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

Halifax has a new transit boss for the first time in nearly a decade and he's learning the system from the blue seats of a city bus.

Robin Gerus became the executive director of Halifax Transit in January, after about nine years handling transit for Guelph, Ont. Gerus started as a streetcar driver in Toronto in the 1980s and worked his way up through that system.

Gerus is currently living in downtown Halifax. After decades of lengthy commutes into Toronto, he said he's had enough of driving.

"I didn't bring a car. I take transit everywhere I go. I go shopping on transit. I leave work and I jump on a bus and I go to a terminal and I talk to the operators," Gerus said in a recent interview.

"I'm going to be passionate and serious about taking transit. I'm going to be committed. I'm going to do the best job I can, to create the best transit environment that I can."

Gerus laid out his background and priorities to Halifax councillors in recent budget meetings. He said he's already started speaking with bus drivers, and welcomed calls from transit users because they know the system best.

"If they want to vent, they can vent, but I love talking about their experience, good or bad," Gerus said.

Other senior transit staff could soon be following Gerus's lead: he plans to start a "day in the life" program where managers experience what their employees and customers see by taking the ferry or an Access-A-Bus, or visiting a garage for a day.

So far, Gerus said, he feels Halifax has lots of potential and he was impressed to see ridership numbers have bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While he's still in learning mode, Gerus said he'll look for small changes that could make a big difference, like tweaking route schedules and improving driver conditions to keep employees around and the system properly staffed.

Gerus takes over at a key time as the city faces major population growth and transit demand, as well as increased congestion. The most recent data shows there were 587 overload incidents — when a bus is too crowded to allow more passengers on — from July to September 2024.

Overall on-time performance, which is how often buses reach a stop within three minutes of the schedule, was 70 per cent. The target is 85 per cent.

To those who have given up on the system, Gerus said he understands, but he urged them to come back and give honest feedback about their experience.

"My promise to the transit riders [is] that I'm gonna do my best to try to make improvements, to gain back their respect to use our system. That's why I'm here," he said.

Although Gerus said he's in the third act of his transit career and won't be putting in 30 years in Halifax, he also "didn't come here for a quick stop." He said he'll make sure when the time comes that the service is prepared for the next step and has the right people in place.

Patricio Garcia, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union local for Halifax Transit, said its members have long called for management to take the bus and are happy to see Gerus out and about.

A lot of employees have been "shocked" to learn Gerus started out as an operator himself, Garcia said, because they're used to seeing bosses come from management or staff backgrounds. Gerus has also dropped into the operators' lounge at the Burnside garage before meeting with senior staff there, "which is different."

"I'm cautiously optimistic, but certainly my interactions with Robin thus far have been very positive. Certainly it's a refreshing, different way of doing things," Garcia said.

The former transit head, Dave Reage, had been in the role permanently since 2016. He recently became Halifax's executive director of strategic infrastructure and transportation planning. The new office was started up to look at big-picture items, like the upcoming detailed plan for bus rapid transit.

As an "outside the box" thinker, Gerus said, he'd like Halifax to eventually try new models alongside bus rapid transit, like micro transit where smaller vehicles could connect rural residents to the bus system, or on-demand bus service. On-demand models, similar to Access-A-Bus, allow someone to book a ride from one stop directly to a second destination like hospitals or clinics. 

"We were very pleasantly surprised by how ambitious he was to kind of try new things," said Douglas Wetmore of the transit advocacy group It's More Than Buses.

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

Halifax Transit had its new $60.7-million draft operating budget approved by council last month, which is down about 11.6 per cent from last year. 

New ferry, Access-A-Bus roles in budget

It has funds for 36 new staff roles, including 10 new Access-A-Bus operators, two terminal supervisors, portable washrooms for operators, and a business analyst. There are also five relief mates, four relief deckhands and three captains for the ferry service, which has struggled with cancellations in the past year.

Tap payment with debit and credit cards for buses and ferries is expected to arrive at the end of 2025 or early 2026.

Later this month, council will decide whether to fund another $2.1 million to extend 10 diesel buses past their expected lifespan. A staff report said these buses are needed to make the service more reliable and help address schedule and overload issues.