News: TransLink Adds Security to Curb Queue-Jumping at Broadway Transit Hub

Source: CBC News

Posted: 09/04/08 2:16PM

Filed Under: Canada

Extra security guards and transit police officers have been brought in to try to stop bus passengers from butting in line at one of the busiest transit hubs in Vancouver.

The move by TransLink, the transit authority of B.C's south coast, came after confrontations between passengers, triggered by queue-jumping, on Wednesday morning at Broadway and Commercial Drive in east Vancouver.

Since Tuesday's return to school, there have been long lineups during the morning rush hours for the 99B-Line rapid bus along Broadway to the University of British Columbia. The lineup on Thursday morning stretched about 100 metres, with an average 20-minute wait to get on a bus.

TransLink has added a dozen transit police officers and security guards to try to maintain order at the Broadway transit intersection, where a SkyTrain line merges with various bus lines.

The additional security kept passenger crowds calm Thursday morning but didn't successfully stop everyone from jumping the queue.

"That's a very bad thing. I've seen a couple of people do that," Patrick Sauriol, a 99B-Line passenger, said.

Sauriol said he spent half an hour in line Wednesday, only to watch people cut in front and jump on the express bus.

"We told people to get to the back of the line. Nobody wants to really pay attention to that," he said. "If you are going to spend 25 minutes getting on a bus, you don't want to see people jumping ahead of you."

TransLink said it is reviewing procedures at the Broadway transit hub and will determine whether and what permanent changes are needed.

News: Union Offers Bus Driver Beating Reward

Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, November 30, 2007

VANCOUVER - The union representing bus drivers is offering a $2,000 reward for any information leading to the conviction of people who swarmed and beat a Coast Mountain bus driver on Halloween night.

The unidentified driver was dragged off a bus and hit after she threw some Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters near Commercial Drive and Napier Street.

A couple of passengers on the bus intervened and stopped the attack. But the driver was physically injured and emotionally traumatized.

Her union, Canadian Auto Workers, Local 111, said the woman is back driving a bus on a different route, but it will not release her name because she is still fearful of her attackers.

The union is calling on federal MPs to pass a private member's bill that would mean stiffer sentences for people convicted of assaulting on-duty bus drivers and other transit workers.

The bill proposed by Burnaby-New Westminster NDP MP Peter Julian would allow judges to impose sentences of up to 20 years for assaults on public transportation workers.

"Our members shouldn't be driving in fear," CAW Local 111 president Steve Sutherland told reporters Friday.

"You shouldn't be afraid to go to work because you might be assaulted."

Sutherland said he expects the number of attacks on drivers in Metro Vancouver will exceed the 241 assaults that occurred in 2006.

"There's no doubt it's getting worse," said Sutherland. "We're getting more brutal assaults and we're getting them for no reason."

News: Bus Driver Assaulted

Vancouver police are looking for two teenage girls after a TransLink driver was assaulted and a trolley bus was lit on fire Wednesday night.

TransLink says this bus was torched Wednesday night following an assault on the female driver.
(CBC)

Police said at about 10:30 p.m. the female driver stopped on Commercial Drive at Napier Street in East Vancouver and offered a group of young people Halloween candy.

"She opens up the door and she asks if they want some candy, " said Const. Howard Chow, a spokesman for Vancouver police.

"They say they do. She throws it out and for some unknown reason there's a bit of an argument or some yelling at the bus driver … Two teenaged girls then grabbed the bus driver, dragged her out and start beating on her," he said.

Investigators said two teenaged girls, reported to be wearing Santa hats, repeatedly "punched her multiple times in the head."

Read the full story here...

News: TransLink to vote on study into Millenium Line extension

Wednesday, July 18 - 07:55:00 AM
Treena Wood

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Another transit line could also be extended through Vancouver. TransLink will vote this week on whether to approve a $1 million study into running the Millenium Line from Commercial Drive to central Broadway, and eventually out to UBC. Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan supports the idea. If the expansion is completed, it should be done by 2009.