St. John's may reduce bus spending: mayor

St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe is warning people who use the city's public transportation system to expect reduced bus services when the strike is over.

Talks between Metrobus management and workers broke down late last week with no plans to resume.

O'Keefe warned the city may reduce the amount it spends on Metrobus.

"The city puts $10 million into the Metrobus system, so we pay for, we subsidize by 50 per cent and council can't have that kind of money being spent on empty buses running around the city," he said over the weekend.

More than 100 Metrobus employees have been on strike since Nov. 4.

The drivers, mechanics and other workers at the Metrobus Transit Commission resumed conciliation talks Jan.5, but Friday evening the Amalgamated Transit Union confirmed that it had walked away from the table.

An earlier round of talks broke off Dec. 21, with Metrobus and members of St. John's city council claiming that the ATU had walked away from the table.

The dividing line at the start of the strike was the company's insistence that new hires pay half the costs of running the group benefits program.

Between 9,000 and 14,000 people use public transportation in St. John's each day, many of them students.

St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe told CBC News in late December that St. John's is saving about $45,000 each week that Metrobus is out of service. However, he said city council expects much of that money will be plowed back into luring riders to the service once the strike ends.