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Random Thoughts Thread - Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE)


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I think the reason Nassau has an all ORION fleet is the same reason there are no Gillig's in the fleet, geography.  Orion was located up near Utica, NY and Gillig is located on the other side of the Country.  Besides, I think there was some sort of "buy NY" incentive offered, because I always remember schumer sticking his in the press talking about upstate workers building a bus for a downstate system.   blah blah blah...

 

With Gilligyou are talking about a 3,000 mile trip (an extra 3,000 on the odometer) and at least $6,000 to $9,000 in delivery expenses per bus with 40 buses that's $240,000 to $360,000 just for delivery.  Compare this to Orion in Oriskany, NY, less than 300 miles away, your talking 10% the cost for delivery.

 

Now for everyone saying NICE can't "afford" New Flyer, for the money allocated for new buses it comes out to about $400,000 per bus, which if you look at recent New Flyer orders it comes out to about $400,000 per bus.  The last NICE order was (MTA) spec'd buses and if they do the same (MTA) orders stripped down buses.  Believe me some places order buses with all the "bells and whistles" where the (MTA) orders the bare bones.  

 

Speaking of the (MTA) Veolia and the (MTA) have a good working relationship, (MTA) just ordered 276 Xcelsior buses, I wouldn't be surprised at all if NICE hammered out a deal to by some of those buses, NEw Flyer builds some in that order for NICE, or NICE excercizes an option for buses the MTA has on "order."

The "buy NY" policy is a longstanding MTA policy. It's one of the reasons why Nova/Prevost is getting the bulk of their orders lately and why Orion was the MTA's "favorite company" when they were around. Obviously it means nothing now and NICE has no reason to give Nova (the last NYS builder) priority over any other builder just because they're in NYS.

Edited by Orion VII 4 Life
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No, but because Nassau funds part of the bus system, they may have a rule in place to take the lowest bidder of buses, and New Flyer or even NABI may get underbid by Gillig. If Transdev ends up providing extra funding for new buses, the rule may be put to the side.

Exactly. It's lowest bidder now without a "buy NY" clause.

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1) Plus there are only a handful of VII's not wrapped. It's mostly the V's that run unwrapped (some have a little logo near the driver's window though) and they're gonna be replaced within a few years anyway.

 

Also, while we're at it: they still have "Thank your for riding Long Island Bus" automatic announcements at terminals lol. But I'm guessing that'll be replaced once Clever Devices goes live Q4 2014 :)

Edited by Vistausss
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The "buy NY" policy is a longstanding MTA policy. It's one of the reasons why Nova/Prevost is getting the bulk of their orders lately and why Orion was the MTA's "favorite company" when they were around. 

 

Is that why (MTA) bought just under 350 Nova's between 2011-2013, bought about 750 New Flyer's between 2011-2013, and has an order in for 276 more New Flyer's?  lol

 

 

 

Obviously it means nothing now and NICE has no reason to give Nova (the last NYS builder) priority over any other builder just because they're in NYS.

 

I'm pretty sure I remember (without taking the time to look) that there was some sort of $incentive$ attached to this, if it's still around it could mean something to NICE.

 

No, but because Nassau funds part of the bus system, they may have a rule in place to take the lowest bidder of buses, and New Flyer or even NABI may get underbid by Gillig. If Transdev ends up providing extra funding for new buses, the rule may be put to the side.

 

Veolia/Transdev is not funding anything. lol  It works the other way, Nassau pays them to run the system, they don't fund anything...  This will go down as it always has (and usually does in most municipalities) 80% of the buses are funded, the local municipality or transit authority funds the balance and the buses are are the property of the local municipality.  Could you imagine the mess if Veolia kicked in extra money to buy buses, lost the contract at the end of this contract and they felt they were owed money or would take buses with the,?  Yikes!  lol

Edited by Burrstone
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Regardless if you said *if* or not it was a follow up statement.  I saw *if* and my comment would have been the same whether you said if or not....

