B.C. Interior transit buses to start getting protective driver doors this summer

Installation of protective driver doors in transit buses will start in Kelowna in July.

In all 650 buses in 28 B.C. communities will get the new doors over the next two years, according to a B.C. Transit media release.

Transit staff will start installing the doors in Victoria in February with Kelowna – which runs buses throughout the Central Okanagan – to start in July.

A call for proposals was announced by B.C. Transit today, Jan. 9, to find a contractor who can install the doors in all communities outside Victoria so the timing of the installations will be determined by who wins the contract.

The program will cost about $6.5 million, B.C. Transit says. New buses will come with the doors factory installed.

Scott Lovell, president of the union representing Central Okanagan transit workers, started lobbying for the doors years ago after a number of drivers were assaulted.

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