PinePower

Some drivers skip NCC Field #3 too.

Yes, its true, there were loads of breakdowns, until MTA took over management of LI Bus. Once they took over, the breakdowns were more of a rare occurence. As far as them not passing inspection, I think once Mangano came up with his plan, the MTA stopped giving a damn about maintanance, and were forced in the very end to use the loaner buses from MTAB because so many failed. MTAB really started cleaning up things and getting us on par with the city, I remember some of the drivers felt like they finally weren't below the city. Of course now that's all over & the breakdowns are back, and this time it's the newer buses breaking down, because as Brett said, the MTA had to put new parts in the V's prior to the changeover. Considering how much the state pours into Nassau, they should be concerned about the lack of maintanance of the buses. But like I said, Cuomo is a tool & is buddy buddy with Mangano.

Not as long as the county refuses to fund it's bus system. The wouldn't send buses out without proper maintanance, but Veolia will, thats WHY Veolia is cheaper than the . Its stuff like this which is causing ridership to decline. And wait, it's not even summer yet! A friend of mine just said he saw 1764 broke down in Great Neck tonight too. It's a miracle they pass inspection. I'm sure riders are getting fed up with the n20/21, and are discovering the LIRR goes to Great Neck. I think NICE's crappy service has contributed in part to almost record ridership gains on the LIRR!

Well to NICE's credit they seem to keep the V's running well, and I do know Suffolk Transit also has alot of problems with the VII NG's as well. Throw in maintanance cutbacks and the VII's will show it before the V's. For some reason the V's are cleaner too, the 1700 NGs are usually dirty though, not sure if it's just the layout of the bus or whatnot. That sound is defininately not normal for a CNG, its the first time I've heard any bus make that sound. I'm assuming it's the fan belt.

This is what happens when service isn't improved. http://blog.tstc.org/2014/03/10/annual-transit-ridership-grows-but-not-on-long-island/

Pretty much. It's been this way for awhile now. There's a tremendous disconnect between the Legislature and County Executive and the people of Nassau, its why many middle class have fled, and what remains are mostly the rich and the illegals they hire. They pretty much threw the 100,000 NICE bus riders under the bus, and most who have a choice have chosen their car, the train, walking, biking, even taxis. What remains are probably more like 50,000 daily riders who have no choice, the poorest of the poor, many of course who can't even vote anyway. And I've lost alot of respect for Cuomo over this, when this began he should have given Nassau County an ultimatum, either pay $36 Million to bus service or put the Exec & the legislature in jail. Many drivers I know voted for that 2 timing traitor thinking he'd help, but like the Nassau Democrats he could care less as well. Basically the message here is if you depend on transit move to the city. Funny Mangano addressed this issue, meanwhile what young people want to move to place where they have to wait forever for an overcrowded bus full of the dregs of society? Alot of people put the blame on Veolia, and they've made some bad moves, but the real people to blame are the ones in Mineola. If they pulled this crap anywhere else there'd have been massive protests, but there's just no one to fight for bus riders. That union is a sad excuse. It just seems we don't have a voice here, period. It's just been a huge fall from grace. As far as those snobs in Mineola, someone should let the air out of their tires.

It's the "reliable" I take issue with...

I think everyone in Mineola, from the County Exec to the Legislators should be forced to have their car taken away & rely on NICE Bus to get to work!!!

Well, no increase in funding for NICE from the County was addressed by Ed Mangano in tonight's state of the County. At least he brought up public transportation and bus service, but sugarcoated how things are really going. The Democratic response completely left NICE Bus out, which is why I didn't vote for Suozzi, him & the dems care even less about us. Really pathetic state of affairs, really....

Happens all the time, apparently the riders like stifling air... Me too, that's all I'm asking for, restore the 9 Mil and see what NICE can do...

