Vancouver woman offering free rides to stranded transit riders amid strike

Submitted by Nadejda Netchaeva | CDeWeger/Shutterstock

While it may seem the ongoing bus strike has sparked a lot of anger from Metro Vancouver residents, a handful of good samaritans are doing what they can to ease the commute stress for people dependent on bus and SeaBus service.

After Nadejda Netchaeva heard TransLink’s bus and SeaBus services could shut down Sunday night, she jumped into action and offered free rides to strangers on her day off.

Once the negotiations between TransLink subsidiary Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 4500 failed, Netchaeva spent her Monday driving people around town that had been affected by the strike.

After driving about six people around Monday, she did the same thing again Tuesday.

“So I’ve just been going out do the ride and coming home,” she said, jokingly adding, “I took a nap after my first one because I’m not a morning person.”

According to Netchaeva, most people in need of a ride have been those heading to work or picking up their children.

Nadejda Netchaeva and her dogs after dropping off one local on Tuesday, January 23. (Submitted by Nadejda Netchaeva)

On the drives, she said she’d met some kind and grateful people, made many connections and heard some fascinating stories.

“I got some offers for coffee, a little bit of gas pitch here and there,” she added. “But I don’t ask for anything in return. Just pay it forward. You know, be kind to strangers in the future.”

This is not the first time Netchaeva has sprung into action to help during a bus strike. When she lived in Ottawa, she drove around picking strangers up and taking them where they needed to go.

“I just remember the gratitude and just how thankful people were for being helped out in a tough situation,” she said. “I’ve been in a lot of tough situations in my life and always gotten through because of community and friends. So wherever I can, I always try and help people out.”

Netchaeva is one of many in the region lending a hand.

Many have made Reddit and Facebook posts to offer rides across the region.

“It was really nice to see the community stepping up and working together,” Netchaeva said.

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Bus routes and the SeaBus ferries could restart services on Wednesday morning. The restart of bus and SeaBus services could be temporary if TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and CUPE 4500 are unable to reach an agreement before another round of job escalation.

If services restart on Wednesday morning, the 180 bus operations supervisors currently on strike will revert to the “baseline” job action disruption of an overtime ban, which first began on January 6.

According to CMBC president and general manager Michael McDaniel, “Despite our best efforts to reach a compromise with CUPE Local 4500, the union representing supervisors at CMBC has refused to adjust its demand for wage increases that are more than the wage increases accepted by all other unions at CMBC and countless other public sector employees.”

As the impacts of the strike weigh heavy on other services in the region, commuters have taken the brunt of it. Many have expressed their frustrations on social media to lash out over the inconveniences.

Strikes are the bane of my existence. Just get back to work from the Hollywood strikes and then Vancouver Transit strikes and I have to Uber to work. Ffs.

— Lillian B. 🌈🖤🧶 (@LillialuvB) January 22, 2024

However, Netchaeva said while it “sucks” that transit workers have walked off the job, “I stand with them. 100%.”

“Vancouver is extremely expensive to live in and I truly believe that all workers deserve a living wage.

“Transit workers deal with all levels of humans. They deal with quite a lot of difficulties in working with people, and they provide essential service, so I really believe that they deserve to be paid accordingly. But at the same time, the shutdown does suck.”

Netchaeva is encouraging people to do what they can to help other Metro Vancouver residents.

“My life’s motto is just to do good recklessly,” she said. “If you have the means to do something kind for a stranger — just do it.”