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Mayor: Keep late-night bus service
Trial ends Saturday, but Fortin looks to keep it rolling through summer
The last night of the service, run as a trial on three routes over the past three months at a cost of about $121,100, is set for Saturday.
"Anecdotally, we hear that the buses -- the double-decker buses -- are leaving [downtown] full," said Fortin, a member of the Victoria Regional Transit Commission.
"We are hearing from the restaurant association that not only is it the people who are using downtown as an entertainment district but those that are in the service industry -- the waiters, the waitresses, the ushers and all of those are also relying on it."
The city's late-night task force, created last year to try to find solutions to problems of drunkenness and rowdiness downtown, would also like to see the service continued.
However, Victoria Regional Transit Commission chairman Christopher Causton said the service was budgeted only for the university term.
"When we budgeted, we said: 'OK, let's do it on a three-month period, see what it's like, and then if it's successful we'll reinstitute it during the school year back in September.' "
But Fortin believes the service would be well used throughout the summer. "The university breaks, but people start to work downtown and more and more tourists come. All of those just speak to the continuing need for later-night bus service," he said.
The trial saw the transit commission running buses Friday and Saturday nights until 1:30 a.m. on three routes: the No. 4 and the No. 14, which serve the University of Victoria, and the No. 6, which runs from Esquimalt to Royal Oak.
Normally, the last buses leave downtown around midnight.
The three-month trial will now be evaluated by staff before the transit commission makes a decision May 25 on whether to reinstitute it in the fall.
Causton said the extended-hours service is expensive. "Even though it's only three routes and only until 1:30 a.m., it requires the depot being open and that kind of thing."
As many students are leaving for the summer, UVic student society chairwoman Veronica Harrison is not concerned the service is slated to conclude for evaluation -- and she looks forward to seeing the report.
"Hopefully, if everything checks out, which it seems that it will, we'll be able to pursue this and be able to have late-night transit continue or expand."
bcleverley@tc.canwest.com
"SIGN FOUND ON BCT BUS"
Managers refuse to help, say spat-upon bus drivers
Victoria's B.C. Transit drivers are sick of riders spitting at them, and say management is penalizing instead of protecting them.
Bob Jones, president of Victoria operators' union CAW Local 333, said of six spitting assaults upon drivers, two of the altercations resulted in the drivers receiving three-day suspensions.
Jones said getting hit with a loogie is traumatic to drivers.
"It hurts your self-esteem, it's an attack," Jones said. "If someone is close enough to spit, they're close enough to punch. We want to see B.C. Transit take a harder line on this behaviour. They should be pushing for charges and convictions."
He points out that drivers who are hit in the eyes, mouth, nose or any open sore have to be treated for potential contamination of communicable diseases such as HIV or hepatitis.
"We've got no protection from these assaults," Jones said, adding that B.C. Transit doesn't seek prosecution of assailants or prohibit them from riding public transit.
Joanne Morton, B.C. Transit spokeswoman, confirmed that one suspension has occurred and it's being grieved, although she declined to give details, citing privacy rules. She said it's up to drivers to pursue prosecution against attackers and that Transit encourages them to do so.
Jones said the suspensions are sending a message to the drivers. "We're just supposed to sit there and take it."
The union wants to see roving on-board security, bans on aggressive riders and more signs warning that assailants will be prosecuted. He also wants B.C. Transit to investigate protective shields for drivers.
Morton said bus-driver shields have been discussed, but response by drivers has been "dismal."
Jones said drivers are attacked 50 or 60 times a year, with about 10 per cent of those attacks escalating to physical beatings.
Protective shields are being tested on the Lower Mainland, said Jim Houlahan, vice-president of CAW Local 111.
He said drivers there often face discipline for defending themselves.
Shields are being tested in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and San Francisco, Houlahan said.
Morton said B.C. Transit has formed a task force to examine the problem of assault, but is focusing its efforts for now on training drivers to defuse hostile situations.
"We take this just as seriously as CAW members," Morton said.
jhatherly@tc.canwest.com