Students, faculty and staff from Nassau Community College will return to school next fall with new express bus service from Nassau Inter-County Express – including non-stop buses between Hempstead and Jamaica and the campus. The service is part of a series of significant system service enhancements beginning on Sept. 1.
The enhancements at NCC were unveiled at a recent meeting at the Garden City campus at which NICE CEO Mike Setzer was joined by the college’s Acting President Kenneth Saunders and Student Government Association President Thomas Jackson II.
In addition to establishing non-stop express service connecting both Hempstead and Jamaica to the college, all six routes that service the college – the N6X, N16, N35, N43, N45 and N51 — will now stop at all nine stops on or around the campus. Service will run every five minutes during rush hour and every 10 minutes midday.
“Many of our 23,000 students and 14,000 part-time continuing education students rely on mass transit to get to class, including NICE bus. Making it more convenient and quicker for them improves their daily routine, including better accommodating their course schedule, and will encourage more students to take the bus to NCC,” said Saunders.
Setzer said the college is one of the busiest destinations in the bus system and should basically be treated like a major transit hub.
“Designing the system in a way that maximizes available resources, improves service for our customers, and also increases ridership, are our goals. We especially want to encourage young people to be transit users in Nassau County and this is one way that we reach large numbers of that group,” Setzer said.
Leading up to the service enhancements, NICE hosted a series of three community information sessions to educate riders and others –and get their feedback– on enhancements and improvements.
September’s enhancement will include additional bus frequency on the highest volume routes, restoration of some midday and Saturday service, new express routes and extended express service to the colleges near the Nassau Hub. There will be no changes to Able-Ride service or to fares.
Information about the service enhancements is available at www.nicebus.com by clicking “Service Adjustments Effective Sept. 1, 2013.” Both current schedules and new schedules that will be displayed in advance of the changes.
