MONTREAL -- Montreal’s transit agency has been repeating itself lately on its customer service channels—it’s getting a certain question over and over.

“Hello [STM],” one passenger wrote on Twitter last week, in French. “Are your bus drivers required to wear masks?”

Wednesday, another person tweeted at the STM: “It is absolutely *outrageous* that none of your bus drivers wear masks...”

The same confusion has come up on Facebook, including once when the transit agency tried to post an educational graphic about how to properly wear a mask.

“But your bus drivers who don’t even wear the mask,” one person responded. “What do you do with them?”

There are plenty of Montreal bus drivers wearing masks, but why are there so many who don’t?

The answer is simple: while it’s been mandatory since July for passengers to wear masks on Montreal metros and buses, that rule doesn’t apply to drivers. 

“Our drivers are not required to wear a mask or face cover due to the new configuration of the vehicles and the presence of the protective partitions,” STM spokesperson Philippe Déry told CTV in an email.

“This arrangement and this way of doing things have been validated by public health and occupational health and safety authorities,” he wrote.

'MANY DOOR OPENINGS'

In short, buses’ new plastic partitions around the drivers, and the fact that their doors frequently open, have been deemed enough protection to make it safe for drivers to breathe into the air.

“The many door openings that occur during a bus journey help to ensure a supply of fresh air,” wrote Déry.

Buses’ heating systems also play a part since they draw air from outside and filter it, “as for a car,” he said. For hybrid buses, there’s also a “cooling mode” that draws in outside air.

“When the desired temperature is reached inside the vehicle, the ventilation system remains on to maintain air exchange. The ventilation speed is reduced, but not stopped,” he explained.

What the STM has been telling worried passengers doesn’t have all that detail. Its standard response focuses on the partition and the social distance between driver and passenger. The agency tells people that health authorities have signed off on the setup.

That isn’t a good enough answer for some people, especially those who have been following the latest research on COVID-19 spread.

“Aerosol transmission is very real,” wrote the same person who called the situation “outrageous.”

“Buses are small, with a lot of people, and are almost a completely closed environment during winter. My bus driver was coughing a lot yesterday, no windows open, nothing. I better not catch COVID let me tell you...”

Another worried customer told CTV that seeing drivers without a mask came as a bit of a shock.

“It surprised me,” said Pierre-Luc Grosleau. “I saw drivers enter, exit the bus without a mask, even though there were passengers inside—two drivers chatting with each other without a mask when the bus is empty.”

His concern wasn’t just about the risk of transmission, he said. 

“Even if it's for a short period of time, in my opinion, it doesn’t send the right message. They don’t set an example and encourage the right behaviour.”

PROVINCE LOOKING AGAIN AT AEROSOLS

One of the bodies that recommended the STM system is the workers’ safety board, called the CNESST, which isn’t meant to protect passengers’ safety. 

But Quebec’s health ministry confirmed it does find the setup adequately safe for all, though it’s currently studying aerosol transmission, which has been much better understood in recent months after new research.

Experts developed the guidelines for buses, including the necessity of physical barriers, wrote health ministry spokesperson Marie-Claude Lacasse in a statement.

However, “an expert committee is currently examining the role of aerosols and ventilation in the spread of COVID-19. Work is progressing, and recommendations are expected quickly,” she said.

“If it turns out that the work of this committee shows that adjustments to the recommendations are necessary to ensure everyone’s safety, that will be done.”

Déry said that “the health and safety of our employees is paramount” and that if changes are recommended, “we will make the required changes.”

He also asked people to remember “that no outbreak has been linked to the use of public transit in Montreal.”

One woman who tweeted at the STM in mid-November made it clear, however, that relaxing can be a lot to ask right now. The driver was coughing, she said, "and no one on the bus is comfortable."