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Burrstone

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Posts posted by Burrstone

  1. From the image in the post above (https://www.flickr.com/photos/114577165@N06/31406339881/) the n88 has a $6.55/rider subsidy.

     

    "n19 Freeport  Babylon"?  When did the n19 start going to Babylon again?

     

    1965 is an XN40 smh... Looks like an able ride vehicle just stretched out. It looks nice.

     

    Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

     

    I agree, I love the livery!  I've been waiting and hoping a long time they'd switch the blue and orange (I even mentioned it here), the old mostly orange livery was getting kinda stale (and if they order all buses like this it will be easy to spot new buses).

  2. Gotcha. It's just sad and depressing what the Nassau bus network is facing. Honest opinion, if the right people were running Nassau county. The (MTA) would be fully invested.

     

    Yes, Nassau not wanting to properly fund it's system is the problem but the (MTA) is not the answer they charge more than Transdev and are able to offer less service for it.

     

    It's sad to see "low ridership" routes on the chopping block, public transit isn't meant to fund itself, if this was the case NY and federal governments would give zero funding to Nassau and Suffolk transportation and give it all to higher ridership routes in the city. 

     

    During times like this I think the transit systems should "take from from the rich and give to the poor" and take a bus or two from a busy line and put it on a low ridership route.  There is no reason a bus should run every ten minutes in Brooklyn while someone in Nassau or Suffolk has to walk miles in the freezing cold or pay $100/week to take a cab if they want to keep their job.  Shouldn't we take one of those buses an hour and put it on a line that is on the chopping block for NICE or SCT?  I know I know, they are separate systems but I think you see the bigger picture I am talking about.

  3. Also, ridership was not the only issue, but also the budget. NICE couldn't keep subsidizing rides for people who live in Suffolk. A lot of people riding the n19 east of Sunrise rode it within Suffolk County. Nassau has no right to provide service for them, even though the setup was like that for the past 40+ years. It's Suffolk's responsibility to operate that service at this point. Yes, there are people that get screwed over, but that should be more of an issue that should be brought up to NICE rather than being selfish about it. This "If I can't have it, neither can you" mentality is detrimental for all sorts of progress. I have never seen much ridership on the Carman Mill Rd section of the route (neither the Unqua Road portion, but I digress), but perhaps the n19 can be reroute unto Unqua Road in the northbound direction (since it would take longer going southbound for NICE to serve Unqua Road), thus maintaining some sort of coverage for those folks.

     

    This is the point you are missing and my point with your argument. No, NICE has no obligation to people who live in Suffolk.  We should actually say any obligation to offer service in Suffolk County.  You get lost with ridership (again, the reason given wasn't "ridership and" as you keep defaulting too) in your first paragraph then you contradict yourself saying NICE is under no obligation to service an area outside of Nassau but you think there should be a double standard on the other side of the county line because of ridership?  Can you show me that all buses being sent into queens are breaking even?

     

    You can't argue this one with me, I mean you can and lose, my point is solid.  Ridership is not the point, if you want to continue to argue something besides the point I can argue tat too, but I'm busy, lets make it quick.

  4. You're affecting a lot more riders (and cause a much larger drop in ridership) with any proposal entailing cutting a NICE bus back to the City Line, compared to cutting the n19 back to Sunrise Mall. 

     

    I don't care about ridership, if ridership is the issue than NICE should focus on Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan express routes.  The reason given to not restore the n19 to Babylon was not ridership it was because another service provider provided service along the same route.  Under this same theory routes to/from queens must be axed at the county line/next nearest transfer point. 

     

    Ironically Suffolk County cares so they rerouted the S20 offering service every 90 minutes via Montauk Highway.  NICE uses Unqua Rd, to get to/from the mall, SCT uses Broadway/W. Oak St in Amityville to get to Sunrise Mall so NICE really screwed over a large group of mentally retarded people living on Carman Mill Rd., many of whom have physical disabilities and cannot make the over half mile walk to/from the bus stop at Merrick/Unqua.

  5. IMO the n4 should be cut at hook creek blvd or rerouted to and cut at green acres mall if nice refuses to restore the n19 to babylon.  I mean the reason given to not restore service along montauk highway to babylon is that it it is outside of nassau county and another agency (sct) provides service along montauk highway (S20, ever 90 minutes).  The n4 passengers leaving nassau county can take the Q5 from hook creek blvd or green acres following the same route another agency ( MTA ).  What's fair is fair, actually it's more than fair for the n4 rider compared to the n19 rider waiting up to 10 minutes for the Q5 as opposed to up to an hour an a half for the S20 if it's on time.

