There is more to the recent Feb. 16 Nassau Inter County Express (NICE) bus public hearing regarding closing the Rockville Centre bus depot, along with eliminating or reducing service on some bus routes to bridge a potential deficit of up to $7 million dollars in their 2017 budget.
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 known as 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 the state Department of Transportation and Nassau County.
All 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.
Should NICE bus attempt to close this depot in April, 2017, Nassau County will be on the hook with both Federal Transit Administration and the state Department of Transportation.
This shut down could result in Federal Transit Administration requesting reimbursement by Nassau County, based upon straight line depreciation for the remaining value of this investment which was never achieved.
The same could also be true with state DOT.
Nassau County on behalf of NICE bus will have to approach 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 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 (including revenue vehicles along with bus facility components such as HVAC, bus washers, paint booths, engine shops, bays, pits, lifts, doors, fueling stations, lighting, security systems and many others) 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Significant changes in technology may also require replacement of outdated equipment.
Current remaining value for millions of dollars in additional Federal Transit Administration-funded capital improvements to Rockville Centre bus depot between 1990 and today have yet to reach their useful life.
They will have to be accounted for.
What will Nassau County do with any active NICE capital improvement contracts at Rockville Centre?
What will Nassau County do with Federal Transit Administration funds in open active grants whose contracts have yet to be awarded for work at Rockville Centre?
Nassau County could have to pay back millions more for remaining useful life value of numerous capital improvements made to the Rockville Centre bus depot over the past 27 years.
This could more than offset $1.5 million in savings NICE bus anticipates by closing the depot.
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.
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 peak requirement by 40.
The Federal Transit Administration allows a peak fleet and up to 20 percent for spares.
A reduction in peak service requirements by 40 buses has other consequences besides loss of service to riders.
Nassau County will have to request both Federal Transit Administration and state DOT permission to either temporarily increase the spare ratio above 20 percent, move buses over 12 years old or with 500,000 plus mileage that have met the useful life requirement into a contingency fleet, retire them or transfer some surplus buses less than 12 years old to another transit operator.
Any current order for new replacement buses may have to be reduced or canceled.
Any bus procurement which has yet to be awarded may have to be postponed.
There will be additional costs for buses operating out of Mitchell Field versus Rockville Centre on routes assigned to Nassau County south shore.
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.
It might make sense to transfer operations of the N33 bus route operating between the City of Long Beach and Far Rockaway A train subway station route to the City of Long Beach.
A majority of riders are residents of the City of Long Beach.
Buses serving the N33 route could utilize the City of Long Beach Bus Garage.
Deadheading of buses to and from the Rockville Center Bus Garage would be eliminated.
Buses could join the existing City of Long Beach eleven bus transit fleet.
This would result in fuel savings and better on time service performance.
Nassau County, on behalf of NICE bus, could transfer several buses currently used on the N33 route directly to the City of Long Beach.
Both FTA and Federal Transit Administration would probably have no problems as long as the buses remain in transit service.
Has Nassau County on behalf of NICE bus initiated a dialogue with Federal Transit Administration and state DOT to resolve all of these issues?
It can take several weeks to several months before resolution can be achieved based upon the complexity of issues.
In FY 2016, Nassau County was allocated $10,884,670 in 5307 and $385,923 in 5309 federal funds.
To obtain these funds, a 20 percent local match is required.
State DOT and Nassau County each contributed 10% or over $1,408,000 to come up with these matching local funding.
These funds are passed on to NICE Bus under a Program of Projects.
Five million six hundred in 5307 funds plus 20 percent combined county/state local match are used for preventative maintenance which offsets some operating costs.
Nassau County has the ability to program more of these dollars to preventative maintenance.
The down side of this 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 versus other capital projects could in the long term 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 $7 million so NICE bus can avoid service cuts and closing of Rockville Centre Bus Depot?
In the end, it may be cheaper for Nassau County to come up with several million dollars necessary to support NICE bus.
This could avoid closing the Rockville Centre bus garage and eliminating or reducing service on a significant number of routes, rather than paying back both Washington and Albany.
Larry Penner
(Larry Penner is a transportation historian, advocate and NICE bus rider who previously worked 31 years for the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office.)
