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Drivers who weren't from Long Island Bus weren't trained properly either. Some barely know English and can barely read a map. Who knows where they got their CDL from. Some drivers were trained in a parking lot. There are numerous complaints daily about drivers not knowing their routes, making wrong turns, skipping stops, dropping off in Queens on Eastbound routes, picking up in Queens on Westbound routes, etc. This isn't a professional system anymore, and sure NICE needs drivers because many have left, but who's going to pay them and what are they going to drive?
I am curious about this too. I wonder if they even have a CDL license...They should let me drive that thing. A handful of NICE bus drivers don't seem to speak much English and some seems to be mentally insane. lol. NICE is def. less professional but MTA drivers were really surly tho.
Also I had experience where MTA drivers didn't know the route either. I remember once how the MTA driver once drove through a residential neighborhood getting stares. The craziest was when the bus once went off the charts & we were on the clearview expressway!
Last edited by nancy thereader; 12-12-2015 at 08:42 PM..
I am curious about this too. I wonder if they even have a CDL license...They should let me drive that thing. A handful of NICE bus drivers don't seem to speak much English and some seems to be mentally insane. lol. NICE is def. less professional but MTA drivers were really surly tho.
Also I had experience where MTA drivers didn't know the route either. I remember once how the MTA driver once drove through a residential neighborhood getting stares. The craziest was when the bus once went off the charts & we were on the clearview expressway!
Having a CDL license doesn't mean you're a good bus driver, though I'm sure management is following the law and hiring drivers with CDL licenses because we don't offer CDL training, only our before-operation training. Not sure though since most of the driver information is kept private. And even then, it's not enough. The MTA drivers may have seemed surly back in 2011, but that was only because their job was in jeopardy thanks to the county. But nothing will ever beat the MTA's training. Before the county had started talks about breaking ties with the MTA, the MTA was ready to start consolidating Long Island Bus fully into it's Regional Bus Operations. That would've meant relief buses at the ready, extra drivers and extra maintenance if needed, and a whole lot of resources at LIB's disposal. The MTA trained Long Island Bus drivers with the same standards they train their city bus drivers with. Weeks of training and practice both with and without management. While the last year of Long Island Bus wasn't the greatest as the MTA prepared to move out, all those years of MSBA and the MTA's operations were a lot better compared to NICE.
^^absolutely correct. Same as passenger license...having it doesn't equate to better drivers. Current NICE drivers seem a notch lower than MTA. MTA drivers were just surly in general....worse when the break up was announce.
As I noted in post #3, 2 yrs ago...Aside from the poor maintenance of the NICE bus, NICE overall is about notch below MTA LIB. Both are sub standard overall. That is just my personal opinion. If NICE is doing for fraction of the budget, its quite amazing
Sidenote from my comment in another thread....MTA LIRR also seems to be on a slow decline. I can say my beloved Port Wash line which is supposedly the best line is seemingly worse & worse
^^absolutely correct. Same as passenger license...having it doesn't equate to better drivers. Current NICE drivers seem a notch lower than MTA. MTA drivers were just surly in general....worse when the break up was announce.
As I noted in post #3, 2 yrs ago...Aside from the poor maintenance of the NICE bus, NICE overall is about notch below MTA LIB. Both are sub standard overall. That is just my personal opinion. If NICE is doing for fraction of the budget, its quite amazing
Sidenote from my comment in another thread....MTA LIRR also seems to be on a slow decline. I can say my beloved Port Wash line which is supposedly the best line is seemingly worse & worse
The Port Washington line has slowly gotten more and more service during the middays and late-nights as what was cut years ago is restored. LIRR ridership increased last year, MTA NYC Bus Service ridership increased last year, NJ Transit ridership increased, and Westchester County's bus system ridership increased, while NICE bus ridership decreased yet again for the 2nd year in a row. NICE may be able to stretch the dollar a little farther than the MTA did, but this is in no way amazing nor better than the way MTA ran things for how many times the price.
If there's something I can add to this, it's the following:
I regret deciding to take classes at NYIT Old Westbury, as opposed to NYIT NYC. Why? Because now I'm experiencing first-hand how much of a horrible system NICE bus is.
