VTRU Opposes New “Fare Awareness and Enforcement Program”
BC Transit’s new Fare Awareness and Enforcement program is a failure before it begins. You can’t educate someone into having money, and you can’t shame people into affording transit. These campaigns aren’t effective. They’re performative. Read our full press release for more.
Fare-free for Students
If you haven’t already, please send a letter to the Minister demanding that the Province expand their Get on Board! program to cover teens across the province. If you have, please post to your socials and get your friends to send letters. We are nearly at 100, help get us over that line!
BC Budget Consultation Committee
On June 2nd our Press Liaison Liz presented to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services about fare-free transit and the UBCM resolution for fare-free for students. You can listen to the presentation, the questions from the committee members and Liz’s answers on our YouTube.
Cowichan Transit Strike
Unionized transit operators, mechanics, and cleaners in the Cowichan Valley have been in contract negotiations with Transdev, the private contractor operating the region’s public transit, since spring 2024. On February 8th, they made the difficult but courageous decision to strike, demanding nothing more than fair wages and the basic dignity of bathroom breaks.
Now, nearly five months in, this has become the longest transit strike in B.C. history. And yet, the workers remain unshaken. Their resilience in the face of Transdev’s continued refusal to recognize these fundamental needs is nothing short of heroic. Denying bathroom breaks is not just an oversight. It’s an affront to human dignity.
We stand unapologetically with these workers. Their fight is righteous, and their demands are just. Transdev’s intransigence, refusing to meet even the most basic standards of workplace fairness, should outrage us all.
We urge you to send a clear message to the mayors and councillors of the Cowichan Valley, to BC Transit, and to the B.C. Minister of Transportation. Enough is enough. It’s time to put people before profits and restore basic justice to public transit in the Cowichan Valley.
Draft Quadra McKenzie Plan
The QMP is once again before council for a vote on Monday July 7th at 7pm.
After the last meeting, council asked the staff to defer any modification of McKenzie Avenue vehicle lanes and specific transit priority measures to a future process in consultation with BC Transit. We continue to call for bus lanes and transit priorities along this critical corridor. More info is available at Saanich Quadra McKenzie Plan, on the Saanich Council Agenda, and at BC Transit Tillicum-McKenzie Corridor Transit Plan.
Petition: Redirect ICBC Rebates to Build Liveable Communities
Our friends at HUB Cycling are calling on the government to reform how future ICBC surpluses are used. Instead of rebating $410 million dollars, use that money to expand public transit. Please add your name to their petition!
HandyDART for People Not Profit!
The Amalgamated Transit Union who represents HandyDART drivers in Metro Vancouver is asking TransLink to bring the service back in-house instead of contracting it out to Transdev, a company from France, the same one who locked out the Cowichan transit workers. Write a letter to Provincial and TransLink decision-makers asking them to bring the service back under public control.
Double Investments in the Canada Public Transit Fund
Alliance TRANSIT from Quebec is calling on the Federal government to double the funding they provide to public transit all over Canada. We agree fully with them and have also signed the letter (scroll down for English).
Zohran Mamdani
On June 24th, Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic Party primary race, making him the parties candidate for Mayor of NYC for the election on Nov 4th. He won this with progressive policies like making all buses in NYC free.
Read more about A Year Without Fares: Lessons From New York’s Free Bus Pilot, or his platform, or check out this video on Instagram.
Podcasts
The CBC podcast This is Vancouver Island has had two episodes recently about transit. Why handyDART users are frustrated in Greater Victoria discusses how it’s getting harder and harder for people to book the rides they need. Island transit has gotten more chaotic. Here’s why discusses the issues with intercity transit options (or the lack there of) and the Cowichan strike.
The BC Labour Heritage Centre podcast On the Line: Stories of BC Workers had an episode Conductorettes – The First Women to Drive Transit that shared stories from the women who worked as streetcar conductors in Vancouver during World War II when many men were overseas fighting fascism.
Do you have any transit related podcasts to recommend us?
Videos
Our friends over at Movement had an interview with Christof Spieler, a transit advocate, to hear his outside opinion on how Metro Vancouver stacks up. There’s some interesting discussion of how transit should be funded in there as well.
Morning Brew has a great video on the history of LAs transit (and streetcars) and what a mess car dependency has created.
Have you seen any good videos about transit we should watch?
Want to get involved with VTRU and our ongoing fight for fare-free and excellent transit for all? Write to us at victransitridersunion@protonmail.me to find out how you can do that.