The president of the union representing Halifax Transit staff is speaking out over harassment bus drivers and riders are facing from people loitering at terminals.
“There (are) no repercussions right now for somebody to assault a transit worker or passenger on a bus, and be removed and kept off that system,” said Shane O’Leary, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508.
With more people loitering at the Mumford, Lacewood and Dartmouth bridge terminals, O’Leary said Halifax Transit union is struggling to prevent harassment of riders and staff.
The loiterers are mainly young adults and teenagers, and O’Leary said he’s seen groups of up to 30.
O’Leary said staff have witnessed “drug use, damage to property, graffiti, harassing staff, harassing passengers, fighting.”
“There’s no enforcement of the number of people that can hang out,” he said.
Last month the municipality increased terminal restrictions, hoping it would deter loitering.
HRM spokesperson Maggie-Jane Spray said WiFi was shut off at Lacewood Terminal from 2 to 6 p.m. daily, and the Mumford Terminal building, close to the Halifax Shopping Centre, has been closing at 3 p.m.
But for some transit users, the closures aren’t sitting right.
“I mean, in terms of people who might be working in the mall, that may prove to be a problem for them,” said transit user Herbert Ferguson.
“I think it’s inconvenient for everyone else that’s not making trouble, especially in the winter,” added bus rider Cara Colgur.
The city also announced new service supervisors who will be stationed at the Dartmouth Bridge Terminal, and potentially the Lacewood Terminal as well.
But O’Leary said supervisors will be powerless without a new bylaw to give supervisors more authority.
“Why are they using a Band-Aid solution like that instead of having an actual force of either transit police, or a transit security system that works?” he said.
“Our transit road supervisors have no authority, other than the power of a bylaw to write a ticket in a parking spot. Other than that, they call the police.”
O’Leary said changes to give supervisors more authority are long overdue.
“With no authority to enforce the protection of property act, and council moving very slowly on getting a bylaw to protect transit workers and ridership, it’s just not moving quick enough,” he said.