On the first day of the semester (January 20), I boarded the N20 bus in Flushing terminal at around 9:15 AM, when it would've left the terminal under the old schedule. The new schedule had that trip's departure time pushed back to 9:25 AM. Guess what time the driver left? 9:15 AM.
After we went past Wheatley Plaza, I got ready to get off at NYIT Old Westbury, and the bus stop is located inside a little loop right off of Northern Boulevard. Well imagine my surprise when the driver DID NOT KNOW he was supposed to go inside that loop. Luckily for everyone, I rode the N20 from Flushing to NYIT & back during Winter Break as a trial run of my commute. If not for me, he would've completely bypassed NYIT, upsetting several students getting on & off the bus.
Let's fast forward to March 10th.
I leave campus at 8:10 PM, looking forward to taking the 8:23 PM trip. We don't even get on the N20 bus until 8:46 PM (which was the 8:23 PM trip badly delayed). After exchanging some words with fellow students at the bus stop (one of whom was unaware of the N20 bypassing Roslyn Clock from 8 AM to 10 AM until I told her about it), and after overhearing some complaints from the swarm of 30+ people who boarded our bus at Great Neck LIRR, I came to the following conclusion:
An earlier N20 trip set to leave Hicksville LIRR AM at 7:35 PM had bypassed BOTH the NYIT Loop, AND the Great Neck LIRR branch. Ultimately, I missed the 9:45 PM Q50 trip by 3 minutes, and ended up taking two Subway trains in a fit of rage.
On March 12, I was leaving campus at around 4 PM, when I saw a late Flushing-bound N20L bus boarding in the distance, and I started running. When I got there, the driver just closed the doors right in my face, and pulled away only to stop at the traffic light just feet away from the stop. I tried knocking on the door, but the driver simply shook his head and drove off. Jerk...
Guess what happens next? I get a "pleasant" surprise by an old Orion V Suburban #1019 at 4:20 PM, and as a sucker for Orion V buses with coach bus, I "let it go" this time. One problem, this bus is so old, it went so much slower than the regular Orion V's for the entire trip -- the Limited designation did nothing to help my cause. As a result, I end up missing BOTH the 5:05 PM AND 5:20 PM trips on the Q50 line in Flushing because of this.
And now for today, I get off the Q50 at 11:19 AM in Flushing, running to catch the 11:20 AM N20 trip. Once again, the driver ignored my knocking & leaves me. What I notice is the vehicle is the same type (each N20 trip seems to have a fixed vehicle type assigned to it) & the driver is the same, both are the same as the one who stranded me back in March 12. Now I can be pissed...
And a bunch of other mentions:
(1/29/2015) Boarded Orion V CNG 1015 at NYIT OW at 4:20 PM. Front rollsign stuck on N55 designation.
(3/3/2015) Class dismissed at 6:45 PM due to "incoming snow". Trip meant to arrive at NYIT OW is completely MIA. Trip scheduled to arrive at 7:15 PM arrives at 7:25 PM. Reached Flushing at 8:40 PM, rushing to catch Q50 bus at 8:45 PM. Bus does not arrive 9:12 PM (assumed to be 9:15 PM trip). According to customer complaints (and MTA Bus Time at some point) the 8:15 PM & 8:45 PM trips completely "disappeared".
(3/12/2015) 12:00 NN trip out of Flushing, Orion VII 1709's front rollsign is stuck on "Not In Service".
I guess if I had to sum it all up, I'd best be starting a GoFundMe account/page to get money for a car (and EZPass), so I don't have to put up with "Mangano The Horrible" & his butt buddy, the "Not So NICE & Not Really Express Bus" system anymore.
My sincerest apologies if this may have came off as tl;dr, crude, or nitpicking, but as an Electrical & Computer Engineering student from Westchester County whose daily commutes go from 90 minutes each way to as much as 4+ hours each way between home & two college campuses, I feel I have nowhere left let this all out. If managed to read this whole thing, I thank you for time.
If there's something I can add to this, it's the following:
I regret deciding to take classes at NYIT Old Westbury, as opposed to NYIT NYC. Why? Because now I'm experiencing first-hand how much of a horrible system NICE bus is.
