Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Tentative agreement would also require workers to pay more of their health care costs. Agreement doesn’t include cost-of-living pay increases, but does preserve “step” increases for union members during their first 10 years with the agency.

One-hundred drivers walked out on their jobs, saying they are afraid to board the buses after one driver was recently beaten on a bus. Police officers used to ride on the buses before budget cuts.

Two recent bus driver shootings have prompted the local Transit Workers Union to request Mayor Michael A. Nutter form a task force to find ways to better protest bus operators and other transit employees.

Agency and drivers’ union are calling for special legal protection for transit workers after a bus driver was shot and wounded. The recent incident was the 46th assault on a SEPTA employee this year.

Bus company negotiators and union drivers will resume talks in an attempt to avert a strike. Nearly all of the system’s drivers voted to reject a labor contract proposal and authorize a possible walk out, due to a dispute over wages, health insurance and sick leave.

Coast Mountain Bus Co., TransLink and the Metro Vancouver bus drivers' union are working together to stop assaults on female bus drivers, by calling for tougher sentences and stronger legislation, and installing cameras, GPS systems and assault alarms on buses.