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


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That sounds like a lot of fun, taking a nice bus from Jamaica to Montauk, please update us on bus rides when you do it, can you go from Jamaica all the way to montaulk on a single bus fare? of course with multiple transfers, does mta suffulk bus give out transfers on buses?

NICE Bus passengers using cash or MetroCard can request MTA Paper Transfer to Suffolk County Transit Buses.

NICE Bus only gives transfer to two connecting NICE Bus for cash fare.

Suffolk County Transit gives transfer to connecting SCT buses.

 

Not single fare on Suffolk County Transit.

 

Anyone can join the trip. Only you need to have clothes and food is not included.

Edited by FamousNYLover
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For instance, if you paid your fare on n19 or n72 Babylon with MetroCard and request transfer to S40 Patchogue bus, then handed to bus driver which S42 bus accepted. Then, you paid your fare on Suffolk County Transit 7B, which is $2.25 and transfer fee is 25 cent. At Medford, you could take S71 Stony Brook with transfer. If you connecting to another bus like S58 Riverhead, bus driver give you back transfer.

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Enjoy the trip it sounds like fun,..... I have a good suggestion, nice bus express service Hicksville to montauk non stop on a single fare, people would love it imagine a orange nice bus going to montauk express I would love to go

LOL.

 

That would get almost no usage. Besides, that's what the LIRR is for. In addition, NICE can't even adequately run its system.

 

What makes you think people are going out to Montauk, especially from Hicksville?

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Enjoy the trip it sounds like fun,..... I have a good suggestion, nice bus express service Hicksville to montauk non stop on a single fare, people would love it imagine a orange nice bus going to montauk express I would love to go

Mostly that's job for Hampton Jitney and SeaJitney.

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I said Hicksville because most of Nassau lines end / start there, many people would take a bus that goes to montauk, people get away for the weekends & go there for the beaches in the summer & , it would be express the nice bus would take sunrise hwy straight out there, since it's

All highway the bus could do 65 easily & I think it would be faster than the Lirr ( and cheaper too $2.75)

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I said Hicksville because most of Nassau lines end / start there, many people would take a bus that goes to montauk, people get away for the weekends & go there for the beaches in the summer & , it would be express the nice bus would take sunrise hwy straight out there, since it's

All highway the bus could do 65 easily & I think it would be faster than the Lirr ( and cheaper too $2.75)

I don't think NICE Bus will do that because it will be competiting with Suffolk County Transit, 7Bus, CoachUSA, Trailway, Hampton Jitney and LIRR.

Suffolk County Transit buses has no passes available, but most riders are fine with Suffolk County Transit, Hampton Jitney and LIRR. If NICE Bus expands in Suffolk County, it will steal riders from Suffolk County Transit, so it's not great idea to have NICE running in Suffolk County.

Edited by FamousNYLover
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For instance, if you paid your fare on n19 or n72 Babylon with MetroCard and request transfer to S40 Patchogue bus, then handed to bus driver which S42 bus accepted. Then, you paid your fare on Suffolk County Transit 7B, which is $2.25 and transfer fee is 25 cent. At Medford, you could take S71 Stony Brook with transfer. If you connecting to another bus like S58 Riverhead, bus driver give you back transfer.

 

Are you talking about how it's like to get from the n72 to the S42 IE NICE to SCT vs how you get from one SCT bus to another SCT (Ie 7B to S71)? because I'm a bit confused as to how you went from talking about the S42 to the 7B. 

 

A question ; why doesn't Suffolk transit take mta metro cards? How do you pay on the bus?

 

I don't know, probably because it would costly to change, the system is/was mostly used by the poor who may not beable to pay for a metro card. Or simple the County runs the system and just doesn't care about the MTA.

 

You pay in Cash. With bills and coins. 

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Today on N20, as the bus was pulling into bell blvd stop, a guy got up and ran to the front door, driver told him you can not exit here you must go to gleenwood street, passenger started to talk loud & said open door now in broken English, so driver had to open door anyway to let passengers on, driver warned him next time if anybody wants to exit on bell blvd, he will skip the stop.

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Where the hell is the real time tracking? Afaik every bus now has the new Clever Devices unless the Foothills still don't, really don't get why they haven't just turned on the customer tracking yet.

 

Today on N20, as the bus was pulling into bell blvd stop, a guy got up and ran to the front door, driver told him you can not exit here you must go to gleenwood street, passenger started to talk loud & said open door now in broken English, so driver had to open door anyway to let passengers on, driver warned him next time if anybody wants to exit on bell blvd, he will skip the stop.

What I usually see from I guess the more experienced guys who know the rules if they'll wait for the door to open and run out and not let the op see they're trying to get off before he stops. Sometimes they'll have their friends stop the bus for them just so they can get off. NICE has gotten much stricter with the closed door and I think people are starting to get it... 1 time the op wouldn't let someone out at Bell so he started pushing the back door so the interlock wouldn't let the bus move and then he just turned the back door on and let him out.

 

With the Clever Devices theres also passenger counters at each door and I'm pretty sure they can tell the dispatchers who's getting on and off where, so the drivers probably have no choice now but to be more strict.

Edited by Orion VII 4 Life
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a few weeks ago i was on the n20 & I saw a man flag down the bus on francis lewis blvd, he acted like he wanted the bus, once the front door opened, this lady ran out so fast its like the couple had it planned out, n20 is very fast from Roosevelt ave compared to the slow every stop q12, why does nice have the close door policy anyway? I think its very silly that pushing on the back door when the green light isn't on makes the bus stop or not move, why doesn't nice just remove this? or put back doors on "bypass" there has to be a solution.

