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Riders up in arms after 20 transit routes affected by cancellations

BC Transit apologizes, blames shortage of vehicles ‘available for service’
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Twenty BC Transit bus routes were affected by cancellations on Wednesday morning. (Photo via BC Transit)

Twenty BC Transit bus routes throughout Greater Victoria were affected by cancellations on Wednesday morning.

As of 6:50 a.m. several routes had multiple cancellations including the #15 bus between Esquimalt and the University of Victoria which lost four trips and the #50 bus from Langford to Downtown Victoria which lost three.

A customer advisory posted to the BC Transit website listed the affected routes and trips and thanked transit users for their patience.

Riders took to Twitter to complain. One noted that this was the second time that multiple morning buses were cancelled this week. They speculated trips were cancelled due to the drivers not being able to get to work on time.

BC Transit responded on Twitter and apologized to riders who’d been affected by the cancellations and thanked them for their patience. BC Transit blamed an “unusual number of vehicles not available for service over the past number of days,” and noted that staff are working to minimize the impact on transit users.

“We apologize to our riders and appreciate their patience while we work through these challenges. We also look forward to the arrival of our new buses in January and throughout 2020 which will tremendously support our ability to provide safe, reliable service,” read a BC Transit tweet on Wednesday.

BC Transit also told Saanich News that September is always a busy time of year on the buses, but that people typically settle into their routines by the end of the month and begin to take alternate routes to avoid the busy ones.


@devonscarlett
devon.bidal@saanichnews.com

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