Burrstone

I wonder if NICE knows their site is being indexed publicly.

What does that mean?

The transfers have the logo on them like this, but I don't think they ever had "Long Island Bus" written on them.

That's right it said "bus transfer" thanks for jogging the memory.

Does NICE still use paper transfer metrocards that say MTA LIB?  I got one in the summer when I forgot to put money on my metrocard and was surprised they were still around.

Damn a Ford Dealer in Rochester, NY gave the lowest bid.  Too bad business couldn't be kept local, with the volume Long Island dealers do they couldn't compete with a dealer in Rochester?

It's getting harder and harder to see:

 

1. Orion Vs

2. NGs that are still in LIB livery

3. Destination signs with a capital "N"

You guys need to go fanning out at Sunrise Mall more often I see at least one of the three on the n19 everyday!

Trading between depots is happening more often now, from what I've seen. I've seen 1800s in the high 30s that were originally sent to RVC on the n20. Those depot stickers mean nothing now.

I was just thinking maybe the trading between depots has to do with the painting of the buses?  A bus is taken to Mitchel Field to be painted and they send whatever Mitchel Field has at the time to replace the bus that was taken ...???

I think the buses look better with a depot sticker on them. But NICE doesn't care what the buses want because they took away the depot stickers.. BAD PEOPLE! Yea,

Do the buses like the depot stickers?  Have you asked them?    lol

I personally like the depot stickers and would like to see them on the bus, but really who looks at the depot stickers?  Employees and bus fans,  Is a depot sticker really a nessasary expense, what else are they good for?  I could see back in the day where a depot sticker was needed to look at a bus and see where it belongs but now a days the people who need this information have it at thier fingertips.

I've noticed that, especially with Newsday, they tend to switch between the names often. NICE at the community meetings has always called it Mitchel Field from what I've seen. For me too, it will always be Mitchel Field.

This is interesting, I think this may be a case of who you talk to.  Someone might think the building is called one thing and another might think another.  I am leaning tihs way now that you mentioned Newsday, someone from around here may call it Mitch Field while someone out of state, let's say from a national PR office may call it another name.

Very interesting though, both good names and both men deserve having the honor.

Brett, do the buses get annoyed when someone calls it the Norman J. Levy Transit Facility?  Do the buses prefer Mitchel Field? 

It really depends where you're looking and what you're talking about. The building itself and the older V CNGs recognize it as the Norman J. Levy Transit Facility because it was originally named after him. The NGs all had Mitchel Field stickers. When the started to consolidate things in Regional Bus Operations, the depot needed a shorter nickname to recognize its location, so they decided to use Mitchel Field because of the air field close by.

Brett, I know, I'm talking recently.  Have you noticed this as well?

Operations, the depot needed a shorter nickname to recognize its location, so they decided to use Mitchel Field because of the air field close by.

The odd thing is Levy is shorter and easier to say than Mitchel Field.  For many drivers it wll always be Michel Field...

Whenever I hear nice talk about Mitchel Field it seems the refer to it as the Norman J. Levy Transit Facility in news and press releases.

Speaking of Mitchel Field it seems Veolia (or Nassau) has made a decison to again call Mitchel Field the Norman J. Levy Transit Facility.

I guess it's all about what depot is close enough to say #1624 on the deading from the N33?

It has nothing to do with that or (for example) every bus that originates or terminates in Freeport on any line would be a Rockville Centre bus.  Rockville Centre is a lot smaller than Mitchel Field and cannot handle a large capacity of buses or drivers.

I'm surprised they still have depot stickers on the buses...

Usual deadhead I see, to/from Flushing to Nassau County. This particular bus was heading to Nassau at about 12:30 pm.

I still wonder why they still deadhead buses from Queens, seems like such a waste of money, I thought this the last time I saw an n4 deadheading on Merrick BLVD coming back from Jamaica during rush hours.  Buses going back to Nassau County were packed, they could've at least had one more bus for pax if it was going back to Nassau County, even if it ended at Rockville Centre.

