Guest Columnist Kelly Ryback
Winnipeg, January 14, 2024 - The City of Winnipeg is prepared to accelerate the implementation of its Transit Master Plan. The first phase will be the biggest change to transit service in Winnipeg’s history. Transit plans to roll in a brand-new schedule and service delivery model for the entire city at the same time in June of 2025. The Plan is flawed. To do so all at once is a recipe for disaster.
Future phases involve infrastructure changes, garages, new buses, heated shelters, terminals, and other items.
The first phase is to change schedules and delivery to a spine and feeder model. Residential neighbourhoods would be served by feeder buses and on-demand buses to transport riders to the spine. A spine is a main road such as Portage Avenue, Grant Avenue, St. Mary’s Road, McPhillips Street, Main Street, Regent Avenue, etc. Most residents would not be able to board a bus in the neighbourhood and have a direct route towards downtown. Expect to now have one to two transfers to get to a destination or encounter long walks to and from the spine.
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The total cost for the Transit Master Plan is over $1 billion which is a +/- 50% estimate in 2020 dollars. Therefore, $1 billion could be $1.5 billion. Now add inflation over the years, and it could quickly become $ 3 billion plus.
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The timeline from report release on the Public Works Standing Policy Committee agenda to council approval was less than three weeks in April of 2021. I was a delegate in opposition to the report because there was zero opportunity for councillors to take the plan to their ward residents to understand the impacts. I identified several other issues. I met with a transit manager prior to my presentation, and the manager confirmed my concerns.
I was also a delegate on November 21, 2023, concerning the acceleration of the Transit Master Plan implementation. I cited my concerns from 2021 and learned that Transit is planning only four to five public engagement events for accelerated transit plans later this year. Transit did not have a plan to educate councillors on changes in their wards. Â Councillors need to get to work in their wards to advise residents. Many councillors need to read the plan and meet with Transit.
Service will be exceptional once on a bus on the spine. Keep in mind that rapid transit stops on the spine will be approximately 700 metres apart. But getting to the spine and to a rapid transit stop will be a challenge. The best-case scenario to catch a feeder bus is once every fifteen minutes during the commute hours. Â Several direct routes to downtown originating in residential areas will be cancelled and replaced with a feeder service to get to the main routes. That feeder service will run through residential roads and school zones that are not served by transit today. The feeder service may only run once per hour during off-hours, if at all. The walk to a feeder stop or to one on a main route could be as long as one kilometre. Not ideal at night or in inclement weather. The total travel time will increase under the Transit Master Plan for most residents in established areas. Therefore, many residents will now likely drive instead of taking the bus where feeder service will be in play.
I recommended that Transit should improve many areas of the existing service prior to any changes and expansion. Building on a poor foundation delivers a poor result. Schedules are not met, safety remains an issue, bus shelter conditions are challenging, and thousands of passenger trips are not paid for. Address those issues first before you expand and change.
There are plans to introduce heated terminals and shelters. The plan did not include costs for security and maintenance. Imagine how those will end up without the current state being addressed.
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Meanwhile there are thousands of vehicles needlessly idling and spewing carbon emissions at intersections due to inadequate turn lanes and the elimination of right turns on red. Let’s fix those now to reduce emissions and travel time even before the transit master plan is implemented.
The Parker Lands development was not included in the transit service area during the Housing Accelerator Fund discussion. Strange.
The transit master plan does not provide traffic data projections where the quantity of lanes will be reduced to allow for bus lane infrastructure. Imagine travelling these routes during snow storms and during construction and repair. How will snow storage be affected?
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The Transit Master Plan public consultations will be in the coming months. I encourage you to check them out. Learn how the service will change for you. Contact your councillor and request a neighbourhood public forum prior to any future council vote and budget approvals. Provide your concerns and recommendations. Video link to my presentation to the Standing
Policy Committee on Public Works, Nov 21, 2023: https://youtu.be/b-z7TlCN_0Q
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Link to the Transit Master Plan (reduced version). See proposed service and routes beginning on page 35: