Students prepare for Metro Transit strike

With Metro Transit drivers poised to go on strike this week, Halifax universities are making alternative plans for their students.

Dalhousie University has about 7,000 students who rely on the bus, while 1,000 students use public transit regularly at Saint Mary's University.

That means if the strike goes ahead and buses and ferries stop Thursday, students will be among the many people stranded.

On Monday, university administrators met to figure out how to get students and staff to campus.

"We may shift things to have a carpool lot, promote other ways for people to match up in terms of carpooling, promote our telework policy and our compressed work week and guaranteed ride home," said Dalhousie's Rochelle Owen.

"We have a number of initiatives that we'll try and promote."

Dalhousie is also considering temporarily offering some of the classes online to reach those who can't make it to campus.

Both universities have shuttle buses to taxi students around, but they won't come close to reaching the number of students who will need a ride.

"What we're trying to do is extend the hours of that, but we realize that it's still not going to be able to suffice because we really don't have the same reach that Metro Transit does," said Alwyn Gomez, president of the Saint Mary's student union.

Good news for dialysis patients

Metro Transit said it, too, is making contingency plans. The 45 people who rely on its services to get to a dialysis clinic for regular treatments have been assured they will not experience a disruption.

Metro Transit spokeswoman Lori Patterson would not give details of the plan.

"It's a contingency at this point. We still remain hopeful that a settlement would be reached. We have a contingency in place with alternate transportation and we would contact them if need be," she said.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union and Halifax Regional Municipality spent Sunday and Monday at the bargaining table. They plan to continue meeting Tuesday.

Negotiations broke down earlier this month and last week union members voted 98.4 per cent to reject the city's offer. About 96,000 Metro Transit trips are taken daily in HRM.