Jan. 1 deadline for Nassau bus operations

Aiming to meet a Jan. 1 deadline, Nassau County and the new private operator of Long Island Bus are racing to complete a contract and ensure uninterrupted service for more than 100,000 daily riders.

The bus system's new chief, while acknowledging the company is pressed for time, said he is confident that a contract will be signed, a workforce hired and scores of other details worked out in time for the switch.

"We have no choice," Michael Setzer, incoming chief executive of LI Bus, said in an exclusive interview. "The MTA is going away on midnight, Sunday, January 1st."

Considerable progress has been made, officials said, since Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano announced in June that he had chosen Illinois-based transit company Veolia Transportation to take over operation of LI Bus from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Informational meetings were held this week for LI Bus employees, who Veolia officials expect will make up most of their team. Riders' ability to use MetroCards will continue. And the county has promised no fare hikes or service cuts in 2012.

In coming weeks, LI Bus riders may see local "checkers" hired by Veolia to sit on buses and count the number of people who get on and off at different stops and at different times, Setzer said. It will yield the most comprehensive picture of LI Bus ridership patterns ever taken, he said, and will help the company adjust service as needed.

But huge hurdles still must be cleared before the new LI Bus hits the road.

Lease agreements between Nassau and the MTA have to be worked out for the use of MTA fare boxes and facilities, such as the Mineola Intermodal Center and the bus terminal in Jamaica.

And just 16 weeks from the Dec. 31 expiration of the MTA's contract with Nassau, the county has not finalized a contract with Veolia. County officials had said they would have a contract 45 days after picking Veolia to take over LI Bus.

That was 99 days ago.

"If there's no contract yet signed, it's going to be extremely difficult for all these things to be in place and ironed out and to have a seamless transfer from one group to another," said Joseph Smith, who retired earlier this year as chief of the MTA's bus operations.

County and Veolia officials say they expect the contract to be signed sometime in the next week. It will require approval by the county legislature and the Nassau Interim Finance Authority. The county also said it will hold a public forum.

Nassau to give $2.5M

On Friday, Mangano released his proposed 2012 county budget, which includes $2.5 million for Long Island Bus. Veolia has proposed an annual budget of $106 million for the system.

Some transit advocates and Democratic lawmakers remain skeptical that the plan will go off without a hitch come Jan. 1, and they worry about the consequences if it does not.

"What we're talking about here is the fundamental shifting of an entire system," said Ryan Lynch, spokesman for the nonprofit Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a vocal opponent of the privatization plan. "And to get that done in four months without a contract even being signed is hard to believe."

Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) said he worries that the county will seek an 11th-hour bailout from the state to keep the MTA running its buses past January. A "worst-case scenario," he said, is that there would be no bus service at all in the county after December.

"I certainly have not gotten the sense that this is much of a priority for this administration at this point," Wink said.

One cause of delays, Setzer said, is a dispute between the county and the Transport Workers Union over a federal regulation that the union says guarantees LI Bus workers' wages and benefits for six years after the system changes operators. TWU spokesman Jamie Horwitz said the union has been raising the issue for nearly a year, but has been largely ignored.

"You wonder how these people would be able to run a bus system on schedule," Horwitz said.

Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said the issue "will be addressed in the contract" with Veolia. Without the matter resolved, the TWU has advised existing LI Bus workers not to apply for jobs with Veolia.

The company has said current LI Bus workers have until Sept. 30 to submit applications if they want to be considered before other outside applicants. LI bus employees at informational meetings this week took 800 applications away with them, Veolia said.

"I've got to keep working," said Robert Itchkow, 53, of Levittown, a LI Bus driver for 23 years who intends to apply to Veolia. "It's absolutely scary."

No guarantees for now

Veolia officials will not make any guarantees regarding workers' pay and benefits without a contract in place. Setzer said they expect to offer LI Bus workers the same salaries and benefits that they have now, but will not be able to keep employees in the state pension system.

Setzer also said the number of current LI Bus employees probably is greater than the number of jobs Veolia will offer because the MTA's operation, with 1,048 employees, is "overstaffed."

Setzer, who has run transit systems in Minneapolis and Cincinnati, said he sympathizes with those frustrated by the lingering uncertainties and feels "the exact same frustrations."

Veolia and MTA officials said they've been working hard on the transition since June. The MTA said it has had "dozens" of meetings with Veolia staffers, maintained daily communication, turned over loads of records and notified vendors about the change in operators.

Setzer would not say whether Veolia intends to cut service after next year. But he did note few options are available to make up the $35 million in MTA and county subsidies that LI Bus stands to lose next year. "You can't save $35 million by turning off the lights," Setzer said.

On Jan. 1, the MTA will hand over the keys to Long Island Bus to its new private operator, Veolia Transportation. Here's where the transition stands:

• Nassau County and Veolia have said they will not raise fares or cut service in 2012.