Two days of no bus service in eastern Fraser Valley as job action escalates

The strike action by transit operators in the eastern Fraser Valley will mean almost no bus service on Monday and Tuesday.

BC Transit issued the notice on Friday afternoon, as the ongoing strike hit a new escalation point. They stopped collecting fares earlier in February, and had warned that they would withdraw service on February 27 and 28 if contract negotiations had not been settled.

This will impact the communities of Abbotsford, Agassiz-Harrison, Chilliwack, Hope, Mission and customers using the Fraser Valley Express.

This service disruption will not impact handyDART service, which will remain fully operational in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission.

The systems in these communities are managed by First Transit through a contract for BC Transit. As such, the employees are not paid the same as they are in neighbouring communities.

“BC Transit is closely monitoring the situation and sincerely apologizes to customers for the inconvenience caused by this matter,” the notice said. “We understand the frustration felt by customers, and that the job action is difficult for everyone involved in the region.”

BC Transit is the Provincial Crown Agency responsible for the delivery of transit services outside of Greater Vancouver. The labour dispute is between BC Transit’s contractor – First Transit – and their unionized employees.

BC Transit encourages customers to sign up to receive alerts at bctransit.com. Customers may also follow @BCTransit on Twitter for updates.

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