In 2011, the owner, Nassau County, decided to outsource the system to a private operator, Veolia Transport, due to a funding dispute with the MTA.

Those two companies had ended operations on August 14 after the PSC had denied their requests to increase fares from 20 to 35 cents.

[3] On April 13, 1971, the president of Hempstead Bus sent a letter to Nassau County Executive Ralph G. Caso saying that it might have to significantly reduce service, noting increasing costs for materials and labor, competition from cars, and the high interest rates needed to finance the 20 new buses it placed into service in August 1970.

[5] On May 22, 1971, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman William J. Ronan committed to Caso that the MTA would conduct a thorough study of Nassau's bus transportation needs, focusing on cross-county routes, and routes that feed Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stations.

[6] On August 20, 1971, Caso announced an agreement with the MTA to seek $500,000 from the state's supplemental budget to push off Stage Coach Lines' planned abandonment of its four routes, primarily to the Mid-Island Shopping Plaza that were set to begin that weekend.

The county would subsidize service until it could become self-sustaining, and would have to pay $5.6 million by June 15, which was the original offer it had made to the companies for their capital assets.

In addition, half fares would be implemented for the handicapped and elderly, and the UniTicket discount program for riders to and from Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stations would be expanded to be available at all 43 stations on the LIRR served by the MSBA on Long Island, along with Far Rockaway in Queens.

[19] In September 1976, a bus transit center opened at the Great Neck LIRR station to allow the creation of a system of buses timed to arrive at the stations at the same time, permitting short transfers to many other bus routes, and to enable short connections to LIRR trains.

In addition, the N51 was slightly rerouted to serve Nassau Community College and Hoftra University, and peak service was increased on busy routes, including the N4, N6, N15, N40, and N41.

[21] The MTA Board, on June 9, 1978, voted to seek a $605,000 grant from the UMTA to create four new bus transfer centers at the Mineola, Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, and Freeport LIRR stations.

The MSBA wanted to implement the plan at Freeport and Rockville Centre by January 1979, and at Mineola and Lynbrook by June 1979.

These included the extension of N22 Sunday service from Roosevelt Field to Mid-Island Plaza to match Monday to Saturday service, and the creation of the N51 route, which would operate between Merrick and Roosevelt Field via Nassau Community College and Merrick Avenue.

[25] In March 1981, officials from Nassau County announced that a new bus depot would be constructed at Mitchel Field for $23.5 million.

[30] In addition, fares on the buses to Jones Beach (other than the routes from Freeport and Wantagh) would increase by 25 to 75 cents depending on distance traveled.

[31] The new N46, N50, N70, and N74 routes would serve growing industrial areas in the eastern and central portions of the county and a new Hicksville transit hub.

For the 1984 summer season for Jones Beach, the JB21 would be discontinued, and the JB80, JB73, and JB50 would be consolidated into a new JB50 route from Mid-Island Plaza in Hicksville.

[citation needed] The system's name was also changed from Metropolitan Suburban Transportation Authority to MTA Long Island Bus in 1994.

[38] On April 30, 1994, the MSBA started a new shuttle bus between Woodbury and Hicksville station in coordination with the LIRR.

Service consisted of approximately 25-minute long western and eastern loops that met LIRR trains during rush hours.

[42][43] In 2003, Long Island Bus improved service to Hempstead using Federal funding available through the Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) program from the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

[44]: V-7, V-8 In 2007, Long Island Bus averaged over 109,000 weekday riders, many of which include customers connecting to other MTA services in the region.

[47] By March 2011, the MTA—citing Nassau's refusal to pay its contracted amount—proposed a set of major service reductions which would have eliminated 27 of its 48 routes and affected about 15 percent of its ridership, with the greatest impact on southeastern Nassau County, eliminating all routes operating south of Hempstead Turnpike and east of the Meadowbrook State Parkway (except for the N71).

A public hearing was held on March 23 on the proposed route changes and on the possible termination of the lease and operating agreement with Nassau County.

[49][50] After reviewing the service cut plans, County Executive Ed Mangano considered severing ties with the MTA and privatizing the Long Island Bus system.

Mangano then announced that he had retained Veolia Transport to operate the system beginning in 2012 through a public-private partnership, pending legislative approval.

[citation needed] In December 2016, NICE announced a $12 million budget shortfall for FY2017 and warned of additional service cuts.

[68] In July 2018, a multi-year plan to restructure and improve service on the system was released for public comment.

Levy Transit Facility (originally Mitchel Field Depot) is located at 700 Commercial Avenue in the East Garden City section of Uniondale, and is the headquarters and central garage for Nassau Inter-County Express fixed route service.

All buses are also equipped with "smart bus" technology from Woodbury-based Clever Devices, which includes automated onboard route and stop announcements.

However, Nassau Inter-County Express has recently hired Clever Devices again to replace its original "smart bus" system in most of the fleet with new on-board units and software that use GPS data to calculate the next stop announcements instead of odometer-based data with the older system.