

I passed by the depot, it has scrap rims on it and 1672 is stripped, there's a good amount of early 1600's that are retired with a CNG door open

I guess Tom and/or I will be on the lookout for the auctions.

1019 retired

Says who? Proof?

Saw 2 NICE Orion Vs being towed on the westbound LIE around exit 29 today. Anyone know where they were headed?

That is interesting. Because if they were heading east out of Nassau County, they would most likely be going to the Diesel facility in Ronkonkoma like Joel said. If they were heading into south Nassau being towed on a different road, they could have just been scrapped and were going to Cedar Creek to be auctioned off. Did you catch the numbers? There was a set of buses just auctioned off and sold in January, so maybe the buyer was finally towing some of them out? Not entirely sure.

There's a Detroit Diesel facility in Ronkonkoma, but what would they do for now 13 year old buses?

He said being towed on the westbound LIE at exit 29 which would mean they were in Queens heading into the city. That's assuming it really was westbound.

All New Flyer buses have been delivered, and are on the road.

Out of curiosity, has anyone asked any SCT drivers who frequently do the S20 what they think of the change?

I'm still for not bringing back any route and putting the money towards maintenance of the buses and fixing what's broken on them.

Here's the announcement video:

Also, you're welcome for posting the entire news article instead of just a snippet as well.