NICE buses roll out after state inspections

The entire Nassau County fleet of buses was required to undergo extensive safety inspections while the municipal Long Island Bus system was being privatized in December, becoming NICE Bus. While the buses were being inspected to meet New York State Department of Transportation standards, service continued, for the most part, as usual.

That was thanks to a temporary loan from the MTA and Transportation Workers Union Local 100. Nassau County borrowed around 40 buses and 25 drivers to keep service up and running in the final days of Long Island Bus.

Those buses and drivers have since been returned to the MTA, and all that remains of the old system are the nearly 300 buses in Nassau’s fleet, now rebranded with NICE labels and DOT certification stickers.

Buses were previously self-inspected by the MTA, which is not required to meet DOT inspection requirements. Now that Veolia Transportation operates NICE under a public-private partnership, buses will be inspected every six months, according to DOT requirements.

Nassau has Orion 5 and 7 series buses in its inventory; the oldest bus is a 2000 model. According to a mechanic who was with Long Island Bus for nearly 40 years, and who did not wish to be identified, the buses that were used to keep service going during inspections were older Orion buses, late 1990s models. Many drivers and mechanics question how the system will be able to run when inspection time rolls around again.

Though the inspection process in December was a major overhaul of the entire system, having the opportunity to borrow buses from nearby Queens allowed the inspections to run smoothly. The nearest system that Veolia operates is in Monmouth County, N.J., as part of New Jersey Transit Bus Operations. That raises concern for those accustomed to service under the MTA, as Veolia will no longer be able to borrow buses to keep the system up and running during inspections, as was the case in the past.