A North Vancouver parent is calling out a TransLink bus driver for deliberately kicking a load of passengers out into the cold because some riders complained about late service.
Alex Boldizar’s 11-year-old son was about to take the 232 bus from Phibbs Exchange to get to school at Larson elementary Friday when the incident played out.
The 8:17 a.m. bus had been cancelled and when the 8:50 bus showed up, the cold and grumpy passengers expressed their frustrations to the driver.
“(My son) called me back five minutes later, crying, saying the bus driver got mad because people were complaining about the previous bus having been cancelled,” Boldizar said. “He said, ‘If you’re going to complain, you can all get off the bus and wait another 30 minutes.’ So the bus driver kicked off the entire busload.”
His son and one of the school’s administrators on the same route ended up taking another bus up Lonsdale and then walked to the school via Queens Avenue.
“And of all the days of the year to do that, it’s awful. We have below-freezing weather,” Boldizar said. “The bus driver was kind of on a power kick. They’re the absolute rulers of the bus and if they’re willing to kick off kids into the snow just because… people were complaining about an earlier bus, that’s unacceptable bureaucratic power-drunkenness.”
Boldizar brought the situation to the attention of the school, which encourages students to walk, bike or take the bus. He also emailed City of North Vancouver Coun. Craig Keating, who represents the city at TransLink and said he would forward the matter to the transit authority.
Boldizar said he’d like to see the driver held accountable for kicking kids out into the snow, saying it’s incidents like this that hurt TransLink’s relationship with the bus-riding public.
In response, TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan acknowledged the significant delay the bus riders were facing and said they would be looking into the formal complaint.
“This was a significant delay for these people. We’re talking about kids trying to get to school as well. We certainly empathize,” he said. “It’s an awful day to be waiting around for a bus.”
According to Bryan, the bus driver involved then booked the rest of the day off sick. Typically, if bus driver falls ill while on a route, he or she is expected to pull over, ask the passengers to get off and then wait until a replacement driver arrives, Bryan said.
“Our operators take customer service very seriously and generally do a great job. If that didn’t happen in this case, we will definitely look into it and ensure our operator understands the expectations,” Bryan said. “We will see if there is some corrective action that we need to take.”
The snow and ice has resulted in delays around the transit system, Bryan said, something TransLink is working to minimize.
“However, in the case of buses, we are somewhat subject to the road conditions. You know what it’s like when you’re on the road. You’re only as fast as the slowest car with the worst tires in front of you.”
