Nova ScotiaThe unions representing most Halifax Transit employees say ongoing safety issues are impacting riders and operators, while also creating a ripple effect of delays into the bus service.Incidents involving youth saw the largest jump from 2022 to 2024Haley Ryan · CBC News · Posted: Sep 08, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoNew Halifax Transit data shows more than 150 physical incidents happened on buses or at terminals in 2024, most between passengers. (Robert Short/CBC)The unions representing most Halifax Transit employees say safety issues are impacting riders and operators, while also creating a ripple effect of bus service delays.New data from the municipality shared with the Halifax police board last week shows physical incidents on buses, ferries and at terminals have risen slightly in recent years, while verbal and racial incidents more than doubled. Incidents involving youth rose six times over.”We’re in a city now, with our population growth that … the ridership should be growing exponentially,” said Patricio Garcia, president of the Halifax local of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents operators.”The only way it’s going to grow exponentially, and be able to have the service that we need and … be able to cater to the public, is … the entire service has to be safe for everybody that’s using it and operating it.”There were 113 physical incidents in 2022 versus 160 in 2024, with most taking place at major bus terminals like the Bridge Terminal in Dartmouth, and Scotia Square and Mumford Road in Halifax.Patricio Garcia is the president of the Halifax local of the Amalgamated Transit Union. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)Although most of the 2024 physical incidents involved conflicts between passengers (111), about 40 were passengers confronting operators. Halifax bus drivers sit behind a Plexiglass screen while driving, but Garcia said these incidents still happen when drivers walk off the bus or step out to help people in wheelchairs.”To me that shows an increase because now there’s an added layer of protection, yet the assaults are still there,” Garcia said.The transit data said about 31 per cent of the physical incidents in 2024 involved youth.Overall incidents with young people — which includes being a disruptive passenger or intoxicated — jumped from 177 in 2021 to 624 in 2024. About 300 incidents had happened this year as of the end of June.The free student pass program, which began in 2021, has meant a large increase in the number of junior and senior high students taking transit.Garcia said that is a great initiative, but young people are now hanging out at terminals for hours at a time and the behaviour is much worse than “loud kids.”Halifax Transit data shows a major jump in incidents involving youth, which reflects issues in Nova Scotia schools. (Robert Short/CBC)There are fights and disruptions on the buses, Garcia said, which impacts passengers and creates a safety concern for drivers trying to navigate traffic at the same time. Young people have also brought knives and bear mace, he said, and some operators are still off work related to those weapons incidents.This rise in youth incidents reflects what has been happening in schools across Nova Scotia. The provincial government brought in a new code of conduct this year, after violent incidents jumped 60 per cent since 2017.The number of physical incidents has remained a fraction of one per cent of the Halifax population in recent years. The 160 incidents from 2024 was just 0.03 per cent of the 530,167 people within the Halifax region that year.That fraction of a per cent becomes ever smaller when applied to the 32.3 million boardings over the 2024-25 fiscal year.But NSGEU president Sandra Mullen said she has heard from the transit supervisors the union represents that these incidents take time to resolve. Sandra Mullen is president of the union that represents Halifax Transit supervisors. (Patrick Callaghan/CBC)”The direction is to call police. Yet when the police take over two hours to respond, that has delayed that transit system part for two hours. And that causes … a ripple effect,” Mullen said.Garcia said his union would like to see more police or dedicated transit safety officers on buses.But Mullen said Halifax has enough supervisors to really make a difference if they had more training to handle incidents without police, including helping people who have overdosed in terminals.There were 141 verbal incidents in 2022 versus 340 in 2024, according to the transit data. Examples include fare disputes or operators having to speak to disruptive passengers.Racial incidents rose from 36 in 2022 to 83 in 2024, spiking last December when there were 14 in one month. These incidents are recorded when “racially offensive comments” are made among passengers, or to operators or supervisors.”Those kinds of things have mental long-term effects on people. And that’s the kind of stuff that people have to realize —doing that is causing a lot of harm for everybody involved,” Garcia said. “That hurts the image of the city, that hurts the image of the of the province.”Data from Halifax Regional Police and RCMP in the report also broke down the 427 violent incidents reported in three years between 2022 and 2024, with 134 occurring last year.Most (208) were Level 1 assault, which cause minor or no injuries, while 78 were uttering threats, 70 incidents of assault with a weapon causing bodily harm, 24 incidents of sexual assault, and 14 incidents of robbery.CBC News asked for an interview with Halifax Transit staff about safety, but they were not made available. Halifax working on safety plan for transitCity spokesperson Brynn Budden said trends in Halifax reflect increasing concerns around safety and security the rest of the Canadian public transit industry is seeing.In recent years, she said the municipality has added security guards to all ferry terminals and high-traffic bus terminals, and added supervisor positions to terminals with the most issues.Staff are also working on a safety plan related to transit security, Budden said.She also said Halifax Transit is working with public safety staff, Halifax police, the RCMP and community groups with a focus on youth and vulnerable people.ABOUT THE AUTHORHaley Ryan is the municipal affairs reporter for CBC covering mainland Nova Scotia. Got a story idea? Send an email to haley.ryan@cbc.ca, or reach out on Twitter @hkryan17.
Unions say safety issues causing delays in Halifax Transit service