On the first day of the semester (January 20), I boarded the N20 bus in Flushing terminal at around 9:15 AM, when it would've left the terminal under the old schedule. The new schedule had that trip's departure time pushed back to 9:25 AM. Guess what time the driver left? 9:15 AM.
After we went past Wheatley Plaza, I got ready to get off at NYIT Old Westbury, and the bus stop is located inside a little loop right off of Northern Boulevard. Well imagine my surprise when the driver DID NOT KNOW he was supposed to go inside that loop. Luckily for everyone, I rode the N20 from Flushing to NYIT & back during Winter Break as a trial run of my commute. If not for me, he would've completely bypassed NYIT, upsetting several students getting on & off the bus.
Let's fast forward to March 10th.
I leave campus at 8:10 PM, looking forward to taking the 8:23 PM trip. We don't even get on the N20 bus until 8:46 PM (which was the 8:23 PM trip badly delayed). After exchanging some words with fellow students at the bus stop (one of whom was unaware of the N20 bypassing Roslyn Clock from 8 AM to 10 AM until I told her about it), and after overhearing some complaints from the swarm of 30+ people who boarded our bus at Great Neck LIRR, I came to the following conclusion:
An earlier N20 trip set to leave Hicksville LIRR AM at 7:35 PM had bypassed BOTH the NYIT Loop, AND the Great Neck LIRR branch. Ultimately, I missed the 9:45 PM Q50 trip by 3 minutes, and ended up taking two Subway trains in a fit of rage.
On March 12, I was leaving campus at around 4 PM, when I saw a late Flushing-bound N20L bus boarding in the distance, and I started running. When I got there, the driver just closed the doors right in my face, and pulled away only to stop at the traffic light just feet away from the stop. I tried knocking on the door, but the driver simply shook his head and drove off. Jerk...
Guess what happens next? I get a "pleasant" surprise by an old Orion V Suburban #1019 at 4:20 PM, and as a sucker for Orion V buses with coach bus, I "let it go" this time. One problem, this bus is so old, it went so much slower than the regular Orion V's for the entire trip -- the Limited designation did nothing to help my cause. As a result, I end up missing BOTH the 5:05 PM AND 5:20 PM trips on the Q50 line in Flushing because of this.
And now for today, I get off the Q50 at 11:19 AM in Flushing, running to catch the 11:20 AM N20 trip. Once again, the driver ignored my knocking & leaves me. What I notice is the vehicle is the same type (each N20 trip seems to have a fixed vehicle type assigned to it) & the driver is the same, both are the same as the one who stranded me back in March 12. Now I can be pissed...
And a bunch of other mentions:
(1/29/2015) Boarded Orion V CNG 1015 at NYIT OW at 4:20 PM. Front rollsign stuck on N55 designation.
(3/3/2015) Class dismissed at 6:45 PM due to "incoming snow". Trip meant to arrive at NYIT OW is completely MIA. Trip scheduled to arrive at 7:15 PM arrives at 7:25 PM. Reached Flushing at 8:40 PM, rushing to catch Q50 bus at 8:45 PM. Bus does not arrive 9:12 PM (assumed to be 9:15 PM trip). According to customer complaints (and MTA Bus Time at some point) the 8:15 PM & 8:45 PM trips completely "disappeared".
(3/12/2015) 12:00 NN trip out of Flushing, Orion VII 1709's front rollsign is stuck on "Not In Service".
I guess if I had to sum it all up, I'd best be starting a GoFundMe account/page to get money for a car (and EZPass), so I don't have to put up with "Mangano The Horrible" & his butt buddy, the "Not So NICE & Not Really Express Bus" system anymore.
My sincerest apologies if this may have came off as tl;dr, crude, or nitpicking, but as an Electrical & Computer Engineering student from Westchester County whose daily commutes go from 90 minutes each way to as much as 4+ hours each way between home & two college campuses, I feel I have nowhere left let this all out. If managed to read this whole thing, I thank you for time.
