Skip to main content

Historic $106 million annual public-private transit agreement

In a historic and unanimous vote, the Nassau County Legislature, Long Island, New York, has approved a contract with Veolia Transportation to manage the county's bus and paratransit system under a new public-private operating partnership to commence January 1, 2012. The value of the contract is US$106 million annually and makes Veolia Transportation the service provider of four of the top five largest transit contracts in the US, including Nassau County, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Orleans. The company won
March 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
In a historic and unanimous vote, the Nassau County Legislature, Long Island, New York, has approved a contract with 4432 Veolia Transportation to manage the county's bus and paratransit system under a new public-private operating partnership to commence January 1, 2012.

The value of the contract is US$106 million annually and makes Veolia Transportation the service provider of four of the top five largest transit contracts in the US, including Nassau County, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Orleans. The company won the five-year contract with a five-year renewal option as part of an extensive procurement process managed by Nassau County that began early in 2011. The system has recently been re-named Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE).

The Nassau County transit system transports 31 million bus passengers and 280,000 paratransit passengers each year and has been managed by the New York MTA since 1973. This contract is an example of a new kind of public-private operating partnership pioneered by Veolia. The County retains ownership of buses, equipment, facilities and other infrastructure, plus control over fares and service levels, while Veolia manages and operates all aspects of the transit system on the County's behalf, bringing private sector efficiences and expertise.

"Nassau's public-private partnership with Veolia represents a new, smarter and more efficient way of providing services in Nassau County," said Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano. "Today marks a new era of service quality for riders, job opportunities for employees and reduced costs for local taxpayers. All across the US, taxpayers are demanding that governments spend less, be more accountable and deliver better quality - and with this partnership with Veolia Transportation, Nassau County is doing just that."

Related Content

  • February 2, 2012
    Carbon finance delivers critical support to mass transit schemes
    David Crawford investigates carbon finance in transport. World Bank carbon finance grants are delivering critical support to major mass transit deployments in emerging and developing economies. Only recently operative in the transport sector, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM, see panel) is designed to generate additional income streams and improve internal rates of return on projects funded from public- and private-sector sources.
  • April 29, 2015
    Public Private Partnerships to gather pace in the US
    Public Private Partnerships are set to play a big role in transportation funding as Andrew Bardin Williams discovers. The old joke goes that the road from New York to Chicago is paved with potholes. For decades, drivers from New York and New Jersey traveling across Pennsylvania to visit the Midwest have lambasted the Commonwealth’s roadways for their lack of smooth pavement.
  • April 17, 2024
    Conduent continues New Jersey contactless upgrade
    Company also recently supplied contactless payment options on transit in Pennsylvania
  • February 2, 2012
    Developments in smarter multi-modal fare paynment
    This section pulls together all the multi-modal topics in each issue. Subject matter will include smartcards; ticketing and payment systems; passenger information systems; fleet management for buses, trains and light rail; park and ride systems; on-line access to real-time information via Internet portals