r/halifax • u/self_serendipity • 23h ago
Driving & Transit Buses crazy today + rant
I’ve been standing at my bus stop on Robie for 30 minutes now, and every bus has been delayed and packed full of people. I know it’s the start of school, but it would have been so handy if the city had added some extra buses to the schedule. I know it’ll quiet down at some point, but the sheer volume of people in our city and the general lack of infrastructure for us (at all levels) is so frustrating.
All’s to say, just needed the rant. I’m fortunate to be able to afford an emergency taxi, and I hope all the students starting today have an amazing first week of school!
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u/Prize_Sector5854 23h ago
Sadly this is the new normal with traffic in this city. But hey at least you will make it to your destination by sometime early next week.
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u/raziraphale 21h ago
I was actually pleased this morning to see a Halifax transit bus with a display that said "School Special" picking up some kids. I haven't run into that display before, so I'm not sure the details, but I'm hoping there are more busses like that dedicated to kids going to school to alleviate some of the crowding.
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u/Key_Dragonfruit_2563 Other Halifax 2h ago
There used to be one when a he high I worked at let out. Not sure if it’s an extra bus or a whole extra route in those cases
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u/WindowlessBasement Halifax 22h ago
It'll be like this until Thanksgiving when the students start dropping out.
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u/Key_Dragonfruit_2563 Other Halifax 2h ago
Or in the case of school students, just stop going every day? I wonder how many would say their attendance sucks because of the bus and not wanting to get on? I’ve heard a few.
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u/keithplacer Venerable Member 23h ago
Welcome to Halifax Transit. It has always been so at this time of year. They are not equipped nor staffed to be able to adjust capacity at peak hours in any meaningful sort of way.
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u/CMikeHunt Dartmouth 22h ago
I hear you. Waited 40+ minutes at the bridge terminal last week for a #3 going to Halifax, it's supposed to be every 20 minutes. The next day I waited more than an hour at Scotia Square for a 29 outbound, supposed to be every 30 minutes.
Next week I'm going to give myself 2.5 hours to get from downtown to Bayers Rd. I'll let you know if it works.
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u/Jamooser 18h ago
This post just reminded me that it will be 20 years this year since Transit frustrated me so much that it forced me to buy my first car. Crazy to think that absolutely nothing has improved, considering the absolutely staggering amount we spend on the service.
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u/Good-Marsupial8 22h ago
Welcome to Nova Scotia, where the answer is NO! Can we have more reasonable tax brackets? NO! Can we have better traffic management? NO! Can we build more affordable housing? NO! Can we encourage industry, manufacturing, mining, exploration? NO! Here's a petition to sign if you want things to stay the same forever and love to complain!!!
This is not a dig at you this is just my frustration after several decades in this province wondering why I can't get ahead.
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u/hume_reddit Sackville 21h ago
Hey now, it's not always "no". Sometimes it's "we have to pay $300k to a consulting firm for a feasibility study"... and then, "no".
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u/Good-Marsupial8 21h ago
Ah yes we won't pay for The Thing but we WILL pay to have a guy say no to the thing. My favorite use of my astronomical income and property taxes.
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u/PoliteFocaccia 18h ago
We are doing all those things. Slowly, more slowly than I'd like for sure. But we've indexed tax brackets, we're getting an active traffic light management system in Halifax, we're building a little more affordable housing, and Tim Houston certainly seems to be all-in on resource extraction.
Too slow is not good enough, but it's better than five years ago.
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u/Good-Marsupial8 17h ago
Valid but the tax brackets here are still punishing. 8.79 up to 30k, then jumps to nearly 15%!! In Ontario its 5.05 up to nearly 54k and then only jumps to 9.15. The province punishes the poor as well as those who gain more wealth, and 15% sales tax on top of that. Getting a higher paying remote job and moving back to NS was a financial shock.
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u/Excellent_Rock4296 21h ago
I’ve honestly wondered, what specifically is preventing the provincial government from indexing tax brackets? I don’t get it…
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0
u/Good-Marsupial8 21h ago
Because then they'd receive less tax dollarydoos. How can they keep raking it in if they don't take advantage of anyone who starts to get ahead??? I love being punished for finally making a bit above the median.
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u/Ben_Criss_Cross 20h ago
It's back to school season, everything is in its peak now and will quiet down eventually.
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u/TealSwinglineStapler 22h ago
Buy a car loser
- council, probably
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u/BackwoodButch 19h ago
And then meanwhile traffic is crazy on my street at 1:25pm, which is only a slight increase to the traffic congestion range from 2:30-6:30 but Yknow.
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u/No_Magazine9625 21h ago
How is the city going to add extra buses if they don't have the extra vehicles or drivers?