  6. So these are the NEW buses that will be running on the very NEW Rockville Centre and the NEW Mercy Medical Center shuttles. Or the n14 and n17. Very sneaky of them, because clearly, they are not new services.

     

    The Rockville Community Shuttle

    This is a new service designed to serve the heart of Rockville Centre. The area will be serviced by a NEW 30 foot vehicle and will run in a loop formation. The shuttle will run peak weekday service: Buses will run approximately every 20 minutes from 6-9 am, and from 3:30 pm – 7 pm Monday thru Friday.  The shuttle will service central RVC along Lakeview Ave, Maple Ave, Brower Ave, and N. Long Beach Road.

     

    Mercy Medical Center Community Shuttle This is a new service designed to connect Mercy Medical Center with Hempstead and Rockville Centre. We have worked with Mercy to develop the best schedule for both hospital staff and patients. The area will be serviced by a 30 foot vehicle and will run in a loop formation. The shuttle will run peak weekday service:  Buses will run approximately every 40 minutes from 6 am – 9 am and 3 pm – 7 pm Monday thru Friday.  Buses will travel to/from Rockville Centre LIRR and Hempstead Transit Center along Peninsula Blvd and Hempstead Avenue, making stops at Mercy Hospital.

     

     

    shuttle-1.png

     

    I was hoping for MiDi's, oh well...

  7. What it all really boils down to, AGAIN, is that Nassau refuses to properly fund NICE bus and give those in the community who need it a ride.  NICE has a $7 million shortfall, the county has a $45 million dollar surplus and only gives NICE $3 million less than half the shortfall to run at a minimum.  What else are they doing with this surplus?  Instead they'd rather see the elderly and mentally handicapped walk 2-3 miles each day.  It makes me sick!

  8. http://nicebus.com/Passenger-Information/Schedule-Changes.aspx                                                                                                                      Restoration hidden inside NICE bus website

     

    Thanks for the link, I searched and searched last week, couldn't find anything...

     

    It sucks they will not restore the n19.  I rode it a few times just to check it out and feel bad fir anyone who has to travel between the mall and Montauk HWY.  For starters the service has 90 minute headways and they don't follow the schedule.  IMO someone would have to be retired or collecting SSDI having to go to the doctor or shopping once and a while.  If some who had a job used it they'd probably lose their job unless they have a very understanding boss .

     

    NICE did leave a bunch elderly and mentally handicapped on Carman Mill Road stranded.  I know a lot of them go to a day program in Freeport.  The s20 service goes no where near it and it is in Nassau County.  If the LIBRU was worth anything they'd rent a van or work with these people's counselors to get them to the next NICE meeting so their voices can be heard.

  9. Any word on the eliminated portion of the n19?  No word in the recent announcement while the fate other routes have been revealed.  When the plans were made to eliminate routes there were no signs at stops informing riders of the elimination (or what portion).  Only a sign at Freeport.   I hear many disabled residents living in an apartment on Carmen's road think they may have intentionally been left in the dark so they wouldn't know to go to the meeting and object.  I'm starting to think they were right. 

  10. New buses have to be broken in.  The NGs had the exact same issue... but NICE's track record (as a whole!) doesn't help at all.

      

    Hmmmm ... interesting.

     

    So, all these truck/commercial buyers should expect their new vehicles to suffer breakdowns:  Wrecker drivers, semi-tractors, the electric/phone/cable companies with cherry pickers, UPS' custom designed vehicles, FedEx cube vans, and even the charter/tour bus operators.  Buses that run close to $500,000 each (by the time they really actually reach full revenue service), and the transit agencies that buy them, yep, gotta expect that.  Somehow I don't think the electric company with their specially-equipped, cherry pickers/cargo work trucks are going to want their close to $500,000 investment to breakdown as part of being "broken in."

     

    Then again, since transit agencies don't really run as a traditional business (i.e. listen to customers and any downtime equals customer/income loss), that thinking seems legit.

    Yes, I've delivered MANY vehicles and to answer your question new vehicles break down all the time. New coach buses break down, UPS brown boxes, new Volvo tractors all break down during delivery. I can't really comment on stats for after delivery but I've seen enough vehicles back at dealerships of all time to support test that they do. New engines do need to be "broken in" as well, I'm not an engineer so I'm not even going to attempt to change it. A new vehicle breaking down is not unrealistic, that's why manufactures offer warranties and fix these these vehicles for free. It would only be unrealistic. If the problems weren't fixed by the manufacturer.

