Setzer: Bus deal will be NICE for Nassau

Michael Setzer is vice president of Veolia Transportation and will serve as chief executive of NICE bus.

The Nassau Inter-County Express bus contract being considered by the Nassau County Legislature spells out how the county will for the first time assume control over its own transit system.

Throughout months of negotiations, the county and Veolia negotiated numerous measures into the contract to protect the interests of riders. As a result, the contract includes oversight and controls that dictate not only how the system will operate but how changes to fares and service levels can be proposed, reviewed and approved.

This contrasts sharply with the county's relationship with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which afforded riders and the county little control over fare increases and service cuts.

The NICE contract ensures ongoing involvement of county government. It establishes an appointed transit committee of county residents with significant powers, and mandates ongoing public participation through public hearings, which in addition to paratransit and bus passenger advisory committees, will give riders, transit advocates, community groups and others can have a strong voice. It also includes significant financial incentives for Veolia to provide more service, not less, and to improve the quality of service.

The transit committee must approve an annual plan and budget, as well as any fare or significant service-level changes. The contract defines a new, transparent process for considering adjustments to routes and fares. Overall, Veolia has little discretion over these adjustments. For routes, only the most underutilized ones that require the greatest taxpayer subsidy can be candidates for examination or adjustment.

Further, Veolia can only recommend a fare increase, not impose one, and will do so only if it is absolutely necessary to ensure that the system operates with a balanced budget -- taking into account funds that are available to the system along with the county's own choice on how much bus service it wants to have. All proposed changes must be reviewed by the transit committee and follow a public participation process.

The committee will also monitor Veolia's performance and will review a quarterly report card that rigorously measures important performance criteria, including on-time performance, missed service, cost per mile and customer complaints. The contract, which runs for five years, also empowers the county to unilaterally terminate its relationship with Veolia with only 90 days notice, while Veolia must give the county one-year's notice of intent to terminate.

This arrangement is not privatization, which generally means an outright purchase of all assets and full management control by a private, third-party. Instead, the county has decided to enter a public-private operating partnership. Under contract to the county, Veolia will have day-to-day responsibility for running the system, while the county continues to own it.

There have been significant inefficiencies in the current MTA Long Island Bus system that affect both taxpayers and riders. Veolia and the county's goal is to provide the maximum amount of service for each dollar available, and to reshape the system to put resources into the routes and service that are in the greatest demand. Through effective scheduling, service design, advanced technology, fuel efficiency, bulk purchasing, centralized administration, safety programs and other advantages, we can run more efficiently than municipal authorities.

The current Able-Ride service area will not change in 2012 and 2013, and the hope is that it can be expanded. Veolia fully expects that MetroCard and free transfers will continue, pending an agreement with the MTA, which is being negotiated. We want to provide as many jobs and as competitive wage and benefits packages as possible for bus system employees, within the funds that Nassau County has to spend on public transportation.

Calls to have the MTA continue operating Long Island Bus are ironic, given that many of the concerns that critics of the partnership have expressed -- including service cuts, fare hikes and threats to abandon service -- all occurred with the MTA in recent years.

Veolia has been preparing for this transition since June and has assembled its best people to do a great job for Nassau County. We're confident riders will love the new NICE bus service.