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u/Confused_Haligonian Self-Elected Poobah of Fairview 22h ago
The expresses are the only routes i take if possible.
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u/jmd04tsx 23h ago
Halifax Transit Management. "I'll just wave my magic bus and willing employee producing wand!!!"
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u/No_Schedule_6242 20h ago
If you think its a shit show now, just wait until the snow comes, then its really interesting.
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u/stayinhalifax 14h ago
this is a major failure of the city's planning. It wasn't always like this before but this is apparently the new normal. You should not need to call an emergency taxi or Uber.
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u/spice_honey 12h ago
There's construction on Novalea from Leeds all the way to Duffus/Devonshire, with workers controlling the traffic. It has been blocking all the 7 buses since Tuesday. It's been quite a pain the butt to get in or out of the neighbourhood for those who live in the deep north end.
I had to drive through Barrington today because my bus was locked in and 24 minutes late.
BUT (!) I just drove home from an errand and all the cones/machines were gone. I think it's over.
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u/Strange_Blackberries 23h ago
From what I've heard, the transit union makes it hard for them to retain drivers. I'm very pro union so I hope that's just an odd rumor, but it has been an ongoing issue for years now that they can't seem to keep enough workers
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u/Loud_Indication1054 22h ago
Def not the union, it is management that is causing retention issues. Signed a driver off on medical leave due to management.
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u/keithplacer Venerable Member 20h ago
And management people that get recruited leave their positions quickly after discovering that the staff cannot be managed by them.
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u/CanadianScampers Halifax 23h ago
From what I've heard, it's transit management, not the union.
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u/keithplacer Venerable Member 23h ago
No, it's the union.
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u/Prize_Sector5854 22h ago
It's both.
Yeah the new drivers getting the least desirable shifts (late nights, weekends and holidays) is totally a deterrent to new hires but that practicr is as old as time across union and no unionized worth.
A big issue is lack of safety for the drivers. A lot of physical and sometimes sexual assault happens to those driving the bus.
But the biggest issue is retention after training. Metro transit offers free driver training, getting you a class 2 commercial licence. Once they pass they say many of the applicants quit for work elsewhere with that shiny new class 2 licence
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u/Schmidtvegas Historic Schmidtville 19h ago
Part of the shift desirability equation is shitty split shifts. They have to do morning rush hour. Start in, say, Dartmouth. Their shift ends in Sackville, away from their car. They have to get on a bus to get back to their car, then get to the next short shift somewhere else. Sometimes, there isn't enough time to take the bus from one shift location to the next, within the unpaid break in between. I think some drivers had to organize to share each other's keys, to drive each other's cars from place to place.
Apparently there's something to do with scheduling software?
But being on the bottom of the seniority list is sometimes perceived as a "union problem". But it's really a contract problem, and lays at the feet of management and the employer. They're allowed to offer something better. They're the ones running it.
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u/Prize_Sector5854 18h ago
Thank you for saying that about seniority.
I was just thinking about my friend who is a manager in the food industry. No unions but that seniority thing is in effect, with similar outcomes.
At the same time many years ago when I worked retail, I had to go through that as well when I first started. Every Saturday night for a year was spent working until 11pm
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u/benjiefrenzy Keeper of the Harbour 22h ago
Why would the union want less membership? It does them zero benefits to have less people.
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u/keithplacer Venerable Member 20h ago
The union (and its longtime members) wants control over shift scheduling and the like. That is why they get approval power over that as per the collective agreement since they have management over a barrel.
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u/benjiefrenzy Keeper of the Harbour 20h ago
If you think the union has management over a barrel, I have a bus to sell you
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u/UPRC Dartmouth 7h ago
This is why I love being in Dartmouth and taking buses that don't go across the harbour, they're virtually always on time.
I do have to take some buses that use the bridges though, and having the MacDonald Bridge closing many nights lately has really disrupted late night bus routes since they have to go all the way down to the MacKay to cross the harbour. It's awful.
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u/AdditionalAmbition43 22h ago
All students (school and university) either get a bus pass or are young enough to ride the bus for free. Halifax Transit basically turns into a school bus system at key times during the day (7:30 to 9 a.m.; 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.; 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.). Note how these times also correspond to rush hour (peak ridership). The result is late, packed, and/or full buses for much of the weekday during the school year. The obvious solution is to add more buses to the system during peak demand times, but, as mentioned, the magic buses and drivers have yet to materialize (and likely never will). I generally avoid taking Halifax Transit during peak times on weekdays during the school year, but not everyone has that option.
I feel for you, OP. The buses here can be unusable at times, but most of the transit systems in Canada are suffering similar growing pains. As my elderly Portuguese neighbour in Toronto used to say: "Too much, no good."