NICE Bus Cutting Back Service Due To Decreased Ridership

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — With decreased ridership due to the numerous shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced that the Nassau Inter-County Express Bus, or NICE Bus, would start operating on a reduced schedule beginning this weekend.

Curran said that the NICE Bus service has seen decreased ridership since the more strict stay at home orders were issued by Gov. Cuomo. To make up for it, buses will start running a Saturday schedule all week, starting on April 5. The new schedules will be in effect Monday through Saturday. Sunday service will be unchanged.

The bus service is also going to be cleaning and disinfecting the buses more often.

"The health and well being of our community, our riders and our employees are our number one priority here at NICE," the transit authority wrote in a release. "And accordingly, we have instituted new cleaning protocols for all of our vehicles and Hempstead Transit Center facility. All fixed-route buses, shuttles and Able Ride vehicles are being cleaned and disinfected every 12 hours. Additionally cleaning and disinfecting is scheduled daily at Hempstead Transit Center."

A few routes will continue unchanged. The Elmont Flexi Shuttle, Mercy Medical Community Shuttle, Port Washington Shuttle, and the n19, n57 and n80 routes will all run as normal.

Three routes are being entire cancelled, NICE Bus said: n1 Jamaica trips (transfer to/from n6 instead), n15 County Seat Drive trips (walk/transfer to/from n22/24) and n35 NCC Campus Loop (walk/transfer to n16/35) are all canceled.

The modified schedules will be available starting April 5, and the NICE Bus GoMobile app will also be updated to reflect the changes.

For the full list of routes that are affected, click here.