Hound

It ispossible that the n31 was created circa 1990s to ease the passenger congestion. ..then again the n31 is continuous with the n32 except for a brief segment in cedar hurst where the twin buses seperate. ..normally the n31 ease up users heading to the northern sections of cedar hurst and on weekdays

 

The Hempstead extension might came up as well when the n31 was created to accommodate users heading from the rockaways to Hempstead or it might be that the n32 is a consolidated route as lynbrook is the midway point for the n32 and the famous 5 corners is a popular transfer point

The N31 always existed,at least from Lynbrook. The only difference was that it was once designated N32W while the 32 was N32C. The Hempstead extension replaced what was part of the old N36 that ran bet. Hempstead & Baldwin via Lynbrook.

I remember when I took the N4 from Freeport to Jamaica a few weeks ago, the bus driver was talking on the radio and the bus had made a detour and made a left turn from Merrick Rd and drove on Sunrise Highway between Peninsula Blvd & Horton Av. I guess there was an accident.

That's the regular detour when the village of Lynbrook has a parade.

The new buses come from Alamama...  Were you able to get a pic?

Never heard of Alamama. Is that a new country?

Is there a problem with 1899?  I hear it's at NEBR's Deer Park location...

Yeah-I heard the passenger ejector-seat function is not working.

Do you remember the last time the small factory building by Lynbrook station was open, right beside where the Great Neck-bound N25s start their trip?

Yeah-1925

Hound, did you ever drive any routes out of RVC?

Drove every one & every LIRR route.

"Long Island's NICE bus service isn't well received by its resident commuters, but those commuters are left with no other option but the NICE service."

 

 

Fact is-plain & simple-NICE sucks.

It's insulting to think about.  $2.75 to cram yourself onto a 40 ton bus with 40 other people onboard just to go almost three times as slow as just about every other car moving by.  If you live along and only need one line, it's not that bad, but having to take one bus for almost 50 minutes just to transfer to another (like I had to do for almost 3 years) is just godawful.  There's no other word for it.

40 tons? lol

So today, I decided to take the N32 to Hempstead Transit Center, which took me an hour and then I catch the N6 to Hillside Av/179 st . I did miss the N6x when the N32 was approaching the transit center. First time taking the N6 and it started to get crowded before reaching Belmont Race Track and after that, it just got really crowded. I can't believe Chuck E. Cheese's at The Hub is still there. It's been like nearly 10 years since I last went there, plus I used to go there on my b-day. Now I'm still surprise they have the old Long Island Bus route sign near Wavecrest Shopping Center, I would of thought it will be replace with the newer one by now.  Also, along Francis Lewis Blvd and Hillside Av going towards 165th Street Bus Terminal, whenever the bus drop off passengers at a bus stop, I don't see any bus signs for that route other than bus sign routes.

Why should NICE have any markings on w/b stops in Queens when they don't pick up there?

Does anyone here work for NICE?

NICE sucks.

Are nice buses really that bad shape? ( mechanic wise ) they seem to operate fine too me. I say leave the buses alone just keep

Running them back & forth & see what happenes.

NICE sucks.

Wow!  You should write the Bus Rider's Guide to Being a Scumbag!  Although, no one would buy it because they'd have to chose between buying the book or (everyone say it with me) FOOD!

 

 

NICE loses a lot of money to the Metrocard.  You're probably right that it's probably a pain in the ass to collect the coins and maintain the farboxex (that they don't even own they lease from the . I guess the mobile app would probably be their best bet (though, I don't know what related fees NICE must pay).

 

 

Sadly, this is the only post he's made here that actually enlightened me on something.

 

 

Where do they send them out?  It sucks for the mechanics but if you can get the work done cheaper outside, oh well...  Unions are sucking the Island dry and costing people jobs!

 

Hound, are the laid off Mechanics offered driver positions like they were when NICE first started?

NO

So if you don't cut bus service or maintenance, what else is there to cut?

