Halifax bus driver says staffing ‘stretched to the max’

As part of the push towards returning to full service, Halifax Transit recently announced several changes that will come into effect on Nov. 20 as part of the municipality’s Moving Forward Together Plan (MFTP).

Most notable is the introduction of four new routes in the areas of Bayers Lake, Windmill Road through Bedford, Dartmouth Crossing and Portland Hills. In addition, schedule adjustments will be made to 22 routes to “improve service quality and reliability” while 55 previously suspended trips will return.

Ray Mackenzie, a bus driver with nearly two decades of experience, said the upcoming changes are concerning to workers as Halifax Transit’s resources are already “stretched to the max” while employees are consistently asked to work overtime.

“We’re still having operators being assigned on the weekends, we’re still not fully staffed up,” he said.

Mackenzie, who’s also vice president of ATU 508, the union representing transit workers, added that drivers are being assigned to routes “all over the city”, which creates an unpredictable and sometimes lengthy commute for operators heading into their workday.

“It’s cutting into family time, cutting into everything, if you’re being assigned in on your days off,” he added.

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Mackenzie said staffing issues seem to be most challenging throughout weekends as there are currently not enough employees to volunteer for overtime, so they’re forced to come in.

He said he hopes to see working conditions improve and for Halifax Transit to “staff up” if they’re looking to continue expanding bus services within the municipality, as staffing numbers have significantly reduced compared to recent years.

Patricia Hughes, director of planning at Halifax Transit, said the implementation of new routes and resuming of previously cancelled trips is part of a plan to provide a “balanced approach.”

She said this has been made possible following a trend of positive growth over the last six months regarding staff numbers.

“We’re definitely recruiting more than we’re losing at this point … so we’re on the right track, which is why we’re really happy to put some service back in and add in some trips,” she said.

Evan Trenholm, a public transit advocate, said he interprets the recent adjustments to routes as beneficial to some commuters, but they’re not “huge changes”. He said if he was to give Halifax Transit a grade on the announcement, it’d be either a “C” or “D”.

“For those who want to use transit to shop in other places than the Halifax Shopping Centre, it’s a great addition … but for people that are on the outskirts of the current realm of transit, or (face) some of the overcrowding issues, it’s really not doing anything to address that,” he said.

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Trenholm said despite ridership going up, the areas experiencing the biggest increases are going unaddressed.

“Major overcrowding on the route 90 needs to be addressed either with frequency or larger busses and further expansion to access routes. Here in Sackville, we haven’t seen any additional growth.”

Trenholm said the best approach for Halifax’s transit service to properly meet the rising public demand is to continue funding operations while increasing staff recruitment.

“Halifax Transit is going to be in a very pivotal role as Halifax’s population continues to grow,” he said.

“Traffic is just unmanageable right now and the only way we’re going to be able to address that in a reasonable way is to have more people taking transit.”

Despite concerns from some drivers and advocates about the conflicting combination of expansion during a period of reduced staff, Hughes said she thinks the bus drivers will be well-equipped for the upcoming changes.

“That’s why it’s a phased approach. That’s why we’re not implementing all of the things we said we were going to do this year, but we feel like we’ve struck a good balance so we’re comfortable we can provide the reliable service out there on the road.”

Hughes said Halifax Transit will be “cautiously” reintroducing services to make sure they maintain a balance while still responding to the increasing demand.

“We actually, in September, reached our pre-pandemic ridership levels … September was about 101 per cent of 2019’s ridership, so we’re back to full ridership plus more. So, a lot of pressure everywhere for transit services,” she said.

As for the adjustments and additions arriving in November, MacKenzie doesn’t exactly share the same sentiment — as he isn’t too confident the service expansion will go according to plan.

“We’re not even back to 100 per cent service, we’re still two-thirds down on that reduction (of drivers),” he said.

“I would say at a minimum right now, they’re going to need at least 80 to 100 more operators to handle any more of that expansion.”

— with files from Zack Power