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In my day, being employed as a bus driver for the City of Winnipeg meant a well-paid, respected job and people looked up to you.

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Now people no longer want to be a transit operator against their worst enemy.

One driver publicly said he didn’t feel safe riding a uniformed bus at night and might instead walk for an hour this winter. Rudeness, disruptive behavior, loud antics and fare hopping (4.4 million times a year, according to the union) contribute to passengers like me saying “No Mas” and getting a car.

How did it get so bad? Start with the Transit website.

I looked at what the runners were told about how to behave and what the rules were.

You would think that the Code of Conduct would be featured on the Winnipeg Transit website. Think again.

On the info.winnipegtransit.com/en page, there are 13 icons and a sidebar menu. The icons link to details about fares, directions, service alerts and even “Join Our Team”. None concerns rules for passengers.

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The sidebar of the page contains 13 items and the fourth is “Driver Guide”. But when you click on it, you still don’t see the Code of Conduct. You see another drop-down menu with 15 items. Deep down the list, at number 13, is “Public Transportation Regulations and Code of Conduct.”

So you have to guess where to look, twice, to find the rules for taking a bus.

It’s hard to say why transit officials don’t want to make passenger rules a main feature of the website.

A page on the site mentions the “security initiatives” taken. He claims the Code of Conduct is posted on the website “to educate the public on expected behavior”, which again begs the question why it is hidden behind four steps.

There is no mention of the so-called “transit safety team” touted in the media last spring because it is not a transit force. No real improvement in safety has been seen since hiring more transit inspectors and “locating inspector stations at strategic locations throughout the city to assist in cases of emergency.” “incidents occurring for bus operators and passengers” in 2019. Nothing since.

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“Protection modules” have been installed on Portage Avenue, at Vaughan Street, and another on Graham Avenue, at Fort Street, and will be staffed by two inspectors on duty. “It’s really helpful for our bus operators to know that when they go through a certain place, there will be someone there to help them,” a transit official said.

Due to a chronic labor shortage, “helpers” are rarely on duty in the downtown shacks. And we could double the number of supervisors and it would do almost nothing to improve the situation.

Transit supervisors respond to calls based on priority, with more serious issues placed in the queue. To deal with a dormant situation, a potentially conflictual situation, a minimum of two officials are required, but with so few officials available, response times skyrocket or calls go unanswered.

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A city spokesperson said: “If someone appears to be sleeping on the bus, the first priority is to determine whether or not there is a medical emergency. Operators who report a sleeping passenger are asked to check on the welfare of the person if it is safe to do so…a transit inspector will make every effort to intercept the bus as soon as possible.

That’s the theory. In practice, drivers are asked not to leave the cabin, and if they do and are attacked, they are held responsible. And with too few inspectors available, buses heading downtown almost always have to report the problem to waiting officers.

With this practice, the city places unacceptable risks on drivers and passengers.

From what I’ve seen, riding the bus since March, the typical sleeper hasn’t paid the fare and is usually drunk and incoherent. They are most often neglected and disheveled. Passengers – and drivers – must share an enclosed, poorly ventilated space, constantly looking over their shoulders, lest an unsanitary freeloader suddenly wake up and turn around before a supervisor boards .

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Not very sure.

A seasoned operator told me, “I have heard and experienced many banned, disruptive, unaware passengers or chronic evaders who ride buses for hours and are never visited by transit supervisors. »

Sometimes the sleeping person will be awake and if there is no obvious problem, they will head to a destination. If they are asked to disembark and refuse, inspectors must call the police – who will arrive when they get there.

Now, what happens if a sleeper is one of the 60 people currently banned from Winnipeg Transit buses and facilities?

Basically, nothing.

“Our procedure for responding to people banned from buses prioritizes the safety of our operators and other passengers,” Transit said, and “operators do not enforce bans.”

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I learned that it starts at the bus stops. Drivers are reprimanded if they DO NOT pick up a banned person they recognized and frequent violators constantly get on the bus because nothing happens to them. The worst part is that they are asked to leave. That’s it. What if they fell asleep?

“Prohibited individuals – provided they are not in medical distress or pose public safety concerns – may be permitted to travel a short distance to a predetermined destination,” according to the spokesperson, and a inspector “will accompany the bus to confirm”. the person cooperates and leaves at the determined destination.

No ticket for trespassing, no summons, no consequences.

That’s right, we can’t stop banned troublemakers from boarding a Transit bus. If they sleep? They are woken up and taken home free of charge.

So why wouldn’t the Code of Conduct be buried on the Transit website? Instead of enforcing it, management buries it every day in front of paying drivers and passengers.

— Marty Gold is a journalist from Winnipeg. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Do you have any thoughts on what’s happening in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or the world? Send us a letter to the editor at [email protected]

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