NICE Fare Increase

[Amtrak7]

 

 

 

January 10th Community Meeting Regarding the MTA’s Fare Increase on the NICE Bus System

 

The Nassau County Bus Transit Committee will hold two public hearings on January 10, 2013 at the following times:

 

2:00 pm & 5:00 pm

 

Both hearings will be held in the Norman J. Levy Building/NICE Office Facility, First Floor Training Conference Room, 700 Commercial Avenue, Garden City, NY.

 

A presentation will be made by NICE on the anticipated effect of the MTA’s fare changes on the NICE bus system. The Bus Transit Committee will then hear public comments after the presentation and before making its final determination.

 

For information on the MTA’s fare changes, click below

http://www.mta.info/mta/news/books/docs/121213FareChangesPackage.pdf

 

For the official Nassau County Bus Transit Committee notice, click below:

Public Hearing Notice - English.pdf

Public Hearing Notice - Spanish.pdf

The public hearing location is accessible to people with mobility impairments. A Spanish interpreter and an interpreter for hearing-impaired people will be made available at a hearing upon two days advance request. All those wishing to comment at a hearing must register on the date and within the first hour of each hearing. Oral testimony is limited to 3 minutes for each speaker.

 

For more information, to request an interpreter or to submit comments in writing, send an email toNCBTC@nassaucountyny.gov or send a letter to Nassau County Bus Transit Committee, One West Street – Room 249, Mineola, NY 11501. All written comments must be received prior to February 1, 2013.

 

 

 

 

http://nicebus.com/Passenger_Information/Community_Meetings/index.html

[User]

Just raise the damn fare to $2.50 like the is doing.

[Amtrak7]

http://mobile.newsda...8227&nopaging=1

 

Setzer added that even if NICE chose to keep existing fares, customers would still have to pay the newly increased cost of a 30-day unlimited MetroCard -- going up to $112 from $104 -- with the MTA pocketing the difference.

 

Setzer said one possible scenario could have fares go up for MetroCard users, but remain the same for cash customers.

 

NICE will make its recommendation to the committee in February, after learning how much state aid it is likely to get in 2013 and determining whether a fare increase is necessary, regardless of the MTA's plan.

 

The article also mentions that 2/3 of NICE customers use MetroCard. When I ride the n79, that number is more like 20%. PinePower or someone who rides a busy NICE route every day, what do you see?

[Turbo19]

The one way fare should stay at $2.25 for the hell of it. The fact that the fare is that high for this NICE B.S. is ridiculous.

[FamousNYLover]

Majority of NICE Bus riders uses Unlimited MetroCard, so we all need NICE Bus to accept Unlimited MetroCard.

If they did not increase with MTA, NICE Bus riders have to cough up $2.25 in coins to get on NICE Bus.

[Turbo19]

See post below please.

[Turbo19]

Majority of NICE Bus riders uses Unlimited MetroCard, so we all need NICE Bus to accept Unlimited MetroCard.

If they did not increase with MTA, NICE Bus riders have to cough up $2.25 in coins to get on NICE Bus.

 

Well likely the unlimited would still cover the fare regardless of the amount. The only time MTA MetroCard users would pay more is if say MTA's fare was $2.00 and NICE's fare was $2.25, so in theory MetroCard users would pay a "step up" fare of $0.25

[qjtransitmaster]

cash fare stays the same ARE THEY ON CRACK?

[PinePower]

http://mobile.newsda...8227&nopaging=1

 

 

 

 

 

The article also mentions that 2/3 of NICE customers use MetroCard. When I ride the n79, that number is more like 20%. PinePower or someone who rides a busy NICE route every day, what do you see?

 

 

For the routes I take it's usually around 75% who pay with Metrocards. But out east on routes like the n79 and n19, its more like 40-50%.

 

cash fare stays the same ARE THEY ON CRACK?

 

 

Well when you see what they've done with the bus system in the past year, it seems they are.

[Joel Up Front]

On the subway routes (N4, 6, 20/21, 22, 24) I'd reckon it's 70-80% as those riders are transferring to the (E)/(F) but for the north-south routes it's probably 50-50. Maybe once you head east of Route 106/107 it gets a lot lower.

[qjtransitmaster]

But I admit they improved the N22

[FamousNYLover]

Dear Katherine Kassover:

I was wondering if you coming to NICE Bus public hearing in anticipation of MTA Fare Hike.

http://nicebus.com/Passenger_Information/Community_Meetings/index.html

[User]

But I admit they improved the N22

 

WTF does that have to do with the fare hearings?

[N6 Limited]

http://mobile.newsda...8227&nopaging=1

 

 

 

 

 

The article also mentions that 2/3 of NICE customers use MetroCard. When I ride the n79, that number is more like 20%. PinePower or someone who rides a busy NICE route every day, what do you see?

 

I see mostly Metrocard users on the busy routes. 90%

cash fare stays the same ARE THEY ON CRACK?

 

You don't see it? It's quite simple. NICE Gets 100% of the cash fare, it shares some of the Metrocard fare with the MTA. If the cash fare is cheaper it may entice riders to pay with cash, and therefore NICE collects more fare revenue that it doesn't have to share. Though being that it's 25c for a transfer it may not help transferring passengers.