  11. The mall's a ridership generator, so it has to be served -

     

    It's really not, not since Walmart left....

     

     

     - are you saying they should've routed it up County Line Road and across Louden St instead?

     

    While a better route to the mall than it takes now I'm saying it should take Clocks Blvd or County Line Rd to Oak St and into the Amityville RR.  There are links to more transportation there and if someone wanted/needed to get to the mall they have many options there to get them to the mall including the n54/55.  OR the should have just eliminate the routing to the mall and back and had the n19 run straight from Freeport/Babylon via Merrick/Montauk...  Almost anything would have been better than what they did...

  12. I look at NICE's layout of the town placement's on the new n19 map and chuckle at the vision of the person laying the placements of the towns who has obviously never been out here. lol

     

    Why did they even put Amityville on the Map?  Just to remind those in Suffolk that the bus no longer goes out there?  lol

     

    I'm also annoyed at Cumo!  Billions announced in "public transportation!' but he allows these cuts to go through? Apparently to him public transportation only means LIRR bringing people who work in Manhattan an easier ride and getting vehicles from Long Island to Westchester County.

  13. I was afraid NICE was going keep the bad routing on the n19 to/from the mall.  Nope, they made it worse!  I didn't even think that was possible.  I've been a big advocate for NICE but boy did they eff this one up.  ....They kept the portion of the route ti the mall where the bus lost the most amount of time and picked up the least amount of passengers.  The riders would have been much better off axing the n19 to Sunrise mall and routing the bus to Amityville RR via either Clocks Blvd. or County Line Rd..  Actually the n19 would have been better just eliminating the Sunrise Mall years ago as it takes about as much time to get to the mall and back to Merrick as it does to get from the Amityvile/Massapequa border to Babylon.  Problem solved! Seriously, have those who decided to terminate the n19 at the Mall and dedcided to keep the messed up routing to/from the mall ever ridden the n19?

     

     

    I don't think it's officially Suffolk's problem as Sunrise Mall falls in Nassau County. 

     

    Suffolk should stand on an equally stupid platform and terminate service to Sunrise, start/stop routes at Amityville, RR and totally screw over all riders on the Nassau Suffolk south shore border.

  14. If I remember correctly that 2009 Study that Suffolk had done suggested having the 3C extended to Hauppauge. 

     

    Actually the 3A and 3B could be turned into one big loop. I mean both it's end points are the same, just when in Bay Shore one ends at the South Shore Mall and the other ends at a Shopping Center or something. So having a bus or two running counter clockwise and one or two going counter clockwise wouldn't be bad. Though that probably wouldn't save money, unless it one bus each way. 

     

    If this is the same study I'm thinking of, there were pretty interesting proposals and some I was pretty excited about seeing.

  15. Because in the contract with Nassau County Veolia/Transdev cannot cut service by more than a small percentage 20-25% I forget the exact number off hand).

     

    There have been a lot of know it all's here since 2011 who are in high school or just barely out of it who think they (surprise) know it all. A lot of the time they don't even have all the data, and have no work experience in transit, they just sit in front of their computer and play transit operator. Mike Setzer (CEO of NICE) has been working in transit, running systems longer than many members here have been alive. No offense, but if Setzer and his team thinks this plan (budget, route cuts, and what is being cut) is the best way to run the system it means a hell of lot more to me than what you or any other member here comes up with.

  16. This, once again, begs a satisfactory answer to one I previously posed:

    If these "commercial" routes are used as infrequently as they are, why hasn't Transdev done something about their operations up to this point? They key idea here is that Transdev is, as they put it, transit experts. They didn't just come on the scene, they've been watching this for years, so changes should have been made already.

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    Veolia/Transdev has a clause in their that they may only cut/adjust service by small percent each year without approval from the transit committee.

     

    To go further into your post it doesn't really serve the community to cut "under used" routes, making them M-F... Not everyone worked only M-F, cutting routes to say weekdays with no weekends and no evenings limits the bus to really just the elderly andthose relieving SSDI, I'd be willing to bet the majority of that segment is already using able ride and not on the transit buses. IF there is data that routes are really under utilized on the weekends, by all means cut it...

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