Now that the MTA has announced plans to cut 25 Long Island Bus routes, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is again promoting the idea of privatization to save the service. Mangano, who tried to find companies interested in the fall, claims the MTA is not running the service effectively and that privatization will cure those ills. “The MTA just wants more and more money. Now they want more money and they’re giving us half the service,” he said to Newsday.
As transit advocates and LI Bus workers were quick to point out, though, Mangano’s thinking is simply wrong. If the MTA can’t operate little-used bus routes at a break-even rate, a private company looking to turn a profit certainly won’t be able to offer the same service levels. Ryan Lynch from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign noted that Suffolk County’s system is a smaller one operated privately that requires three times the subsidies Nassau County has forked over to the MTA lately. “The county would be better served, and bus riders would be better served, if Nassau partnered with the MTA,” he said.
Mangano, who foolishly called for Jay Walder’s resignation over this issue in September, took heat from the MTA and LI Bus drivers as well. The MTA, which has cut LI Bus administrative costs by 30 percent, claims Mangano is just playing politics. “Mr. Mangano is more interested in shifting blame than in providing the service Nassau bus riders need and deserve,” spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
Cindy Tropeano, a driver who heads Committee to Save Long Island Bus, expressed her skepticism as well. “It would be worse, if not the same,” Tropeano said of privatization. “We’re hoping that they wise up and that somebody put some money into it so that all of this can go away.”
The MTA is hosting a hearing on the cuts in March, and the board will vote in April. Will Nassau County leave 16,000 of its residents out to dry or can a deal be reached? Stay tuned.
8 comments
Ironically, the city and TWU forced the MTA to absorb the privates within NYC. Their lower costs turned out to be even greater pension underfunding than the MTA. But the TWU got the state legislature to have the MTA eat that massive hole.
There is a way for private commuter-bus companies to work, but not of the LI Bus type. In New Jersey, Academy Bus runs buses along Route 9 (near the shore). I’m told the drivers are regular NYC commuters who pick up extra cash by driving a bus full of people to the city. They start at the southern end of the route, picking up passengers along the way, then park the bus in the city and go to work. At the end of the day, they get the bus, pick up their commuters, and make stops on the way home. For an extra $20k to $30k a year (plus a free commute), it’s not a bad gig.
Where does Academy park their buses in Manhattan? Most of the commuter buses drive back empty to NJ to park.
i think Academy has a yard along the west side highway in the vicinity of where the intrepid is.I also notice thier buses parked on 30th street between 9th and 10th Avenues.
I doubt that that type of idea would work in Long Island, though. Unless some express routes to NYC were created (to at least help the people who used to take the bus and LIRR), you’re not going to get drivers to want to do those routes.
On a side note, the best way might be for the MTA to pull a Student MetroCard-type trick and threaten to remove all service (even the high-performing lines) unless it gets its payment (though with Manango running the show, there is still the chance that he will deny the MTA its money). Then again, there is a good chance that a private operator would be willing to take over some of the more profitable routes (such as the N6 and N40/N41), even if they are forced to cut back service at unprofitable times. At least it would be better than no service at all (though, unfortunately, there would be a lack of regulation).
That might be the idea behind a couple of these reductions. The N55 and N79 are actually pretty cost-efficient, but the MTA could be eliminating them with the hope that a private operator (such as a dollar van operator) would take them over.
By the way, all of the ridership data for the reductions is over here: http://mta.info/mta/news/heari....._libus.pdf
Mangano wants to privatize the bus lines so that he can hand out no bid contraxts to his political donors.
Or just kill LI Bus since it’s a government funded service that is nessessary.
To be fair, the Suffolk County buses have to cover a lot more ground than their Nassau County counterparts while also not being able to provide any service at all on Sundays.