[FamousNYLover]

When I was putting NICE Bus Public Hearing sign regardding MTA Fare Hike at 179th St bus stop, there was one Spanish deli that says COFFEE on Hillside Av/182nd St by n24 Hicksville/East Meadow bus stop that this store owner had put NICE Bus schedules on his store wall and he even put NCBT Commitee Meeting Flier.

Also, when I was at 24-hour Jamaica-179th St exit side, there was outdated June 24th NICE Bus Schedule behind the station booth!!

[Amtrak7]

http://mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;JSESSIONID=130AC2306CC860D0D6F8BFA88A006C57?site=newsday&view=top_stories_item&feed:a=newsday_1min&feed:c=topstories&feed:i=1.4431538&nopaging=1

 

MTA fare hikes almost definite:

 

 

 

Michael Setzer, chief executive of Nassau Inter-County Express Bus, said last week that he would make no recommendation at a public hearing Thursday on whether the county should raise fares. But new information NICE has learned from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority drove Setzer to urge the Nassau Bus Transit Committee to vote to approve the adoption of the MTA's fare hike -- and do so quickly.

Setzer shared the information with the committee at a public hearing Thursday afternoon at NICE's Garden City offices. A second hearing was scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday.

Although not part of the MTA, NICE accepts the MetroCard, and about three-quarters of its riders use it, Setzer said. Earlier this week, MTA officials told NICE that they need an answer by the end of this week as to whether NICE intends to adopt the MTA's planned fare hike, which calls for bus rides to climb from $2.25 to $2.50 and includes increases for unlimited-ride MetroCards.

 

The last line is a bit concerning:

 

 

 

"I think we are probably married to their fare structure," Setzer. "I don't see a way of having a different fare structure."

 

"Different fare structure" can also means increases. So will this drive NICE to scrap MetroCards in the future? Does anyone remember how long the original MOU was for?

[User]

I didn't to go to a community meeting to know that this was coming. Let's see what PinePower digged up.

 

OH NICE, NICE carries 82,000 riders a day! Great to see that huge drop in ridership, good thinking Nassau County.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

I didn't to go to a community meeting to know that this was coming. Let's see what PinePower digged up.

 

OH NICE, NICE carries 82,000 riders a day! Great to see that huge drop in ridership, good thinking Nassau County.

 

Or in other words, 27,000 riders stopped using the Nassau County Bus System. What a disgrace

[Amtrak7]

OH NICE, NICE carries 82,000 riders a day! Great to see that huge drop in ridership, good thinking Nassau County.

 

Is that average day or average weekday? The NTD database for LIB 2011 says 102,000 per weekday or 85,000 if you average the weekday (weighted by 500%), Sat, and Sun.

[User]

Is that average day or average weekday? The NTD database for LIB 2011 says 102,000 per weekday or 85,000 if you average the weekday (weighted by 500%), Sat, and Sun.

Not sure, but either way, it is a significant ridership drop, especially when NICE has been saying they've been increasing ridership all through 2012 until December.

[Vistausss]

Not sure, but either way, it is a significant ridership drop, especially when NICE has been saying they've been increasing ridership all through 2012 until December.

 

Maybe NICE only counts from the moment it began to increase while your statistic shows everything, including before the increase which makes the average different?

[PinePower]

Or in other words, 27,000 riders stopped using the Nassau County Bus System. What a disgrace

 

It's not a surprise. At the hearing many other riders shared the same complaints as I have, the service is unreliable, buses show up late or not at all, and the cuts have made the crowding much worse. Who is going to choose to wait an hour when they used to wait 20 or 30 minutes to get on a jam packed up bus? When I spoke I mentioned the damage this is doing to the economy, people losing their jobs, others moving to NYC. I also spoke on how Glen Cove service was sliced in half, in an area where people heavily depend on the bus, while the lightest routes, such as the infamous Massapequa Porkers, were hardly even touched. The board seemed abit upset about all the complaints, which is why I hope they took my consideration of them going back to the table with the . Veolia now has no excuse, the fare hike revenue will bring some extra money to NICE, and that should go to restoring some of the cuts. The is restoring alot of bus service in NYC, why should Nassau be left out? Mr.Setzer refused to address people's complaints about the poor service saying that will be addressed through the email complaint system. They love to call riders "customers", well what kind of business survives when it loses almost 20% of it's business? And once their gone it won't be easy to get them back. The damage from this mistake will take years and years to correct, and if the does come back, I could see a temporary month of fare free service, much like what Bee-Line did after the strike, to woo riders back. Majority of riders complaining were from the n4, n6,n22,n27, n35, and n54/55. It sure will be interesting if the minutes from this meeting are made available on the NICE website, I sure hope so. The evidence of this NICE mistake is overwhelming.

[N6 Limited]

If they made riders move back it would prevent a lot of flagging

 

EDIT: I hope Yuki recorded it

[FamousNYLover]

Sorry, my camera broke again because I ate frozen ice cream while taking picture and liguid damaged camera again.

 

At 17:00 meeting, it was same situation as 14:00 people complaining about overcrowding, slow, unrealiable, not so NICE.

Even Nassau County Legislature Carrie Solages didn't vote for privatizing Long Island Bus and he also complaint about passenger who lived in his distrct complains that Elmont Rd riders want to take advantage of n6x also.

[User]

Did anyone at the meeting talk about the drivers needing to be more assertive in pushing people to the back and getting more passengers on board?