Two years ago, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, faced
with a sizable countywide budget deficit, unveiled a budget that called for $10
million to be cut from the Suffolk County Transit subsidy. As a result, Suffolk bus riders had hanging
over them the threat of significant bus service cuts. SCT did make a few moves to try to stave off
the cuts, including switching S76 and 7A from regular sized buses to smaller repurposed
SCAT (Suffolk County Accessible Transportation) paratransit vans. (I truly
believe switching S76 and 7A to the repurposed SCAT vans saved them from
elimination.) SCT also tried to get more
State Transit Operating Assistance (STOA) money from Albany, but to no avail.
By summer 2016, SCT concluded that it could no longer put off these bus service
cuts and eliminated the following routes: 1B, S35, 7D, 7E, S71, 5A, S90, 10A,
10D and 10E. These cuts, which went into effect on October 10, 2016,
represented the first really significant SCT service reductions since the
late-1980s/early-1990s era, and they left parts of Suffolk County without any
bus network coverage. (There is no bus
service at all on the Montauk Highway
corridor between Eastport and Hampton Bays, and there should be.)
Since last year’s bus service cuts in Suffolk, we’ve seen
another round of cuts in Nassau and a history-making election which saw Laura
Curran become Long Island’s first-ever female county executive. This could
represent an opening for there to finally be true intercounty cooperation when
it comes to the bus systems. Maybe Bellone, a Democrat, would be more willing
to cut a deal with Curran, a fellow Democrat, over the terms of subsidizing
former and current intercounty routes such as n19, n70, n72 and n79, and to a
lesser extent S20 and S33.
The Suffolk portions of NICE Bus routes n19, n72 and n79
became expendable in large part because of how much mileage they traveled in
Suffolk County--six miles for n19 from the county line to Babylon, 4.6 miles
for n70 from the county line to Newsday in Melville, eight miles for n72 from
the county line to Babylon and three miles for n79 from the county line to the
Walt Whitman Shops—and NICE determined that their ridership levels didn’t
justify keeping them in service, especially with Suffolk County not subsidizing
these segments. Suffolk replaced some,
but not all, of the abandoned n19 routing fairly quickly by reconfiguring S20
as a loop route that probably costs Suffolk less money per vehicle mile than if
Suffolk were to pay NICE its rate for keeping n19. (According to the National
Transit Database, NICE’s per vehicle revenue mile cost as of 2015 was $11.63,
versus Suffolk County Transit’s $5.79.) However, the n19/S20 solution doesn’t
seem to be as viable for the other intercounty routes, or else Suffolk would
have replaced the abandoned n72 routing from Farmingdale to Babylon by now, and
there needs to be a bus route on Route 109. As for n79, if it were to be cut
back from the Walt Whitman Shops, there doesn’t appear to be any other
plausible site at which the route could connect with SCT or HART routes. Nassau
and Suffolk officials need to get together to determine how these abandoned route
segments will be subsidized if revived by NICE.
So here are a few questions and issues that I think need to
be addressed going forward:
-Do some serious thinking about S20. Currently, the Merrick
Road/Montauk Highway leg of S20 covers about 5.8 miles of the former n19
routing from Babylon to the Sunrise Mall. Should the loop setup continue or
should it be broken up into two parallel routes from Babylon to the Sunrise
Mall? And should the Merrick
Road/Montauk Highway leg (possible S19) use more of the former n19 bus stops? Or should county executives Bellone and
Curran cut a deal for S20 to be returned to its traditional routing and
scheduling and for n19 service to and from Babylon to be reinstated? Also, S20 is not using all of the former n19
bus stops. Why? Could all those bus stops still be NICE Bus property and thus
be off limits to SCT? Couldn’t Suffolk
County arrange a one-time payment that would free some of those former n19
stops to be used by S20? Here are some
of the former n19 stops that could be used by S20 but are not:
Montauk Hwy
+ S. Strong Ave, Lindenhurst/Copiague
Montauk Hwy
+ S Greene Ave, Lindenhurst
Montauk Hwy
+ Park Ave, West Babylon
Montauk Hwy
+ N. Emerson Ave, in front of ACE Hardware in Copiague
Montauk Hwy
Opposite Bryan Ave, Amityville (in front of Stop N Shop)
Montauk Hwy
+ Bryan Ave, Amityville
Montauk Hwy
+ Coolidge Ave, Copiague/Amity Harbor
Merrick Rd +
S Ketcham Ave, Amityville
Montauk Hwy
+ Riviera Dr West, Lindenhurst
Montauk Hwy
+ Beachwood Dr, Babylon
Montauk Hwy
in front of Kmart, West Babylon
-What about Route 109?
Should Suffolk County start paying NICE to revive n72 service to and
from Babylon? Also, should Suffolk pay
to keep n79 service to and from the Walt Whitman Shops?
-Should 1A incorporate some of the routing of the
now-defunct 1B?
-Should SCT try a North Lindenhurst to Great South Bay
Shopping Center shuttle incorporating parts of 1B and S35?
-Should SCT restore the bus stop signs at bus stops along
Great Neck Road in Copiague that were used by both S31 and the now-defunct 1B?
-What about network coverage along Montauk Highway between
Center Moriches and Hampton Bays?
-Should S71 be revived?
If so, how? Should the entire route be revived, or should it be broken
up? Should S71 be a weekday peak hour only route? And what about a possible
merger with S76?
-Should 7D (Shirley) be revived for network coverage? Should it be a loop or a straight north-south
route? Should it be merged with a
revived and partly realigned 5A?
-Should S58 be broken up into two routes, as was recommended
in a nearly decade-old report on the Suffolk bus system?[i] If so, the western portion, from the Smith
Haven Mall to the Walt Whitman Shops, should be numbered S55, not S22. (S22 should be reserved for a possible n72
replacement along Route 109.)
-Finally, I really believe that the 2015 switch to smaller
repurposed SCAT vehicles saved S76 and 7A.
Therefore, most of the routes that are revived should probably use
smaller ARBOC “Spirit of Mobility” vehicles.
[i] Comprehensive Bus Route Analysis and Service Development for the
Suffolk County Transit Public Bus System, Interim Report: Recommended Plan.
October 2009: 31-32.
Last updated on November 28, 2017
