New 2019 Winter Schedules

[checkmatechamp13]

https://www.nicebus.com/Passenger-Information/Summer-2018-Schedule-Changes?fbclid=IwAR0nXplnUavT5mBdgZhDPSBliv1ndemv_rjWRLG2zUJIZrxKmZjEro6QmF0

Effective January 20th, 2019

Port Washington-Roslyn shuttle created (basically an extended N28 from the LIB days)

n22X ends at 179th Street and bypasses Mineola Transit Center

n24 split at Roosevelt Field Mall from 6am-7pm weekdays

n43 serves Babylon Turnpike (with the n41 being routed onto Main Street....in other words, n40 service gets doubled and the n41 gets eliminated)

Headway-based schedules come to n6

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

If they're gonna split up the n24 like that during weekdays, they might as well combine the Roosevelt Field-Hicksville leg with the n78/n79 during those times. 

[NY1635]

10 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

If they're gonna split up the n24 like that during weekdays, they might as well combine the Roosevelt Field-Hicksville leg with the n78/n79 during those times. 

Sending the n78/79 to Roosevelt Field along Old Country Road runs into the same problem as the n24 being split: people not willing to transfer at Roosevelt Field to get to Westbury Plaza  coming from Queens, or Mineola coming from Hicksville. 

[N6 Limited]

8 hours ago, NY1635 said:

Sending the n78/79 to Roosevelt Field along Old Country Road runs into the same problem as the n24 being split: people not willing to transfer at Roosevelt Field to get to Westbury Plaza  coming from Queens, or Mineola coming from Hicksville. 

Before they extended the N24 to Hicksville, transferring to the N78/N79 sucked because there were no timed connections and they were on 30 min headway, so instead of waiting for who knows how long riders would just take the N22  or N24 to East Gate Blvd and walk over and vice versa.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

8 hours ago, NY1635 said:

Sending the n78/79 to Roosevelt Field along Old Country Road runs into the same problem as the n24 being split: people not willing to transfer at Roosevelt Field to get to Westbury Plaza  coming from Queens, or Mineola coming from Hicksville. 

Yeah, but have you seen most of the connections? 2-3 minutes to catch a bus is not really much time, and with little to no layover. Some of these buses can run well over 10 minutes late, so you would still be waiting an eternity for the bus. You could still run the n78/79 during the daytime on weekdays to/from Roosevelt Field (and the n24 all other times), and provide for a longer layover at Roosevelt Field. That way you could also restore n79 midday service (but of course, the funds need to be allocated). 

[B35 via Church]

I haven't been up on the ongoings of NICE bus lately, so when I read about the upcoming changes yesterday & I saw that n24 schedule, the first thing that came to mind was that they may as well combine that n24 snippet (RFM - Hicksville) with the n78/n79......

Not that I'm suggesting this, but an n22 going RFM - Hicksville would carry far more riders than an n24 between those same two termini, along each of their respective routings..... Having the n24 do that just for the sake of coverage, during the times that it would? ehhh......

I'm not buying that xfer scenario as being such this problem at RFM coming from points west; some of those folks are ALREADY disembarking at RFM for other routes.... Hell, for as much as I used to like to 'fan the N79 (from Hicksville) during the 90's & early 2000's, what N6 Limited mentions there, was my one gripe with it - that helpless feeling waiting for it, as buses used to come *whenever*..... I would almost never take the full route from Mineola, because more often than not, I would just miss the f***ing thing after coming off the N22 or N24....

The n40/41 change AFAIC was simply a matter of not if it would happen, but when.... What I never anticipated though was the n43 being shifted to serving Babylon Tpke.... The concern over the years on these parts (forums) with consolidating the n40/41 was always, what would become of Babylon Tpke. service.... Now we have our answer.

[N6 Limited]

1 hour ago, B35 via Church said:

I'm not buying that xfer scenario as being such this problem at RFM coming from points west; some of those folks are ALREADY disembarking at RFM for other routes.... Hell, for as much as I used to like to 'fan the N79 (from Hicksville) during the 90's & early 2000's, what N6 Limited mentions there, was my one gripe with it - that helpless feeling waiting for it, as buses used to come *whenever*..... I would almost never take the full route from Mineola, because more often than not, I would just miss the f***ing thing after coming off the N22 or N24....

If you had just missed the N78/79 at Mineola did you get back on the N22/N24 to East Gate Blvd (Wendys) and cross the street to wait for N78/79 on its way back from Roosevelt Field? 

[B35 via Church]

1 minute ago, N6 Limited said:

If you had just missed the N78/79 at Mineola did you get back on the N22/N24 to East Gate Blvd (Wendys) and cross the street to wait for N78/79 on its way back from Roosevelt Field? 

Nope, never bothered to do that.... I would just hop on a N40/41 & ride up to HTC to go fan some other routes (was usually the N54/55)...

[N6 Limited]

4 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Nope, never bothered to do that.... I would just hop on a N40/41 & ride up to HTC to go fan some other routes (was usually the N54/55)...