I'm so mad I didn't get a pic, but I saw a 1700 today deadheading on the LIE that had the destination sign set to the U.S. Open code.

Where was it going coming from?

On a different topic has anyone noticed the same buses being used on the same routes?  I'm noticing this a lot lately, maybe it's time we start keeping track of buses we see on what route, date, and time...

NICE Bus should be called grumps, rude, mean to passengers.

Yea, cause they were a ray of sunshine under MTA LIB. lol

If you're talking about Rahul Kumar at NICE, he is the route design manager and is responsible for many of the route changes that we saw in 2012, including the cutback of the n27. He's a young guy. In my opinion, he doesn't know as much as he should. He doesn't necessarily do the scheduling.

I would love to see a nice bus organizational chart, but I doubt he holds the "power" people here think he does. 

Edit: A google search shows Rahul Kumar, held a position of vice president of business development (NICE Bus) as recent as April 12, 2012.

, but I doubt Mr.Kumar (the guy who is in charge of scheduling) knows how busy NCC can get, heck he even confused the towns of Nassau when he spoke at last year's Community Meeting.

This guy is in charge of schedulling at nice or NCC?

The president of the LIRR makes only sixty grand a year?

 

I didn't know who she was but figured she held a high title. A department manager at Saks Fifth Ave. makes over $60k a year. PinePower said she should be a manager at Saks Fifth Ave., which sounds like a respectable job if department managers are making over $60k a year. So if PinePower thinks she's clueless why would she think should have a respectable job in a respectable company? LOL

Well that's the other problem, Helena Williams, who is absolutely clueless and should be a manager of Saks Fifth Ave.

 

Who's Helena Williams? Glassdoor.com reports that a just a department manager makes over $60,000 year, sounds like a decent job. Why do think someone you think is clueless should have a decent job with a decent salary? This is why tou confuse the hellmout of me sometimes...

Well if you want a laugh here's what the response from NICE was about the n20 not showing up at all on Tuesday.

Thank you for contacting NICE bus we truly appreciate your feedback. Under our contract with Nassau County, we are obligated to operate within the budget the County provides.

 

 

As a result, we have had to make difficult decisions regarding our service. We have done our best to provide the most coverage within Nassau and serve as many customers as possible. I will forward your email to the correct department for review.

We thank you for your loyalty and hope to see you on board in the future.

 

 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

NICE Customer Care

 

 

 

This is what everyone has been saying all along (even you sometimes)...

It sounds like Veolia may even be getting sick of Nassau judging by the response they are now giving out to anyone who writes in....

Don't you guys realize that anything negative you say about NICE/Veolia is going to be defended by this guy with the school bus picture called Burrstone.

 

First of all what does JOel Up Front telling jgood that anyone who has taken a basic economics class knows what he suggested (the fed just printing money) have to do with me defending nice/Veolia?

Don't you realize their needs to be one voice of reason within this section of "omg nice sucks so bad let's bitch together...." What I post is not meant to defend nice but meant to counter the BS, assumptions, and overreactions with logic. I'm sorry if logic defends Veolia/NICE, that is against your agenda.. I know you must have gotten used to the MTA way and corporate America must have been a tough pill to swallow for the old timers who were able to make 6 figures with overtime while people working in the private sector had to tighten their belts, were subject to layoffs, and god forbid not allowed overtime. It's called the real world, welcome to it! But Veolia is the bad guy for not allowing Nassau bus drivers to flourish while everyone else in America is feeling the real world. Admit it, the MTA is the answer for you because no matter how bad things got or what skeleton system they were running you (and the old timers) would be A okay, lay everyone else off but you still have a job and all the over time you wanted. What else matters? Because to people like you this transit system was not built and maintained to give the public, who needs it a ride, but is here solely to give you people a job. A system set up to guarantee overtime and a pension, nothing more.

