Crews in Nanaimo are continuing repair work after someone shattered the glass at a number of bus shelters this week.
In an e-mail, Jamie Rose, City of Nanaimo manager of transportation, told the News Bulletin at least six public transit shelters suffered heavy vandalism last night.
Transit shelters are operated in collaboration with Regional District of Nanaimo, with each relying on service providers to keep stops safe and clean and both are working together as quickly as possible on restoration and to maintain service, he said.
"The first task is to make the sites safe, which should happen within 24 hours," Rose said. "Repair will follow as quickly as possible, however based on the number of damaged units, and severity of the damage, full restoration will likely take longer than normal."
Nanaimo RCMP called the vandalism "senseless acts of wanton destruction" in a press release, and confirmed windows at eight bus stop locations were been smashed sometime overnight Wednesday or Thursday, July 31-Aug. 1. The damage included all of the shelters at the downtown bus exchange on Front Street, which had some windows smashed out. Other shelters targeted included one on Norwell Drive and two others next to the old Island Highway at Rutherford and Mostar roads.
RDN Transit officials who own and maintain four of the shelters were alerted to the damage early Thursday, Aug.1, and reported it to the Nanaimo RCMP.
“At this time, we have little to go on as no witnesses or suspects have been identified," said reserve Const. Gary O'Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesperson, in the press release. "Currently, investigators are going to each location to determine if there are CCTV cameras that may have captured the events as they happened.”
Anyone who has information about any of the incidents is asked to contact the Nanaimo RCMP non-emergency line at 250-754-2345 and quote file No. 2024-24696.
If anyone sees a damaged bus stop, Rose asks they call the city public works department at 250-758-5222 or e-mail public.worksinfo@nanaimo.ca.
– files from Mandy Moraes, Nanaimo News Bulletin