That was one of the perks of having all routes (N15, N22, N24, N78, N79) going to East Gate Blvd in both directions (Except during the Holiday traffic jams)

[RtrainBlues]

Very smart to have the N22x bypass Mineola Terminal, since it often takes 6 or 7 traffic lights to exit during rush-hour afternoons (hundreds of drivers leaving the multi-level parking lot back things up severely).  Willis/Hillside has very heavy ridership so it's a plus to add that stop.  More frequent N22x service is always welcomed too. They need to have an N24x too (ridiculous to stop practically every single block, especially in Queens).

They talked about reinstating a Nassau Hub Shuttle (Roosevelt Field/Mineola/NCC area).  Might help to get back all the students they lost due to N45/N51 and other cuts.  Very bizarre how they prioritized a "Shore Road Shuttle" in the Roslyn area, when a Nassau Hub Shuttle would likely have far more ridership.

[NY1635]

1 hour ago, RtrainBlues said:

Very smart to have the N22x bypass Mineola Terminal, since it often takes 6 or 7 traffic lights to exit during rush-hour afternoons (hundreds of drivers leaving the multi-level parking lot back things up severely).  Willis/Hillside has very heavy ridership so it's a plus to add that stop.  More frequent N22x service is always welcomed too. They need to have an N24x too (ridiculous to stop practically every single block, especially in Queens).

They talked about reinstating a Nassau Hub Shuttle (Roosevelt Field/Mineola/NCC area).  Might help to get back all the students they lost due to N45/N51 and other cuts.  Very bizarre how they prioritized a "Shore Road Shuttle" in the Roslyn area, when a Nassau Hub Shuttle would likely have far more ridership.

The Shore Road Shuttle was made possible with some funding from Nassau County, and a push from a couple of seniors living at the retirement community off West Shore Road. 

https://theislandnow.com/news-98/county-approves-shuttle-bus-for-west-shore-road/

[B35 via Church]

17 hours ago, RtrainBlues said:

.....They need to have an N24x too (ridiculous to stop practically every single block, especially in Queens).

Sure, people want faster service, but at the same time, NICE can't go too crazy doing that with the n24 - which is likely why they ended up dividing the n24 into 2 segments the way they have here (instead of not implementing an n24x of sorts, as was originally brought up in that NICE bus vision plan (or whatever it was called) they put out during the summer of last year)....

They can't afford to have buses/trips bypassing all those riders along Jericho Tpke....

[RtrainBlues]

Are they not going to do any of the stuff in the NICE Vision plan?  No N24x, no Mineola/Roosevelt Field/NCC "hub" shuttle, etc?  Those would have been great ideas. 

I do think the Manhattan to Nassau bus idea was crazy though (think of the empty buses that ran from Roosevelt Field to Manhattan about a year ago; I forget what the reason was for those, but I do know they were virtually empty and a total failure.)  Riders just need fast and frequent service to the 179th subway.  There's a frequent F express the remainder of the way.

[Axis]

One thing I feel like they should at least consider with fixing up the n24, if not an n24x designation, is at least making it completely closed-door in Queens (including that stretch of Jamaica Avenue shared with the Q36). Shame that the bidirectional n26 attempt didn't catch on well enough for it to be kept/expanded. I really do hope it's not because the timetables had it formatted wrong.

Bringing back the n28 was probably the last thing I expected, given NICE's recent history of killing off routes left & right, but if it catches on, more power to whoever intends on putting it to good use I guess?

And as a regular rider of the n20L designation back then, I'd be all for bringing back the n20L. This would do two things...one, it would eliminate the need for a transfer at Great Neck (which is needed these days due to the n20G/H split), and two, it would allow certain n20 trips to avoid the traffic that builds up in downtown Roslyn during rush hours.

I'd probably say that bringing back the n93 (the Nassau Hub Shuttle) could be in order (particularly due to no one route serving all three hubs directly, unless you count the n15's County Seat Drive service pattern). I would have it serve Mineola Intermodal, Roosevelt Field Terminal, NCC, Hofstra, HTC, and back to Mineola (like a loop). Maybe even have two variants, one clockwise loop, and one counterclockwise loop. No clue how it'd do during the Summer when most students are not in school by then.

-----

Also, kinda offtopic, I did some researching to see what older routes that were eliminated during the Long Island Bus looked like, and one thing in particular caught my attention. The n67 route (a School Days-only one at that). I always wondered if there was ever a route that went from Hicksville (the easternmost bus transit hub along the LIRR's Main Line), down to Freeport (which is now the easternmost bus transit hub remaining in Nassau County, as most of the NICE bus network east of Freeport along the south shore in Nassau County has since been obliterated). Apparently what the n67 did was mimic a short-turn of the n49, then upon meeting up with the n43, it would follow the n43 for a bit until terminating somewhere in Roosevelt. One idea could be to possibly look into bringing back this n67 designation, and extend it beyond it's two former terminii into Hicksville & Freeport respectively.

tl;dr -- Bring back the n67, and extend it to Hicksville/Freeport as a one-seat ride between Hicksville & Freeport, acting as a hybrid (pun intended) of the n43 & n49.

[Hound]

I think a better idea for a new route would be Hicksville to Oyster Bay via Syosset.