I have seen worse. Imagine having the last bus of the night never show up? It's happened to me 3 times already in 2015 alone, fortunately there was a train station nearby so I wound up taking the LIRR to another bus route. When a bus breaks down, they DO NOT fill that run, and whatever route or run it is assigned to is missed. Even if its the last bus. When MTA Long Island Bus was here, broken down buses were replaced as much as possible. NICE doesn't really have a spare board, basically in the LIB days you had a spare board...drivers who were on standby in case of drivers calling in sick or breakdowns. But because NICE doesn't have one and can barely scrounge enough buses up for service each day, runs go missing. Then there's the fact that the average wait times for buses have increased under NICE, they are scheduled to come less frequently. Other routes end earlier, some as early as 5:30pm! And because NICE doesn't want to give drivers too many hours, they often end their runs earlier and deadhead back to the depot. NICE has undone the work MTA did to have buses be as productive as they can. Now when they reach an end point, they go out of service and deadhead (that means run not in service) back to the depot, even when the route they are running would TAKE THEM BACK IN THAT DIRECTION ANYWAY.
They are always reducing service every quarter (as in 3-4 months), the last change they made cut most of the bus service at Jericho Quad. Ridership is down, a Newsday article last year quoted it as 60,000 riders a day, that's down from the nearly 110,000 riders LI Bus had in 2010! It's obvious when you cut service you lose riders. If buses seem more crowded, its only because they are less frequent and often affected by missing runs. Your experience shows the lack of training at NICE. Now the MTA had a top notch program, drivers were trained in NYC with the city drivers and had to go through a rigorous program. NICE just trains them in half a parking lot with traffic cones and then they are out driving a bus. Unlike the MTA, NICE doesn't train them on the routes, that has to be done on the employees own (unpaid) time, many dont and get lost.
It's a classic example of "You Get What You Pay For". Mangano didn't want to pay for quality bus service, so he aint getting quality bus service! Unfortunately bus riders count for less than ants in this county, the media,etc dont care. I have gotten nowhere despite complaining to everyone in the news and pols till my face turns blue. We are NOT welcome. They have made that very clear.
Just be glad you at least live in the city where transportation is decent, I live out here, and my life has been turned upside down by NICE. I am forced to use the LIRR more often, but its more expensive and has it's shortcomings, esp where I live in Westbury since most trains just sail on past without stopping. I can't afford a car and really am not capable of driving (personal reasons). I have been trying to move somewhere better for me in Nassau (again..personal situation) but the better areas are all too expensive. Talk about a rock and a hard place!
Basically Nassau has become a place for only rich people. Only the rich will have access to good train service (ie safe areas along the Babylon line) and amenities close by, bus riders and the poor and middle class are not welcome.
Mangano has taken this county backwards. Most people dont care because they drive, the buses don't affect them, or so they think. However the decline in bus service is going to hurt the economy here and it already has, and everyone in Nassau will be left paying for that.
I would try and switch to schools in NYC or Westchester (at least Westchester cares about its bus system) or find one by an LIRR station. But you can't rely on NICE to be anywhere for anything.
And they have a $5 Million shortfall again this year, major cuts could be coming later this year. Good luck with everything!
I have seen worse. Imagine having the last bus of the night never show up? It's happened to me 3 times already in 2015 alone, fortunately there was a train station nearby so I wound up taking the LIRR to another bus route. When a bus breaks down, they DO NOT fill that run, and whatever route or run it is assigned to is missed. Even if its the last bus. When MTA Long Island Bus was here, broken down buses were replaced as much as possible. NICE doesn't really have a spare board, basically in the LIB days you had a spare board...drivers who were on standby in case of drivers calling in sick or breakdowns. But because NICE doesn't have one and can barely scrounge enough buses up for service each day, runs go missing. Then there's the fact that the average wait times for buses have increased under NICE, they are scheduled to come less frequently. Other routes end earlier, some as early as 5:30pm! And because NICE doesn't want to give drivers too many hours, they often end their runs earlier and deadhead back to the depot. NICE has undone the work MTA did to have buses be as productive as they can. Now when they reach an end point, they go out of service and deadhead (that means run not in service) back to the depot, even when the route they are running would TAKE THEM BACK IN THAT DIRECTION ANYWAY.
