In the coming month, buses in Kitimat will be retrofitted with full driver doors, designed to protect the health and safety of BC Transit drivers.
The full driver door is a movable barrier placed to the right of the driver’s seat, near the fare box. It includes a transparent piece of laminated tempered glass, with anti-glare coating and a metal base. The windows on the door can be adjusted to account for different sight lines in different seat positions.
The goal is to increase protection for both health and safety for transit drivers. The installations will be carried out over a roughly four-day period, and passengers will experience no impact to service levels during the installation process, BC Transit said.
The new doors will replace the current vinyl panels which were installed as protective barriers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with Kitimat, buses in Prince Rupert, Port Edward, Terrace, and Skeena will be receiving the full driver doors.
Retrofits on conventional fleet buses in Prince Rupert will get underway in the coming days, followed by retrofits in Terrace and Kitimat. Port Edward’s bus will be added to the retrofit schedule in Prince Rupert and Skeena’s buses will be added to the retrofit schedule in Kitimat.
BC Transit has accelerated the installation schedule, and said that 633 buses will be retrofitted with full driver doors across 34 transit systems in the province before the end of September. All future new buses in the fleet will arrive with the door pre-installed.
Visit the BC Transit website for more information about the new full driver doors.
clare.rayment@northernsentinel.com
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