They just laid off a bunch of mechanics. Almost no repairs being done in-house anymore.

How is nice bus in a horrid state now? i think nice bus is just fine.

How is nice bus in a horrid state now? i think nice bus is just fine.

 

How is nice bus in a horrid state now? i think nice bus is just fine.

How is nice bus in a horrid state now? i think nice bus is just fine.

Might have something to do with nearly most of the NICE routes sharing the same terminal, making it easy to interline some routes.

The main problem with their interlining is most of the runs have insufficient or unrealistic time bet. lines. This is why some trips start & run late on a different line after drivers arrive late on the line they're changing from.

I was on N20 Sunday afternoon & we we're stopped at the red light on northern &

Bell, so Q31 bus passengers got off the bus ran into the street clearly with there hands up & waving to the driver to pull into the bus stop & wait so they can board, the driver clearly sees this, what does he do? He kept going & stranded these 2 passengers, I told

The driver what happened to your professionalism & customer service attitude? It's clearly in the toilet, this driver didn't budge he didn't even say a word, I felt like a robot was driving us, I asked for his id/badge number & again no response, this driver had no heart, I said that could have been your mother & grandmother you left stranded, again no response, what nice is lacking is professional bus drivers that open the door with a smile & greet you with a hello, we need more friendly drivers, how long can nice let this go on, does nice have any clue what is going on?

NICE sucks & it's drivers don't care because they know NICE sucks.

Google Brettnyc, he used to have a website and youtube channel...

 

He can't fix the n20 because he doesn't work for...  I like to watch all these medical drama's on tv but that doesn't mean I have the skills to perform surgery.  

 

 

Right, one thing we've learned that any change (even for the better) confuses the hell out of the average NICE rider and refuse to use it...

 

NICE is very active in social media but if you think about the average rider is clueless when it comes to social media and to them NICE seems very silent and just springs changes they are not expecting on them.

NICE sucks

The buses are more dirty more than ever, does nice bus have people clean the buses at night? The buses have garbage on the floor, fast food wrappers and bags and soda cups, I even seen beer bottles and cans in the back. These buses need to be sweep clean every day. What am I paying $ 2.75 for?

NICE sucks.

Well for one operating expenses... The unions will say that they have nothing to do with costs going up, but their pay increases and expensive overall packages don't help. You also have bloated overhead from the having too many "senior project managers", office staff and the like earning $90,000 - 100,000+ a year.  I've worked in the offices for two summers when I was in high school, and the workload that some of those guys had was a joke. One guy seemed to be on vacation more than he was in the office, and we're talking about during the course of the ENTIRE summer.  I don't think much has changed. I think the would argue that they need to hire the best talent, and to do that you need incentives to draw in that talent like good benefits (i.e. vacation and salary package, etc).  I get that, but all of that costs money that they DON'T have in the first place and when you don't have money, you don't spend what you don't have.  Their employees need to make sacrifices and the only way that happens is if the takes that stance that when the budget is tight, they have to operate in a more fiscally sound manner and make cuts as well.  They can still offer perks and cut back here and there to keep costs down. They also need to track overtime better.  Still too much overtime going around. If it costs more with fewer staff, that means it makes more sense to hire more staff so that you don't pay out so much in overtime. This isn't rocket science here.  It's simple Math.

 

Don't get me wrong, I benefited as well working for them (received a free Metrocard to commute to and from work and had Friday's off), but there is still a TON of fat that needs to be cut.  Instead they focus on squeezing the riders and cutting bus service, which does nothing but deters ridership.  Additionally, there still needs to be more crackdowns on farebeaters.  It was in the news in the past and temporary crackdowns were enforced, but that needs to be ramped up and done on a consistent basis. Too few riders paying and the ones that are see higher fares to cover for the ones not paying.

