'It is concerning': Calls for more safety on transit following string of attacks

File image of a Winnipeg Transit bus

Both bus passengers and drivers want safety to be improved on buses after a string of recent incidents.

Sean Ewers was bussing to work Friday morning along Main Street when he, and other riders on Route 11, were suddenly confronted. Ewers said at around 9:30 a.m., a man who was lying on the seats suddenly got up and began yelling at the bus.

"We stood there and he took a hammer and a box cutter out of his jacket," Ewers said to CTV News Winnipeg.

Some passengers fled the bus, but the suspect stayed.

Ewers said he remained calm, and another passenger yelled at the man. Ewers said the man then got off the bus at a stop, heading in the direction RBC Convention Centre.

The driver told Ewers and the other passengers that police had been called, but Ewers wants more security enforcement on buses.

Romeo Ignacio, the president of ATC Local 1505, a union representing Winnipeg Transit drivers, says confrontations have been increasing this week. He has received seven incident reports in one week, including three in one day.

"It is concerning, obviously not only our members, our operators that are out there in the public,” Ignacio said to CTV Winnipeg. “There's also the people that are using the public service."

He says the Winnipeg Transit Advisory Committee is looking at ways to keep people safe. He could not say what those ways are as conversions are still underway.

"This is the reality that we are dealing with. It is a bigger societal problem."

Coun. Matt Allard, the chair of the committee, said in an email statement to that new safety measures continue to be implemented.

“The basic fact that all our buses are a public space where the same safety concerns exist as in most other places,” Allard’s statement says in part. “We need to go back to the basics.”

Allard said this includes affordable housing, education, and addictions support.

Kyle Owens, president of the advocacy group called Functional Transit Winnipeg, is cautious about adding police or security on buses, saying while some riders might feel safer with a police presence, it might add to the anxiety of others.

He says violent incidents on buses are rare.

"It is true that transit is overall, a very safe space," Owens tells CTV Winnipeg.

The City of Winnipeg says they are not aware of the police being contacted about Friday morning’s incident, asking the public to contact police if they witnessed any violent or threatening behaviours on the bus.

The Winnipeg Police Service said in an email it does not track transit-related incidents.