They are always reducing service every quarter (as in 3-4 months), the last change they made cut most of the bus service at Jericho Quad. Ridership is down, a Newsday article last year quoted it as 60,000 riders a day, that's down from the nearly 110,000 riders LI Bus had in 2010! It's obvious when you cut service you lose riders. If buses seem more crowded, its only because they are less frequent and often affected by missing runs. Your experience shows the lack of training at NICE. Now the MTA had a top notch program, drivers were trained in NYC with the city drivers and had to go through a rigorous program. NICE just trains them in half a parking lot with traffic cones and then they are out driving a bus. Unlike the MTA, NICE doesn't train them on the routes, that has to be done on the employees own (unpaid) time, many dont and get lost.
It's a classic example of "You Get What You Pay For". Mangano didn't want to pay for quality bus service, so he aint getting quality bus service! Unfortunately bus riders count for less than ants in this county, the media,etc dont care. I have gotten nowhere despite complaining to everyone in the news and pols till my face turns blue. We are NOT welcome. They have made that very clear.
Just be glad you at least live in the city where transportation is decent, I live out here, and my life has been turned upside down by NICE. I am forced to use the LIRR more often, but its more expensive and has it's shortcomings, esp where I live in Westbury since most trains just sail on past without stopping. I can't afford a car and really am not capable of driving (personal reasons). I have been trying to move somewhere better for me in Nassau (again..personal situation) but the better areas are all too expensive. Talk about a rock and a hard place!
Basically Nassau has become a place for only rich people. Only the rich will have access to good train service (ie safe areas along the Babylon line) and amenities close by, bus riders and the poor and middle class are not welcome.
Mangano has taken this county backwards. Most people dont care because they drive, the buses don't affect them, or so they think. However the decline in bus service is going to hurt the economy here and it already has, and everyone in Nassau will be left paying for that.
I would try and switch to schools in NYC or Westchester (at least Westchester cares about its bus system) or find one by an LIRR station. But you can't rely on NICE to be anywhere for anything.
And they have a $5 Million shortfall again this year, major cuts could be coming later this year. Good luck with everything!
Everything Mangano has touched has been a disaster - from giving Damato's PR company client the bus contract to chasing down taxpayers with 22 year old outstanding tickets - meanwhile high school grads who were real estate agents are making 6 figure salaries "running" agencies packed with political buddies and old Suozzi administration hang ons.
I am constantly seeing NICE buses pulled alongside all over - not sure if they are just taking a break or broken down - they race you to pull out of their parking spaces - can't tell you how many near misses I had with these buses that don't even look before wrestling you right out of your lane and if you beep to warn them they give you the finger. Nice NICE. How long is that contract he got us into?
The people who take the N35 bus to hempstead and back to atlantic ave are suffering extreme hardship and we are crying out for some help. Everyday I wait by Merrick and Grant ave for over an hour and a half, sometimes longer for a N35 bus to show. It seems like there is only one bus on this route because I had to wait for bus #1729 to travel from Hempstead all the way to Atlantic Ave and come back to pick us up to take us to hempstead. The same bus...what the hell.... A great number of people travel this route. Can we have more buses on this route. At least 2 buses is definitely needed, one going to hempstead while the other heading to Atlantic Avenue. I think that makes sense.
Let me tell you - taking the NICE bus on Long Island is the pits! On-time performance should be at @ 20%.
Can understand how it could possible take over 2 hours to go 13 miles! There are many people living on the edges of the bus routes, and yet, they are not services at all.
I am, unfortunately, one of these people. The timetable do not - at all - give the correct times. If you need to be somewhere in Nassau County by 9am - you better leave before 7 am - buses that don't show up - late buses - and the best is that there is no one to call - all you have is an automated system that does not help at all.
Does anyone use the app? Is it accurate and useful? When cold weather comes this will be handy so I don't have to freeze my butt off waiting...
The customer service folks at NICE number 516.336.6600 don't even know it exists and they may offer to help you find where your bus is at the moment but only until 5pm b/c they gotta go home!...so pathetic...
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