This transit strike is gonna put a chokehold on Vancouver.
It’s been a few days since the dreaded transit strike that took out 90% of the buses in Vancouver and left thousands of commuters without a way to make it to anywhere. I was one of those. I mean I could go to school but I would’ve walked for 7 hours. Ain’t got no time for that!
Transit is at the heart of Vancouver as a city. It’s one of the things I like about Vancouver in general. The ease and relative convenience of transit here. I mean I know it has its problems but it has way better problems than the ones I have experienced before. Also I don’t have a car too so I depend on transit even more.
I hope things get better between the union and the CMBC because according to the news that if it doesn’t, they’ll stop all forms of public transit from Friday Feb 3rd to Monday Feb 6th. That’s a full weekend of no transit, carpooling, and expensive Ubers. I’d rather just stay at home lol.
Okay, let’s take a step back to see what’s the effect on this for the city. First off, no transit means a lot of workers wouldn’t be able to get to their jobs, and that means businesses, especially the smaller ones, would just close for the day, and that is lost revenue and a lost day that they’ll never get back. It’s going to be a stress test for the BC Government on how Vancouver will work… without work.
And let’s be real, regardless of the debates between both sides about if the bus supervisors are worthy of the wage hike equal to their train counterparts, it’s only going to be hectic as if the bus supervisors win (I’m on this side as they deserve that pay), CMBC will work on ways to make reasons to increase the price of transit, little by little for them to have us actually pay for the wage hike. If bus supervisors lose, it’s only gonna be worse because they’ll just downright stop serving. I’m not saying this will happen, I’m just saying it’s all gonna come back to bite us sooner or later.
Should Metro Vancouver public transit be declared an essential service?
Up until last year, for more than a decade, Toronto's TTC workers could not legally strike. #TransLink #bcpoli #vanpoli #vanrehttps://t.co/fbajBQxV1O
— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) January 25, 2024
As I’m writing this while riding a full bus, I hoping for the best for both parties. I can’t even believe it got to this point. Get it done guys. Vancouver can’t be taken hostage from this situation.