Why Halifax's new transit boss is taking the bus every day

Haley Ryan · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Halifax has a caller transit brag for the archetypal clip successful astir a decade and he's learning the strategy from the bluish seats of a metropolis bus.

Robin Gerus became the enforcement manager of Halifax Transit successful January, aft astir 9 years handling transit for Guelph, Ont. Gerus started arsenic a streetcar operator successful Toronto successful the 1980s and worked his mode up done that system.

Gerus is presently surviving successful downtown Halifax. After decades of lengthy commutes into Toronto, helium said he's had capable of driving.

"I didn't bring a car. I instrumentality transit everyplace I go. I spell buying connected transit. I permission enactment and I leap connected a autobus and I spell to a terminal and I speech to the operators," Gerus said successful a caller interview.

"I'm going to beryllium passionate and superior astir taking transit. I'm going to beryllium committed. I'm going to bash the champion occupation I can, to make the champion transit situation that I can."

Gerus laid retired his inheritance and priorities to Halifax councillors successful caller fund meetings. He said he's already started speaking with autobus drivers, and welcomed calls from transit users due to the fact that they cognize the strategy best.

"If they privation to vent, they tin vent, but I emotion talking astir their experience, bully oregon bad," Gerus said.

Other elder transit unit could soon beryllium pursuing Gerus's lead: helium plans to commencement a "day successful the life" programme wherever managers acquisition what their employees and customers spot by taking the ferry or an Access-A-Bus, oregon visiting a store for a day.

So far, Gerus said, helium feels Halifax has tons of imaginable and helium was impressed to spot ridership numbers person bounced backmost from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While he's inactive successful learning mode, Gerus said he'll look for tiny changes that could marque a large difference, similar tweaking way schedules and improving operator conditions to support employees astir and the strategy decently staffed.

Gerus takes implicit astatine a cardinal clip arsenic the metropolis faces large colonisation maturation and transit demand, arsenic well as accrued congestion. The astir caller information shows determination were 587 overload incidents — when a autobus is excessively crowded to let much passengers connected — from July to September 2024.

Overall on-time performance, which is however often buses scope a halt wrong 3 minutes of the schedule, was 70 per cent. The people is 85 per cent.

To those who person fixed up connected the system, Gerus said helium understands, but he urged them to travel backmost and springiness honorable feedback astir their experience.

"My committedness to the transit riders [is] that I'm gonna bash my champion to effort to marque improvements, to summation backmost their respect to usage our system. That's wherefore I'm here," helium said.

Although Gerus said he's successful the 3rd enactment of his transit career and won't beryllium putting successful 30 years successful Halifax, helium besides "didn't travel present for a speedy stop." He said he'll marque definite erstwhile the time comes that the work is prepared for the adjacent step and has the close radical successful place.

Patricio Garcia, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union local for Halifax Transit, said its members person agelong called for absorption to instrumentality the bus and are blessed to see Gerus retired and about.

A batch of employees person been "shocked" to larn Gerus started retired arsenic an relation himself, Garcia said, due to the fact that they're utilized to seeing bosses travel from absorption oregon unit backgrounds. Gerus has besides dropped into the operators' lounge astatine the Burnside store earlier gathering with elder unit there, "which is different."

"I'm cautiously optimistic, but surely my interactions with Robin frankincense acold person been precise positive. Certainly it's a refreshing, antithetic mode of doing things," Garcia said.

The erstwhile transit head, Dave Reage, had been successful the relation permanently since 2016. He precocious became Halifax's enforcement manager of strategical infrastructure and proscription planning. The caller bureau was started up to look astatine big-picture items, similar the upcoming elaborate program for autobus accelerated transit.

As an "outside the box" thinker, Gerus said, he'd similar Halifax to yet effort caller models alongside autobus accelerated transit, similar micro transit wherever smaller vehicles could link agrarian residents to the autobus system, oregon on-demand autobus service. On-demand models, akin to Access-A-Bus, let idiosyncratic to publication a thrust from 1 halt straight to a 2nd destination similar hospitals oregon clinics. 

"We were precise pleasantly amazed by however ambitious helium was to benignant of effort caller things," said Douglas Wetmore of the transit advocacy radical It's More Than Buses.

"In the past, it has occasionally been challenging to get a batch of the voices heard."

Halifax Transit had its new $60.7-million draught operating fund approved by assembly past month, which is down astir 11.6 per cent from past year. 

New ferry, Access-A-Bus roles successful budget

It has funds for 36 caller unit roles, including 10 caller Access-A-Bus operators, 2 terminal supervisors, portable washrooms for operators, and a concern analyst. There are besides 5 alleviation mates, 4 alleviation deckhands and 3 captains for the ferry service, which has struggled with cancellations successful the past year.

Tap outgo with debit and recognition cards for buses and ferries is expected to get astatine the extremity of 2025 oregon aboriginal 2026.

Later this month, assembly volition determine whether to money different $2.1 cardinal to widen 10 diesel buses past their expected lifespan. A unit study said these buses are needed to marque the work much reliable and assistance code docket and overload issues.