Again allow me to welcome you to the real world, I'm glad you were able to retire before it affected you. The days of someone getting these jobs with a pension and a salary of a doctor or a lawyer are no longer available for my generation. Why? Because we must fix the economy caused by your generations fiscal irresponsibility and suffer the consequences of the economy that crashed because people wanted a house they couldn't afford.

Hey Hound, I've got a question for you: How many bus operators have you heard bitching over at nice that couldn't pay their mortgage (or over bills) without overtime? Hmm...

Before you point the finger at me for not agreeing with you look at the situation, the bigger picture if you can! I am so sick of a generation bitching about micro causes of the economy that they created, that my generation will have to pay for!

Out of thin air. The Fed's are printing money like there's no tomorrow.

 

Oh dear god child educate yourself! They are not just "printinting" money to pay for things (if they did that would cause the rest of the money in the economy to be less valuable and simply make prices for everything rise, but that's an economic lesson for another day) the spending you hear about is coming from higher taxes, cutting program or funding xyz while abc gets less.

Look I could really care less about you standing in the cold for a bus. I've got my own problems, so to answer your question I don't relly care enough to think aout it or answer.

In a perfect world no one would have to wait for a bus now for the million dollar question: Where is this money coming from?

You have already said multiple times that the problem is Nassau's inability to fund the system. You know this but you continually use it as an oppurtunity to bitch about Veolia. I mean seriously what do you have against Veolia? You have said before they are not the problem but you continually bitch about them when you know what the problem is.

The answer is certainly not brining the MTA back to Nassau County! Nice has already proven that they can do more with the money than the MTA ever could have. ...and you know that, don't make me search through your posts from the last year. I really don't want to but like making you look like an idiot anmd I'll do that with your own words (then again you've done a good job of that lately!)....

.It's the new year, time for new years resolutions, yours should be to man up and stop whining about the bus being late! I hoe you are taking classes at Westbury and trying to improve your ciurrent situation but maybe you should look into taking classes at a CUNY school and take the train into the city as it is more reliable than Nassau County. Oh yea, taking the LIRR into the city and back is a real treat, you'll be thanking the MTA everyday. The last time I was a train that was delayed 20 min because of switch problems someone stated they were going to be late for work the guy puching the ticket said "oh well, gotta expect these things on the LIRR and roll with'em..." as he walked away with a smile on his face looking as if he didn't have a worry in the world. Easy for him to say as he was already at work and probably making $120,000 a year to punch those tickets of everyone who would be late for work.

BTW IMHO if there is extra money in the budget it should NOT go to nice/Nassau for bus service, it should go to the K-12 school system!

Here are my memories:

January 1st: First day of Nassau Inter County Express Bus, which I took n20 bus to Manhassett Whole Foods and they didn't sell Olivia Organic salads over there at that time.

 

 

Goddamn Veolia! If MTA was running MTA LIB on Jan 1st, 2012 Whole Foods would have had an Oliva Organic salad for you.

What is it going to take to get the to come back

Paying a ridiculous amount of money to the MTA and getting less service than nice is offering. BTW the County, State, and Federal governments are broke, where's this money coming from?

because I'm willing to do whatever it takes.

 

Maybe if you close your eyes, cross your fingers and wish real hard it'll happen. I think that's the only way you could "do whatevver it takes" to get the MTA back. lol

Alright, so at the beginning of last year, NICE said all buses are expected to be in NICE livery by 18 months. So that is this June when it should all be done. EVERYONE HOLD NICE TO THAT. Throughtout 2012, we've seen service cuts and service changes throughout the year, but Nassau County must've saved some money at the people's expense. Cheap Mango.

 

All nice buses? If they don't? How exactly would "everyone" hold nice to that? I think there are far more pressing issues that riders and taxpayers should hold nice if thedecided to hold nice to if they decided too hold nice to something. Also it's a wrap or paint, it's not a main concern for nice to worry about, The wrap/paint is not what gets people to work and school.