Riding 1832 this afternoon. Very sad how a bus that's just over 3 years old sounds like this. I mentioned it to the driver, he said there's no maintanance and they won't fix it until he gets stuck with it. Sounds like the fan belt. Although I've tried to be optimistic, I have to say it's worse. Before Mangano & co came along MTA LI Bus was increasing ridership. Especially once NYCT got involved out here, the buses were cleaner and more reliable. Let me first say that when you're spending less on buses, and the moneys allocated to NICE by the County are lower than that under LI Bus, service will suffer. Quite a few routes run less often, meaning longer waits and more overcrowding. There's a lower quality of maintanance, so there's more equipment failures. The buses are definately dirtier. The $36 Million the MTA was demanding from the County was reasonable when compared to other nearby systems, but Nassau said they could do it for less. But it's of lower quality. You get what you pay for, just like getting fooled by those "deals" from Bob's furniture, but you then find out it's junk. Now I'm not hating on Veolia, they're just doing what they can afford, they only get $2.6Million from the county, that's about a quarter of what MTA got, so of course service is going to suffer. I've seen the lost ridership first hand, as I find myself taking the 6:48pm n51 from Merrick often, and we used to pick up a group of commuters. I even remember their faces, but they no longer ride, and now I'm often the only one on the bus. Most now drive or get picked up, I guess after some no-shows and being left waiting at the station they had enough. Sorry to be so down on this system but I've given up, not worth my effort anymore, no one in Mineola cares and the people who could make choices have left the system, and what remains are the poorest of the poor. Ed Mangano's State of the County is tomorrow night, and I'm sure he'll continue to throw us all under the bus.

The County should fill that gap. I have a feeling the Natural Gas prices that have gone through the roof this winter are a factor. If they make more service cuts that will mean more ridership going bye bye. Lets see if Mangano steps up to the plate with funding....

Of course not. No one in Mineola gives a damn, until this county chokes on it's own traffic because so many want to avoid the bus..

Shouldn't they be getting fined by the County for missing runs?

Guess I could post it on their FB, but then they could ban me from the mall for taking pictures.

Rode 1839 today and it sounded like it was in deplorable condition, and the back smelled like a mix of burning oil & natural gas. Sad as these buses are only around 3 years old. Also huge potholes at the Roosevelt Field bus stop still have not been fixed, not sure who is responsible but someone is going to fall in one & get hurt.

Yup. I did send NICE a message about it with the photo.

Can you spot the mistake?

If you're going to Hemsptead you're almost better off taking the n22 or n24 to Mineola for the n40/41, Franklin Square use the n25 (it runs pretty late), and as for Elmont, take an NYC Bus to the city line and walk the rest. I really don't know why ppl put up with the n6.

Well there you go...this how the NICE satisfaction went down. Put the headways back to 15 minutes till 10pm. Things are still busy at 9pm!!

And that's the problem, 20 min headway. It should be 15 min or maybe even 10. Wasn't the n6 more frequent at night with ?

Yeah no stops were missed on that n6x, it went through the south lot instead of sitting the backup. As for the other routes, there's one or two stops on Earle Ovington so they couldn't do it.

Surprised no one mentioned yesterday's delays due to the snowstorm. There was not much NICE could have done to help things, there were a bunch of complaints on the FB page but the delays were terrible. I took the n51 in the photo below from NCC, it was the 2pm trip from RF, didn't arrive in Merrick until 4:45pm! The main reason was due to a backup that stretched all the way from the south lot of NCC to the traffic light at Uniondale Ave and Hempstead Turnpike. A 70 min backup due to that one light! With everyone leaving NCC and their jobs at once, the 20 second green and 2 min wait was too long! The cops should have been out there directing traffic. Despite being late going back later in the evening around 6-7pm things were much better despite worser road conditions. Buses really dont have a choice but to follow their routes, but for all the lemmings that sit in these backups in their cars, they should know alternate routes! Some n6x's did cut through the parking lot at NCC to avoid the backup.

That bus always ran like crap.

It's becoming a problem all over the island thanks to the lack of any enforcement to remove illegals. The New Cassel area of Westbury is bad, they're always loitering around on Union & Prospect with MS13 & Surenos tags going up as fast as they're taken down. I avoid taking the n22 through there for that very reason, wouldn't want to risk breaking down there for sure. As for the buses getting tagged, it seems like it's happening on the routes that travel to Hempstead & New Cassel the most, and the seating layout on the NG's makes it easier for the vandals. The V's seem much cleaner and have less magic marker tags, whereas the NG's (esp the 17s) are the worst. Sadly unlike NYC our police forces are ill-equipped to handle the gangs, they dont patrol the buses, and the county govt acts like it's still 1955 when it comes to police funding. People who ride the buses deserve to feel safe and get some protection, but this is a county that thinks buses are worth only $2.6M a year so good luck with that. It's a vicious cycle, passengers will stop riding because they dont feel safe, I know for sure HTC is less busy as a result of the goings on over there. Throw in service cuts and reliability issues and you start losing ppl in droves. Then you can add all the other folks living here who pay high taxes and see homes in their neighborhood stuffed full of illegals and gang signs in their communities and they start leaving too. We need the same kind of policy that NYC used under Giuliani, and starting with the buses isn't a bad idea. I hate going off-topic here but it does relate to the buses. If we keep going in this direction our buses may start looking like the subway did in the 70s...