 

You talk about this section getting off topic, yet you feel the need to bring this conversation off topic to make me take notice you said *if*....  Are you serious?  Can we move on now?

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@Brett: The LIB announcements are still there on some buses.

 

Btw, congrats on your NICE Instagram featuring :)

 

@Burrstone: Transdev *will* kick in money *if* NICE asks them for extra money.

 

This is very different here, it is not Veolia/Transdev's responsibility to "kick in" money, fund, or in anyway subsidize Nassau County's bus transit system.  They won a bid to run the system for $X and nothing more.  This scenario could be different if let's say the contract required Veolia/Transdev to provide the equipment, then again 

 

Veolia has already kicked in some money into the system. They kicked in some money for the tracking system IIRC.

 

Can you provide a source?

 

http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/CountyExecutive/NewsRelease/2013/11-01-2013.html

 

"It will be paid for with an 80 percent grant from the Federal Transit Administration, with the remainder coming from New York State and Nassau County."

 

Anyway, like an equipment requirement Veolia could be required to provide this or required to provide a service that this technology allows such as better tracking of buses, bus timeliness, better tracking of buses/drivers etc.   (it takes money to make money).

 

Are we really debating whether a company could/would/should/is kicking money into the system?  That is not their job, they take /make money to run the system, they do not have an obligation to fund the system in any way.

 

Back onto the original topic of kicking in money for buses, it would be too sticky *if* they did and asking for huge problems when/*if* they lost the contract with the county.  Besides I think Veolia is smart enough to know that buses bought with any portion of federal funding have to stay in the municipality they were meant for.

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@Burrstone: It's not different over there. Transdev already invested some extra money in NICE last year and they will continue to do so if NICE asks for it. As someone like me who actually meets up with Transdev managers every once in a while, I know what I'm talking about :)

 

@Orion: I'll ask them at the next meeting, wouldn't be surprised if they did kick in because it's not an easy nor cheap task to replace everything.

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I don't think you don't know what your talking but you have told me before Transdev's responsibility to your system over there is different than her, no?

 

Anyway all I'm saying is Veolia is given money to run the system, that is theirs just like a grocery clerk is given money by a company to provide their services to a grocery store (stocking shelves, using a cash register etc).

 

Veolia is also given funding from Nassau County, NYS, the federal government to run the system. This money pays to run the system as well things like buying buses. There may be provisions in the contract that Veolia has to lay for, but that's part of doing business.

 

Now let's say I run a snow plow company and you own a store with a parking lot in Nassau County. We have a contract that you will pay me $X to keep your lot and sidewalks clean of snow. I go out by a plow truck shovel to fulfill the contract, it is also in the contract that I must repair any potholes come the spring because of the plowing. In the spring I go out and buy the materials to repair the potholes. Am I throwing in money to upgrade your property? Of course not I was fulfilling a service and being paid to do the service the contract requires. I was paid to provide a service and I had to spend some of that money to fulfill the contract.

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@Burrstone: Over here Transdev doesn't invest as much in Veolia. But that's only because the funding is a lot better. Esp. the province of Limburg, where almost everything is Veolia, invests heavily in the train and bus system and thus in Veolia. And the other areas also provide better funding. But if they were to **** up (like Connexxion did in my city), they'd get a cut on their funding for one year.

Transdev is about to boot Veolia Transport Netherlands so they don't invest in it anymore. They want them to continue with the same name on their own. They wanted to give them the boot last year, but didn't. But now it will happen in a few months because Connexxion, the largest Dutch bus company which Transdev bought last year, has been a sinking ship for years and on top of that, they have to pay millions of tax dollars back this year, according a court ruling. (they = Connexxion, but obviously Transdev will have to cover their ass else Connexxion would be defunct)

 

Anyway: I'll ask the manager of Transdev again when I see them next month about the investment in NICE, even though they have told me last time that they do invest and even pumped a little bit extra last year.

Edited by Vistausss
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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.

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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.

Anything on mall property (including the bus stop) is Shitmon's job to fix.

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