Glass-smashing vandals are scaring off the contractors that clean and maintain Hamilton's bus shelters.

The city has contracted with a private firm since 2002 to clean, maintain and handle advertising at HSR bus shelters. The city takes a cut of the ad revenue, typically $160,000 to $180,000 a year.

Last fall, the city issued a request for proposals for a new six-year advertising and maintenance contract, but no company bothered bidding — including the city's current contractor, Outfront Media.

Prospective vendors told the city a six-year contract is too short to be worthwhile. But they also "want to get out of the business" of shelter maintenance — in part because of the rising cost of vandalism, said Tanya Detmar, a transit planning and infrastructure manager for HSR.

It didn't help that three days after issuing the RFP, a truck-driving vandal smashed 19 shelters across the city, spurring an ongoing Hamilton police investigation. It costs about $500 to replace each broken pane of glass, and a typical HSR shelter has four or five panes.

"That was particularly bad timing," Detmar said. "But in general, these vendors are changing their business models to move away from that (maintenance) responsibility. Their interest is strictly in advertising."

The Spectator was unable to reach Outfront Media Tuesday.

But the latest city report on the contract notes Hamilton "experiences a high rate of shelter vandalism that is discouraging to vendors." HSR riders are also complaining more about dangerous shelter damage — sometimes caused by vandalism, but also by speeding or out-of-control vehicles.

Detmar did not have year-over-year statistics available, but said 206 panes of glass were smashed out of 670 transit shelters in 2017. As far back as 2013, former HSR head Don Hull talked about the challenge of "extreme vandalism" in bus shelters and estimated that year 500 shelters needed some repair for damage or graffiti.

The shelter-smash dilemma is not exclusive to Hamilton, though.

Edmonton media recently reported a single vandal managed to damage 70 bus shelters last year, while 17 shelters were smashed in one night last March in Halifax. (Outfront Media was also on the hook for that cleanup.)

Detmar said Outfront Media has tentatively agreed to extend its existing contract until the city is ready to issue a new RFP — but the city will for now be on the hook to take care of smashed glass.

Previously, the city was responsible for graffiti and "etching" damage on shelter walls, but the advertising company handled smashed glass.

The HSR will also have to figure out how to offer a longer advertising contract term despite the uncertainty around who owns what in the planned light rail transit corridor after 2023.

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