You couldn't be more right about the farebeating. When I was in the Broad St. station in lower Manhattan a few weeks ago, I witnessed people flagrantly just walking through the emergency exit gate while a waiting passenger stood there holding the gate open. In the approx. 5 minutes while I was there,at least 15 people did this. Keep in mind-this was at one entrance at just one station. Imagine how much of this goes on in all 468 stations all day & night.

N22A to Hicksville? That's new. I wonder if that's solely because not running it would leave a gap in the corresponding direction. And it doesn't even start at 165th?

There was 1 or 2 N22A's to Hicksville for a time under LIB's operation.

 

 

Will the beers cost as much as the airlines? Sounds like a good funding opportunity for NICE. lol

 

    

 

They've already help up, what, 10-12 years? Then again I don't know what type of ridership foothill had or if those seats had to be repaired/replaced?

 

  

 

You either can't put a sentence together or don't know whet your talking about, probably both. First, it's not like NICE is some company that can't "get their act together" they do what they can with what they are given (string budget, crappy equipment). Next, your sentence suggests THEY (NICE) let the walk away. NICE/Veolia/Transdev had nothing to do with the leaving, depending on who you ask the walked away because Nassau wouldn't pay "their fair share" or Nassaw gave the their walking papers over the a crazy amount of money fir little in return or the would reduce LIB service to a "skeleton system" (the 's words). Next, I don't think any person in the DECISION to bring in NICE regrets it, the County is paying a lot less than the , the full system is pretty much in tact, and Veolia/Transdev has proven they can do more per dollar (and with less money) than the can.

 

   

 

....and how quickly you forget that service would be worse with the MTA back.

 

I wish the MTA would come back so I could sit here and laugh at all that forgot too quickly that the MTA is not the answer!

 

 

 

What cab company does he own?

 

I. Mean this stuff goes on everywhere. One of the airports for Chicago is in a town outside of Chicago where the mayor will only allow one company to operate cab service. So yea, only ONE company is allowed to pick up at O'haire, the brother in law of the Mayor happens to own that cab company.

 

 

Besides proper funding and new buses?

NICE sucks.

My guess is because that part of Riverside Drive is very exclusive and wealthy. If you're living on Riverside Drive you're usually trying to show how wealthy you are and keep up appearances, which certainly does NOT include taking the M86.  Now don't get me wrong, you have the Madison Avenue types that use the local buses mainly because they want to appear to be amongst the common folks, but it's kind of like having a bus running on Park Avenue in the exclusive Upper East Side... Not happening.  My boss has a penthouse on the Upper East Side and takes the local bus along Madison and 5th, mainly to fit in and because parking would be too much of a hassle.

The M79 goes to Riverside Dr. Is that a less affluent area?

The county executive and probably the commissioners too have no regrets and probably get lots of money from Veolia. Only the regular guy who has to deal with their sh*t service wants the MTA back and the pols couldn't give a damn.

Also,Mangano making more money from the cab service that he owns,due to people giving up waiting for shitty NICE Bus service.

Not sure if mentioned or shown before, but this is the latest from the M86 SBS:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/downloads/pdf/2014-10-14-brt-86thstreet-cb7-presentation.pdf

Why doesn't the M86 go all the way to Riverside Dr instead of West End ave?

They actually got suburban seat buses? Those are gonna go to hell quick...

 

But maybe this could be NICE trying to set up some kind of actual express bus service?

Right-I also heard they plan on having hostess service,serving coffee & donuts.

4602 (FB) is at the Metro-North crash site in Vahalla.

Was it one of the buses that made the trip with 4630 to (GH) during the snowstorm on Monday.

Does anyone know how many MTA buses & from what depots were used on the MNRR bustitution?

you suck too. Broken record. There is a reason why I avoid absurdly long routes like n22&4. But admittedly the crap with n6x & n27/23 fiasco did hurt ridership considerably.

OTP huh at least it's on-time every time I use it lol then again that happens to me a lot in general not just NICE.

NICE sucks.