The union representing bus drivers say it is time to shift the focus of transit police off of the skytrain and onto transit buses.

Canadian Auto Workers union local 111 President Don McLeod says 10 to 20 million dollars is lost to fare evasion on transit buses alone.

"And hopefully when the fare gates are up and running that they can dedicate some of that Transit police personel to the bus system. We believe that a uniform presence on coaches is first of all a deterrent to fare evasion and also if there is fare evasion on the coach when they check for fares that at least they have the authority to deal with it and write tickets and follow through on that."

McLeod says there has been some improvement in cracking down on fare cheats but there is still lots of room for improvement.

He says moving transit police onto buses will also address security.

"We do see a need for security, police on the coaches particularily to deal with fare evasion and of course the safety of the operator and the passengers."

Bus drivers have a button they use every time a fare cheat boards and in 2011 they punched that button over two million times.

"Yeah and that is just the ones that take the time to do that right the novelty wears off after a while when nobody sees anything getting done. Depending on who you talk to it ranges from who you talk to it ranges from 10 million to 20 million it is a drop in the bucket but it is money that should go in the fare box that could be reallocated into service hours and into the bus system."