Nassau Inter-County Express

Just was bypassed by n21 towards glen cove at Northern and Lakeville. Very few people on the bus and was just passed by like we are not seen at all!!!

I didn’t think it could get worse than LI Bus. Be careful what you wish for. Publicly funded and privately operated, they both point the finger at each other.
Service is unreliable. Buses often don’t show up, and at 1:40 in the morning that’s a long wait until the next one, which you know will be overcrowded and late. I once waited 47 minutes just to get on a bus at 7:15 in the morning (while seven busses bypassed me), only to have the bus driver hold up the full bus because one person didn’t have her fare ready. Like this company doesn’t have more problems than $ 2.75?
Everyone is miserable, fights are common occurrences. This doesn’t exclude bus drivers either.
Veolia logic: declining ridership causes service cuts.
Real logic: service cuts cause declining ridership!
I think they’re in cahoots with U-​Bet – Extravagant-​Ripoff.

It really is anything but nice. Nassau Inter-​County Express replaced what was MTA Long Island Bus on January 1, 2012. Prior to this date the Nassau County bus system was run by the MTA, and while not perfect, would have gotten 3 stars from me. But Nassau County refused to pay the MTA the costs to operate the bus service and found a private contractor (Veolia Transportation) to operate the service for much less. There’s an old saying, you get what you pay for, and this is very true when it comes to public transportation. NICE Bus is one of the most unreliable, dirty, and unsafe public transportation operations in the New York Metropolitan area. You’re lucky if it ever shows up on time, they’re usually early, or very late. Often they do not show up at all. The buses are poorly maintained and breakdown alot. The buses themselves are dirty, and often have their ADA required announcements switched off. Gang grafitti is common inside the rear interior of the buses. What used to be a decent system with increasing ridership with MTA, has fallen to it’s lowest levels since 1998, all while public transportation systems around us are increasing. On average, the waits for the bus are much longer now than with MTA. Nassau County claims taxpayers are getting a bargain, but bus riders are not. Many of the fareboxes damage Metrocards, often wiping off the balances, and leaving riders with a card that will just display «Read Error» when they try and pay their fare. All these things have resulted in the aformentioned ridership drop, as many commuters and others leave the bus system, to take the LIRR, or more likely, move away to places where there’s better transportation options (New York City), or get a car adding more traffic to Nassau County’s already traffic clogged roads. Getting back to that saying, «you get what you pay for», it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when less money is put toward a bus system, service will be less frequent and less reliable. Unfortunately the riders do not have a choice as to where the County will shop for it’s transportation operator, and they’re forced to deal with a poor product from a for-​profit business, than a proven, public benefit corporation like the MTA. I would not choose to depend on the Nassau Inter-​County Express bus system for transportation.