Winnipeg Transit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Locale | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
|---|---|
| Transit type | Bus |
| Began operation | 1882 |
| Daily ridership | 101,000 |
| Operator | Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg |
Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It has been operated by the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg since 1960.
Public transit was commenced under the ownership of the street railway by Toronto businessman Albert William Austin in 1882.
Winnipeg Transit is a bus-only operator and the first buses ran in 1918. The Winnipeg Street Railway (later Winnipeg Electric Railway Company) operated a street railway system from 1882 to 1955 (as horse car operations from 1882 to 1891). After the end of street cars, the system was known as the Winnipeg Transit Commission and the Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission.
From 1938 to 1970, Winnipeg had an electric trolley bus fleet.
[edit] History
[edit] The Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company (WESR) Years — 1892–1904
[edit] The Winnipeg Electric Railway Company Years — 1904–1924
[edit] The Winnipeg Electric Company (WECo.) Years — 1924–1953
In January, 1940, William Carter was named the new President of Winnipeg Electric Company.[1]
During the Summer of 1948 a Public Utility Board inquiry took place questioning the depreciation costs claimed by WECo. and its predecessors on streetcar equipment. This lead to a difference of $495,000, part of which WECo. overclaimed $363,504, overestimated $30,000 for snow removal costs, and didn't include a $99,000 "saving" on conversion to trolleybuses.[2]
The River Ave. bus route was extended and its name changed to Crescent in October, 1949 after a six month battle over the routing.[3]
[edit] The Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission (GWTC) Years — 1953–1960
A referendum was conducted in March, 1953, where only the electorate in the city proper were eligible to vote. It created the Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission because the Winnipeg Electric Company did not want to operate the transit system any longer.[4]
Express bus service was introduced on the Portage route starting November 4, 1957. A 5 cent premium fare was charged to passengers.[5]
In response to an expressway plan published in 1957 that was sponsored by the Downtown Winnipeg Association, a city councillor sponsored the hiring of Norman D. Wilson to design a subway plan for the greater Winnipeg area. This plan was published on April 11, 1959[6] as the Future Development of the Greater Winnipeg Transit System
[edit] The Metro Winnipeg Transit Years — 1960–1971
In October 1962 a report on transit was released which recommended scrapping the idea of a 'downtown bus terminal' for Winnipeg Transit. It also recommended reduction of 50 cents for monthly passes.[7]
As part of the new Metro administration, a metropolitan development plan, which took several years to complete was begun in 1962.[8] The transportation component, the Winnipeg Area Transportation Study, which, when its recommendations were published in January, 1969 called for 5 freeways, a suburban beltway, and a 5.4 mile underground subway.
Bus fares were raised from 15 cents to 25 cents in April 1969.[9]
In 1969 the main transit garage was moved from Assiniboine Avenue to a new location on Osborne St.[10]
During the 1960s Metro Winnipeg Transit was phasing out the trolleybus fleet. At one point Winnipeg City Council begged Metro to stop this phase out, but it continued nonetheless.[11]
In August 1970 several River Heights residents opposed a jointly managed Unibus shuttle service for University of Manitoba students. Riding Unibus would save students from paying the regular adult fare, instead they would pay $20 for six month's use. However, residents were upset that the routes would depreciate housing where the buses traversed and that the service was only available to University students.[12]
[edit] The Winnipeg Transit Years — 1972–current
In the late 1970s Winnipeg Transit paid an outside design firm to create a new logo for the transit department, although it wasn't until two or three years later when bus stops begun to feature the new design.
The Works and Operations Committee awarded Mediacom, Inc. in April 1982 to build and maintain 200 transit shelters with advertising for a period of 15 years.[13]
During the week of September 23, 1982, Winnipeg Transit tested a GM built articulated bus on the Portage and Pembina routes. The bus, numbered 900, was constructed from parts of a GM New Look with a Classic front end. It was destined to operate as part of the Mississauga Transit fleet.[14]
When Edmonton and Calgary completed the first phase of their LRT systems in the early 1980s, they found that they needed fewer diesel buses -- they sold some of them to Winnipeg Transit, which in turn bought 10 double rear door Flyer models from Edmonton (380 series), and another 10 GM New Look buses from Calgary (290 series).
During the Summer of 1985 all bus stops in Winnipeg were replaced with new ones bearing a telephone number that started with 235-. When a transit passenger called this number he/she would hear a computerized female voice give the current time, and the transit routes and times those routes passed through that particular stop. Tele-bus, which is based on software by Teleride Corporation, was officially launched in February 1986. Costs were shared 50-50 between the Province and City to pay the $1.3 million to set up the original system.[15] However, in 1987 all bus stop decals were replaced with the 287- telephone exchange.
After Calgary Transit's C-Train LRT expanded into the Northeast in April 1985, 30 more New Flyer buses (600-630 series) were sold to Winnipeg and put into service in 1986.
After several years delay, the Graham Avenue Transit Mall was completed over a two-year period 1994-95 at a cost of $5.7 million.[16]
The Free Press conducted a downtown idea contest in 1994, which Jeff Lowe had won on an idea for a rail-based streetcar to serve the downtown Winnipeg area.[17] Subsequently this idea was added to the CentrePlan report, the CentrePlan formed a "downtown connector" committee, of which a representative from Winnipeg Transit participated. In 1999 the Downtown BIZ had put forward a request for a feasibility study on a streetcar connector for downtown. However this did not happen until 2002. The subsequent report, which was never released, was very soft on recommending any form of connector service.
[edit] Recent Developments
Very few improvements have been made to Winnipeg Transit since the Graham Avenue Transit Mall was completed in 1995. The fareboxes date from 1910, but are scheduled to be replaced in 2007. Also a few articulated buses will replace, but not add to the fleet size, and are also scheduled to be introduced to routes 60, 61, and 62 in 2007.
In the early 21st century, the three levels of government made a deal to fund the development of three infrastructure projects: Kenaston Underpass, phase one of the Southwest Transit Corridor, and funding for expansion of the Floodway. The Kenaston Underpass was completed in the Fall of 2006, and the Floodway expansion project is underway, however, the rapid transit project has not started. There are several reasons for this.
In the Spring of 2004 Glen Murray, who was Mayor of Winnipeg at the time, decided to run in the federal election in the Charleswood-St. James riding as a Liberal in a mostly Progressive Conservative area. Glen was taking the side of high level bureaucrats at Winnipeg Transit who preferred Bus Rapid Transit over rail-based options such as subway or LRT. Sam Katz became the successor mayor in his place after a mini-election and began to make plans to cancel the BRT project. After several weeks debate, mostly in the local newspapers, a vote at Council took place on September 29th, 2004. The BRT project was canceled by a strong vote. Subsequent to that, Dallas Hansen wrote an OP-ED column in the Free Press saying that he discovered the Wilson subway plan for Winnipeg and had extolled its benefits to our city.
There are some decision makers in Winnipeg that prefer that Winnipeg not grow and prosper into a large metropolis of a million population or more. These seem to be the so-called environmentalists who believe that any type of further development of any kind is bad. On the other end of the political scale are [i]some[/i] conservatives who believe that the automobile should be the primary mode of transport and public transit is only for the poor.
[edit] Operations
Winnipeg Transit has a staff of 1,366 of which 950 are bus operators.
There are about 6,000 bus stops across Greater Winnipeg area, 800 bus shelters and 1,500 transit benches.
To facilitate use of the system, Winnipeg Transit's web site[1] provides a service called Navigo which allows users to specify a starting location and destination (either by address, Winnipeg landmark, or intersection) and the desired time of arrival. It then produces all the available bus routes that meet the criteria, estimating how much time is spent walking to bus stops and waiting for buses, as well as how many transfers are required to arrive at the destination.
[edit] Current Fleet
Winnipeg Transit has 535 buses. 293 are low-floor easy access buses: 
[edit] Facilities
- Winnipeg Transit Base & Fort Rouge Garage (1969)
- North Main Garage (Main St. @ Carruthers)
- St. James Garage (Closed and Sold To U-Hual In late 90's)
[edit] Routes
denotes wheelchair accessibility
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On weekends Winnipeg Transit operates accessible buses on every route.
Route 80 Industrial Express is the only express bus route that operates on Sundays.
[edit] Terminals
- MTS Centre
- Polo Park Bus Loop
- Garden City Bus Loop
- Kildonan Place Shopping Centre Bus Loop
- St. Vital Shopping Centre Bus Loop
- University of Manitoba
- University of Winnipeg
- Red River College
- Unicity
- Graham Ave Transit Mall
[edit] Fares
Current fare structure:
Full Fare
- Cash - $2.00
- Tickets (10) - $18.50
- Monthly pass - $71.25
- Superpass (Mon-Sun) - $18.50
- Max 5 (Mon-Fri) - $16.65
Reduced Fare (applies to students as well)
- Cash - $1.65
- Tickets (10) - $12.50
- Monthly pass - $48.15
- Superpass (Mon-Sun) - $12.50
Senior Fare
- Cash - $1.65
- Tickets - $9.30
- Monthly pass - $35.65
- Superpass (Mon-Sun) - $9.30
Post Secondary Student Pass
- Monthly Pass - $57.00
Handi-Transit Fare
- Cash - $2.00
- Tickets (10) - $18.50
- Monthly Pass - $71.25
[edit] References
- ^ "William H. Carter New President Of Winnipeg Electric", The Winnipeg Tribune, June 25, 1940.
- ^ "Tram Firm Charged With $495,000 Error", The Winnipeg Tribune, August 23, 1948.
- ^ "Bus to Run on Grosvenor, Ending Six-Month Battle", The Winnipeg Tribune, October 4, 1949, p. 1.
- ^ "EDITORIAL: Transit Referendum", The Winnipeg Tribune, March 26, 1953, p. 6.
- ^ "Non-stop Bus Service Next Week on Portage", The Winnipeg Tribune, November 1, 1957.
- ^ "Cost Estimated At $449 Million", The Winnipeg Tribune, April 11, 1959, p. 1.
- ^ "Bus fares won't be increased: Transit report hints of failure", The Winnipeg Tribune, October 3, 1962, p. 15.
- ^ O'Malley, Martin. "Keep public transit wheels moving is the aim of WATS", The Winnipeg Tribune, December 11, 1963.
- ^ "Bus fare boosted to 25¢?", The Winnipeg Tribune, January 24, 1969, p. 1.
- ^ "Bigger and better bus base", The Winnipeg Tribune, July 7, 1966, p. 8.
- ^ "'Keep trolleys': City", The Winnipeg Tribune, December 2, 1969.
- ^ "River Heights group fights Unibus plans", The Winnipeg Tribune, August 5, 1970, p. 29.
- ^ Pona, Steve. "U.S. firm claims shelter tender cost city better deal", Winnipeg Free Press, April 14, 1982, p. 3.
- ^ Olsen, Glenn. "Stretching it", Winnipeg Free Press, September 23, 1982, p. 4.
- ^ Rollason, Kevin. "Winnipeg Warms to Telebus", The Winnipeg Sun, January 25, 1986.
- ^ Robertson, Bud. "Transit corridor coming to life", Winnipeg Free Press, May 3, 1994, p. B1.
- ^ Flood, Gerald. "A desire named streetcar: Proposal to bring back trolleys draws applause from experts", Winnipeg Free Press, June 27, 1994, p. B1.
