Great Neck Loop averts NICE cuts” (Janelle Clausen — April 14) did not prevent the closing of the Rockville Centre Bus Depot on April 9.
The old Bee Line Bus Garage in Rockville Centre was rebuilt in the late 1980s with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation Urban Mass Transportation Administration.
Today, this is the Federal Transit Administration.
At a total cost of $10 million, Washington provided $8 million.
Local matching funds of $1 million each were provided by state Department of Transportation and Nassau County All U.S. DOT Federal Transit Administration capital improvements have a useful life requirement contained in the master grant agreements with Nassau County.
Work was completed with beneficial use in the late 1980s.
Useful life of the overall facility was more than 27 years.
As a result of NICE bus closing this depot on April 9, Nassau County is now on the hook with both the Federal Transit Administration and the state DOT.
This shut down could result in U,S. DOT Federal Transit Administration requesting reimbursement by Nassau County, based upon straight line depreciation for the remaining value of this investment that was never achieved.
The same could also be true with New York State DOT.
Has Nassau County on behalf of NICE Bus approached U.S. DOT Federal Transit Administration and state DOT with a plan to either temporarily mothball the garage (with the clear intent to reopen the facility at a later date) or permanently shut it down?
Over time, there have been other capital investments to the Rockville Centre Bus Depot, including compressed natural gas fueling stations, facility modifications to accommodate Compressed Natural Gas buses inside, new roof, doors, bus washers, HVAC and other support equipment necessary to run the facility.
Just like a homeowner, items require constant maintenance, periodic upgrades and eventual replacement years later.
Capital physical assets of any bus system eventually reach the end of their useful life based upon straight line depreciation and/or manufactures warranty.
Significant changes in technology may also require replacement of outdated equipment.
What is the current remaining value for millions of dollars in additional U.S. DOT Federal Transit Administration funded capital improvements and new fixed assets to Rockville Centre Bus Depot between 1990 and today that have yet to reach their useful life?
They will have to be accounted for.
What has Nassau County done with any active NICE capital improvement contracts at Rockville Centre?
How much money will Nassau County have to reinburse both U.S. DOT Federal Transit Administration and state DOT for remaining useful life value of numerous capital improvements made to the Rockville Centre Bus Depot over the past 27 years.
There are a number of issues to contend with in the consolidation of up to 100 buses previously assigned to Rockville Centre with the Mitchell Field Bus Depot.
Mitchell Field was designed and constructed in the late 1980s to provide heavy maintenance for a total fleet of 325 buses.
It was also designed to accommodate a fleet of 225 buses for day to day operations, light maintenance and indoor storage for routes based out of Mitchell Field.
There is no indoor storage capacity for up to 308 buses.
As a result, many buses reassigned from Rockville Centre to Mitchell Field will have to be stored outside.
Exposing buses to rain, snow, sleet and cold weather impacts the useful life of a bus by acceleration of physical deterioration.
Compressed natural gas fueling stations, bus washers and other day to day support equipment will also be affected.
More buses returning to the garage will be stacked up outside waiting longer before being fueled and washed.
There are insufficient bays, pits and lifts to provide light maintenance for 308 versus 225 buses.
Elimination of a significant number of routes could result in a reduction of the total bus fleet.
U.S. DOT FTA allows a peak fleet and up to 20% for spares.
By cutting routes, NICE Bus reduced the peak fleet bus requirements a number of buses.
Has Nassau County, on behalf of NICE Bus, requested both U.S. DOT FTA and state DOT permission to either temporarily increase the spare ratio above 20%, move buses over 12 years old or with 500,000 plus mileage that have met the useful life requirement into a contingency fleet, sold them off at auction or transfer some surplus buses less than 12 years old to another transit operator. Has any current order for new replacement buses been reduced or canceled?
Has any bus procurement, which has yet to be awarded, been postponed?
There will be additional costs for buses operating out of Mitchell Field versus Rockville Centre on routes assigned to Nassau County south shore.
How many millions of dollars will NICE Bus require from Nassau County to modify the Mitchell Field facility especially expanding indoor storage capacity?
This will be necessary to accommodate most of the 90 buses formerly assigned to the Rockville Center Bus Depot.
More time and mileage will be accumulated on buses starting out each day and dead heading back to the bus depot after completing the last trip.
The success of both MTA Long Island Rail Road $2 billion Main Line Third Track along with $10.8 billion and growing East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal projects are also dependent upon NICE Bus being able to expand feeder service to various LIRR stations.
How will NICE bus be able to accommodate any future expansion of the existing bus fleet with only one working bus depot when these additional services are required?
Even with adding thousands of commuter parking spots at various LIRR stations, there will still be the need to accommodate some of the many new LIRR riders with new additional service provided by NICE Bus.
How would NICE Bus be able to accommodate the needs of any new bus services as a result of implementing any recommendations from the ongoing Nassau Hub Transportation Study?
What is the current status for Nassau County on behalf of NICE bus on completion of a dialogue with U.S. DOT FTA & State DOT to resolve all of these issues?
Has resolution been achieved on these complex issues? What will the final costs to Nassau County taxpayers be?
In fiscal year 2016, Nassau County was allocated $10,884,670 in 5307 and $385,923 in 5309 federal funds.
To obtain these funds, a 20% local match is required.
State DOT and Nassau County each contributed 10% or over $1,408,000 to come up with these matching funds.
These funds are passed on to NICE Bus under a Program of Projects.
Five million, six hundred thousand in 5,307 funds plus 20% local match provided by Nassau County and New York State are used for preventative maintenance which offsets some operating costs.
In fiscal year 2017, similar amounts of federal funds will be available.
Nassau County has the ability to program more of these dollars to preventative maintenance.
The down side is that there would be less funding available for replacement buses and other routine state of good repair capital projects.
Going back decades, previous capital programs managed by NICE Bus and its predecessors — Long Island Bus and Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority’s were almost totally dependent on federal funding with local match. Spending more money each year on preventative maintenance rather than other capital projects in the long term could adversely impact both replacement bus and state of good repair capital programs.
It is the equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
If Gov. Cuomo can find $2 billion in new money for the MTA LIRR Main Line Third Track, why not several million so NICE Bus could have avoided closing the Rockville Center bus depot?
In the end, it would have been cheaper for Nassau County to come up with several million additional dollars necessary to support NICE Bus.
This could avoid closing the Rockville Centre bus garage and eliminating or reducing service on the balance of routes cut on April 9, rather than potential paying back both Washington and Albany.
Since the takeover of private bus operators in 1973, for the past 44 years, Nassau County has been expanding the bus system capital infrastructure and facilities (Mitchel Field & Rockville Centre bus depots, Stewart Avenue Paratransit Facility & Hempstead MultiModal Bus Terminal), buses and other equipment. Nassau County and most recently NICE bus have partnered together in successfully attracting millions in discretionary federal and state capital dollars.
Consolidation and closing of facilities, elimination of bus routes and reductions to the bus fleet is not the best way to build credibility with both U.S. DOT FTA and State DOT when asking for additional future discretionary funding for NICE Bus.
Larry Penner
(Larry Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the United States Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office)
