RSS 2.0 FeedApril 28, 2011, Freeport-Baldwin Leader
County plans to privatize bus system
County set to turn over the bus program to a private company.
Long Island Bus and the MTA will part ways in 2012. Brian Nevin, communication director for County Executive Edward Mangano, told The Leader the county will move ahead with its plans to privatize the Long Island Bus system. “The MTA will not renew our contract,” said Mr. Nevin who did not provide details on the negotiations.
On April 1, state Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. helped to broker a deal to keep Long Island Bus up and running through the end of the year in order to give the two parties more time to iron out their differences.
But Mr. Nevin said the county believes it can provide comparable, if not better, service for less than the $9.1 million it now pays to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, especially after the MTA announced it would cut 25 of its 48 Nassau County routes, leaving about 16,000 people without service.
Meanwhile, the MTA wants to raise the county’s contribution and has asked for $26 million, which “can’t be done in a single year, not with the kind of budget crunch that Nassau County is facing,” said Mr. Nevin in an earlier interview.
A Request for Proposals was made by the county, to which three companies responded. Mr. Nevin said “an independent committee will make a recommendation to the county executive and from there, the recommendation will go on to the county legislature for final approval.”
This process should take a few weeks and “the county executive will announce the vendor sometime during the second week of May,” said Mr. Nevin, when the public will be able to take a look at the new plan.
Mr. Nevin added that the proposals indicate that the county will have to contribute between “$2.4 and $4 million and will be the same [level of service], if not better.”
But Ryan Lynch, the Long Island coordinator of Tri-State Transportation, a transportation watchdog group that studies mass transit, said, “Nassau’s privatization math doesn’t add up.”
Westchester and Suffolk Counties both have privately operated bus systems that cost Westchester $30 million and Suffolk $24 million in 2010.
“It’s not a real plan,” said Mr. Lynch in an earlier interview with this newspaper. “Especially if you are talking about the same level of service and fares. This public/private partnership would need much heavier subsidies.”
But County Executive Mangano countered in a press release, saying the county is “subsidizing New York City’s transportation system and bloated bureaucracy.” He believes a private company will be more efficient, accountable and “effective while not holding our taxpayers hostage for increased revenues year after year.”
But once a private company takes over, there is “no real accountability to the public,” said Mr. Lynch. “At the present time, there must be a public hearing [regarding fare hikes and service cuts]. It’s a flawed system, but it works for the benefit of the public.” A public hearing at Hofstra University on March 23 drew hundreds of bus riders who urged the MTA and county to work together.
