Transit riders in Winnipeg may soon need to learn a new route, pending a decision at City Hall next week. The hope is for better service, and a population that increasingly uses public transportation.
As it stands, transit riders in Manitoba’s capital believe their bus ride could be improved.
“On a scale of one to 10, it might be a four,” said Marilee Geller, who has been taking the bus for over 20 years and once blogged about the system. But she considers herself lucky.
“Where I live, I have a lot of different routes I can choose that take me downtown,” she said.
Others aren’t so fortunate.
“Sometimes I have to wait at my stop for like 30 minutes-plus, and it’s very frustrating if you’re trying to get somewhere very fast. And sometimes you have to plan your trip like two hours ahead because you are afraid you might miss the bus,” said Khalid Huzeni.
Robert Roy said he used to bus around more often, but it’s too much of a hassle now.
“I’ve never really been impressed with Winnipeg Transit,” he said. “Like today, I have a 25-minute wait for a connecting bus. Anything that would make it quicker, I think is beneficial for everybody. Especially people who are going to work or school.”
Roy himself commutes to visit family, like his elderly mom who lives across the city. If transit was more frequent, he would be able to see her more, he said.
However, change could be making a stop in the city after Winnipeg Transit released an implementation plan that would essentially replace the current network.
“If the plan is approved, almost every route will change,” said Kevin Sturgeon, project manager with Winnipeg Transit. “The routes we’ve had in place, some of them for up to 140 years, will be gone. So everybody will have to get used to a new way of getting around.”
The latest transit service implementation plan is due before the public works committee on Tuesday.
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Pending approval by city council, the plan would see several new frequent express routes — or “spine” routes — extending into virtually every corner of the city. Smaller routes, also known as “feeder” routes, would drain into the larger ones.
The idea is to increase speed and stability, Sturgeon said.
“There will be a lot more of the city, a lot more Winnipeggers, that live near a frequent route. And they can go anytime they want without checking a schedule,” he said.
While it’s back-to-the-books for almost every route, a few in the southern region of the city will stay in place, as they already host rapid transit in the form of the “Blue Line.”
“It’s been working really well over there. There will be a few minor changes in that part of the city, but for the most part, it’ll stay the same. But now the rest of the city will be catching up and moving towards this new model,” he said.
Otherwise, he said if a street has a bus route today, it likely will after the plan is implemented. Some would move, but wouldn’t go far.
“To be able to deliver an effective, efficient system for residents to be able to use is ambitious and incredibly important,” said Brian Pincott with Functional Transit Winnipeg.
“I think that when you look at how, over the last decades, the Winnipeg transit system has grown, it’s been a little bit of cobbling together and hodgepodge and adding on to it, which has ended up with a system that doesn’t really serve the majority of people,” he added.
Sturgeon said Winnipeg Transit heard that loud and clear when the planning process started in 2019.
“We had three rounds of public engagement… The first thing we asked (was) ‘What’s working, what’s not working?’ People told us a lot of things that are not working. We knew about those things because we ride transit ourselves,” but it was good to have the confirmation, he said.
By the time the plan had been presented to city council on Monday, Sturgeon said it had been through four rounds of public engagement and has been well received.
Aisha Adebambo says if this plan is approved, it will change the face of her commute for the better.
“This will help me to get to where I’m going to on time. Then I can leave my home and be sure that in 30 minutes maximum, I’ll get to where I’m going. But right now, 57 minutes (to) 47 minutes is what I spent on the road, which is outrageous actually,” she said.
“Hopefully (this) will come to fruition, and hopefully it will improve the buses because we certainly need something done,” Roy said.
If approved, Winnipeg Transit plans to have its new system operational by July 1st of next year.
Pincott said the revamp is important to the city looking ahead.
“Transit… is the future. As we address climate change, as we address fiscal sustainability within the city, as we address personal affordability,” he said. “Transit is the answer.”
Mayor Scott Gillingham said, “One of the goals we have, to meet some of our climate targets, is to encourage more people to choose transit — to get out of the cars and onto buses.”
He said transit is also necessary in the face of growth.
“Our city’s growing,” he said. “Every growing city, every large city needs a reliable, predictable transit service that meets the people’s needs.”
“I just think that if we want to have a great city, we have to have great transit,” Geller said, adding the key is frequency.
“Frequency is what makes the difference between a good transit system and a not-so-good,” she said.