Carson contacted our office with a concern that BC Transit was not adequately dealing with transit operators who fail to make audible announcements of all stops as provided for in a 2014 Human Rights Tribunal mediated settlement agreement. He explained that the transit operators continue to turn off the system and he was fearful of retaliation if he complained about the transit operator to BC Transit.

We investigated BC Transit’s response to concerns that some transit operators are not announcing stops. We learned that BC Transit audits each transit operator once per year and more often if issues are discovered. It also has “secret shoppers” and the bus CCTV is monitored. BC Transit has plans to implement a new system which will have an automated call-out system that operators will not be able to shut off.

BC Transit agreed that they failed to be compliant with their agreement to post the results of their audits every 3 months on their website and we settled the complaint on the basis that they committed to do so. Months later, we visited BC Transit’s website to verify that the promised updates had been made. They had not been posted. We followed up with BC Transit and they took immediate action. Compliance reports on BC Transit’s website are now being posted regularly.