City at crossroads over bus safety shields

The city is exploring options to extend bus driver safety shields or replace them with full enclosures to help prevent violence.

An expression of interest aims to identify businesses able to “design, supply and deliver” extensions or full replacements for the partial shields installed on Winnipeg Transit buses in 2019.

While the document doesn’t commit the City of Winnipeg to installing new devices, public works chairwoman Coun. Janice Lukes said she “absolutely” expects that will be the end result.

“It’s a crazy world out there and … this council is focussing heavily on improving transit, and we want our drivers to be safe,” she said.

She said the city set aside about $2.7 million for future bus shields in its 2024 capital budget.

Lukes said recent pilot tests of new shields were not successful because the devices were too easily broken. She said she’d like to see the city explore a type of shatterproof material.

The expression of interest comes after transit assaults against drivers and passengers sparked headlines in recent years, which continued after the city spent $3.15 million to add the shields six years ago.

Lukes said new shields or shield extensions would likely cost millions of dollars, which might be phased in over time to meet budget constraints. She expects it will take at least a year or more to get to the point of installing new or extended shields.

The union that represents bus drivers said it will continue to push for fully enclosed shields.

There are too many severely violent incidents to settle for anything else, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 president Chris Scott said.

While the overall number of assaults on buses decreased in 2024 from the previous year, Scott said his union counted 37 violent incidents in April 2025 alone — the highest monthly total since 2020.

“We never thought (in 2019) that violence in the system would escalate to the level it currently is at. We just thought at the time that a deterrent to the easy assaults would be enough … now, we need to upgrade,” Scott said.

He said a full separation around each bus driver would prevent “reach-around” assaults and terrifying “wheel grabs” that can put many people at risk.

The union leader said 44 drivers were off the job as of Dec. 14 because of mental-health concerns after violence in the workplace.

Some serious recent incidents in recent months included a hatchet being thrown at a driver that narrowly missed him, Scott said. In another case, a passenger urinated all over the front of the bus, including on the driver, he said.

“Even if it’s not violent in nature, we need those barriers to protect the operators,” Scott said.

Rick Young, manager of operations for Winnipeg Transit, said the city is exploring new shield options because of driver demand and an ongoing assessment of transit safety measures.

Young said the expression-of-interest process will help determine what new devices would cost to install on 663 buses.

“We’ve been actively working on this since 2024 … We always look at new safety initiatives that may help out our employees,” he said.

The city will accept submissions for the expression of interest until July 8.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga