Winnipeg Transit

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Winnipeg Transit

Founded	1882
Headquarters	421 Osborne Street
Service area	Winnipeg, Manitoba
Service type	Public Transit
Routes	87 routes
Stops	6,000 stops
Fleet	535 buses
Daily ridership	101,000
Operator	City of Winnipeg
Web site	Official Website

Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was operated by the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg from 1960 until 1972 when the Corporation was replaced by the amalgamated City of Winnipeg.

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

Public transit in Winnipeg began in 1882 with street railway under the ownership of Toronto businessman Albert William Austin.

[edit] 1892–1904

Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company (WESR)

[edit] 1904–1924

Winnipeg Electric Railway Company

[edit] 1924–1953

Winnipeg Electric Company (WECo.)

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 led 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] 1953–1960

Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission (GWTC)

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] 1960–1971

Metro Winnipeg Transit

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] 1972–current

Winnipeg Transit

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

There have been few changes to Winnipeg Transit since the completion of the Graham Avenue Transit Mall in 1995. Several articulated buses will join the fleet on routes 60, 61, and 62 in late 2008, pushed back from the previously given date of January 2007, but these are replacements for existing vehicles. Transit fareboxes, some of which date from 1910, were scheduled to be replaced in 2007 as well.

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 the city.

WT estimates 40.4 million passengers for 2006 year. ^[18]

Waldrop announced in early 2007 that from now on if the amount of snow falling is 25 centimetres or greater, only 7 mainline transit routes will operate.^[19]

On November 16, 2007, the federal, provincial, and municipal governments announced the Transit Improvement Program, in which it includes upgrades and improvements to existing infrastructure for buses, such as transit priority signals, transit-only lanes, and new bus shelters. In addition to an order of 33 new regular 40-foot low-floor buses, Winnipeg Transit also ordered 20 new 60-foot articulated Diesel-Electric Hybrid buses, in which the first bus being delivered by the end of 2007. It will be tested on the streets of Winnipeg during the winter months.^[20]

On December 15, 2007, Winnipeg Transit's first articulated bus was delivered. It will be one of two buses in Winnipeg that will be undergoing testing during the winter months. During it's pilot run, it will most likely be operating transit routes on (but not limited to) Pembina Highway. In addition, 20 60-foot articulated buses are expected to be delivered to Winnipeg Transit by Spring 2009.^[21]

[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 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 or departure (specified as "before" or "after"). 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. There will be an additional 33 New Flyer D40LFR's, that are expected to arrive of Spring 2008. The following fleet roster is as of April 2008:

Current Complete Fleet List

Make/Model	Series	Model	Year
Flyer	100-107	D901A	1984
Flyer	108-182	D901A	1985
New Flyer	201-230	D40LF	2004
New Flyer	231-260	D40LF	2005
New Flyer	270-281	D40LF	2007
MCI	301-334	Classic	1988
New Flyer	340-366	D40	1992
New Flyer	370-399	D40	1994
New Flyer	401-443	D40LF	1998
New Flyer	444-504	D40LF	1999
New Flyer	510-561	D40LF	2002
New Flyer	550	HE40LF\F40LF	2005
New Flyer	570-599	D40LF	2003
Flyer	601-630	D901A	1986
New Flyer	631-660	D40	1987
New Flyer	671-699	D40	1994
New Flyer	701-733	D40LFR	2008
New Flyer	801-828	D40	1989
New Flyer	831-860	D40	1990
New Flyer	861-890	D40	1991
New Flyer	901-910	Invero/D40i	2004
New Flyer	911-925	D30LF	1996
New Flyer	930-949	D30LF	2001
New Flyer	990-993	D40LF	1994
New Flyer	998	DE60LFR	2007

[edit] Historic/All-Time Fleet

The content of this section has been removed because it was copied without permission from another website.

[edit] Facilities

• Winnipeg Transit Base & Fort Rouge Garage (1969)
• North Main Garage (Main St. @ Carruthers)
• St. James Garage (Closed and Sold To U-Haul In late 90's)

[edit] Routes

Main article: List of Winnipeg bus routes

On weekends Winnipeg Transit operates accessible buses on most routes.

Route 80 Industrial Express is the only express bus route that operates on Sundays.

[edit] Major Bus Stops

• Polo Park Terminal
• Garden City Terminal
• Kildonan Place Terminal
• St. Vital Terminal
• University of Manitoba Terminal
• Unicity Exchange
• Graham Ave Transit Mall
• University of Winnipeg Exchange
• Stafford-Pembina Exchange

[edit] Fares

Current fare structure:

Post Secondary Student Pass

• Monthly Pass - $57.00

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Baker, John E. (1982). Winnipeg's Electric Transit: The Story of Winnipeg's Streetcars and Trolley Busses. West Hill, Ontario: Railfare. ISBN 09-1913-031-3.

[edit] External links

• Winnipeg Transit
• uwto.org
• Transit Rider Union of Winnipeg
• All Time List of Canadian Transit Systems - Transit History of Winnipeg, Manitoba