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 I think its very silly that pushing on the back door when the green light isn't on makes the bus stop or not move, why doesn't nice just remove this? or put back doors on "bypass" there has to be a solution.

 

Probably so if the bus was pack or someone accidently leans on the door it won't open and send the person  tubling off the bus while it was in motion. 

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a few weeks ago i was on the n20 & I saw a man flag down the bus on francis lewis blvd, he acted like he wanted the bus, once the front door opened, this lady ran out so fast its like the couple had it planned out, n20 is very fast from Roosevelt ave compared to the slow every stop q12, why does nice have the close door policy anyway? I think its very silly that pushing on the back door when the green light isn't on makes the bus stop or not move, why doesn't nice just remove this? or put back doors on "bypass" there has to be a solution.

All NICE Bus routes in Queens except n24 Jamaica Av portion near CityLine border and n31/32/33 are closed door. Just like MTA Express Buses, NICE Buses follows same LIB's closed door policy.

It also states on n1, n4/4X, n6/6X, n20/L/21, n22/A/X, n24, n26 that NICE Bus does not provide service within Queens.

n33 is closed door in City of Long Beach.

n31/32/33 buses are only open door in Far Rockaway, Queens both direction.

Are you talking about how it's like to get from the n72 to the S42 IE NICE to SCT vs how you get from one SCT bus to another SCT (Ie 7B to S71)? because I'm a bit confused as to how you went from talking about the S42 to the 7B. 

 

 

I don't know, probably because it would costly to change, the system is/was mostly used by the poor who may not beable to pay for a metro card. Or simple the County runs the system and just doesn't care about the MTA.

 

You pay in Cash. With bills and coins. 

I meant n72 bus driver gives paper transfer for S40 eastbound I meant, then paid on 7B to Golden Star. If I only spend within transfer time, I'll get transfer for S71.

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Does NICE keep on-time statistics of its buses by route?  At Roosevelt Field, I've seen many buses start/end their runs waaay behind schedule.

 

What does the dispatcher sitting in his NICE vehicle at Roosevelt Field do?  Does he keep a log of how late the buses are, and/or which ones never show up?

 

Perhaps the best way to fix this is to add 10 to 15 minutes of additional "break time" at the end of each route.  If a bus pulls into Roosevelt Field 10 minutes late, then that bus will leave Roosevelt Field at least 10+ minutes late.   More break time will keep passengers happy as NICE won't further erode its ridership base due to passengers deserting it to drive/cab/LIRR.  And keeps drivers happy (more break time = less burnout, less employee turnover).  Must be expensive to keep training new burnt out drivers who are expected to drive up to 2 hours on ridiculously long routes with limited break time (165th St Jamaica to Hicksville is crazy!!!) 

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What's with all the gas leaks lately? 

 

1756, 1777, 1824 and another 1800 I forgot the number... All the strobe beacons on those buses are flashing. Yet I see them in daily service everyday. 

 

I I couldn't catch the strobe on 1756 as it rolled by, beacons flash for a split second

 

0B02BD57-6F2C-4A89-961D-B2DD57BE67DA_zps

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Does NICE keep on-time statistics of its buses by route?  At Roosevelt Field, I've seen many buses start/end their runs waaay behind schedule.

 

What does the dispatcher sitting in his NICE vehicle at Roosevelt Field do?  Does he keep a log of how late the buses are, and/or which ones never show up?

 

Perhaps the best way to fix this is to add 10 to 15 minutes of additional "break time" at the end of each route.  If a bus pulls into Roosevelt Field 10 minutes late, then that bus will leave Roosevelt Field at least 10+ minutes late.   More break time will keep passengers happy as NICE won't further erode its ridership base due to passengers deserting it to drive/cab/LIRR.  And keeps drivers happy (more break time = less burnout, less employee turnover).  Must be expensive to keep training new burnt out drivers who are expected to drive up to 2 hours on ridiculously long routes with limited break time (165th St Jamaica to Hicksville is crazy!!!) 

You can never tell if it's dispatcher or bus operator on car relief because they all use same cars.

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Does NICE keep on-time statistics of its buses by route?  At Roosevelt Field, I've seen many buses start/end their runs waaay behind schedule.

 

What does the dispatcher sitting in his NICE vehicle at Roosevelt Field do?  Does he keep a log of how late the buses are, and/or which ones never show up?

 

They do jack shet, from what I've seen.  I've been on buses that were over 20 minutes late and the dispatcher and driver will wave like everything's peachy.  NICE is extremely strict with its OTP and yet what does it amount to?  All the shortcuts, beating lights, and cutting people off barely add up to anything.

 

 

What's with all the gas leaks lately?

 

NICE doesn't care about anything anymore.  Ridership drops by the day.  At this point in 2010, I remember getting a seat on an afternoon N6 was a miracle.  Nighttime N4s were packed and it was common for people to get flagged by no less than two buses.  Last I checked, the whole "millenials don't care about cars" thing was a complete hock and there were plenty of teens driving around to get their licenses.

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Did bus service to Jones Beach start already? I don't see it on the website

There is service to Jones Beach this year. NICE has been promoting it on their FaceBook page

Edited by NY1635
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