Winnipeg to study extension of bus service beyond perimeter, building park & rides for suburban commuters

Winnipeg is studying the idea of extending transit service to neighbouring municipalities or creating park-and-ride lots at the city's edges to shorten the drive for commuters who live in bedroom communities. 

The city has launched a review of the way people move between Winnipeg and more than a dozen of its neighbours, including Stonewall, Selkirk, St. Andrews, Springfield, Tache, Macdonald, Headingley and Rosser.

The study, which will be launched in the coming weeks, will look at ways of improving transportation between Winnipeg and the surrounding communities.

A report, due by the end of June 2021, will be part of the city's revamped Transportation Master Plan, a blueprint for road, bus and bike infrastructure improvements over the next 30 years.

The city is about to select a consulting firm to offer advice about ways to create a "regional transportation body," re-introduce public transportation links between Winnipeg and its neighbours and "analyze the establishment of large park-and-ride facilities on major regional corridors at the boundary of the City of Winnipeg to promote mode shift from auto to Winnipeg Transit."

By extending transit connections to ex-urban commuters, the city hopes to reduce the wear and tear on Winnipeg's roads from vehicles owned by people who live outside the city, all the while reducing their personal transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Alex Regiec, who's leading the creation of Winnipeg's new transportation plan, said the city is growing faster now than it has since 1960s — but its neighbours are growing even faster.

"There are no [regional] bus services left. They've all kind of dissipated. Is everybody driving? That's what we've asked our consultant to look at. What is that impact of all those folks coming in on our infrastructure?" asked Regiec in an interview.

"Say, for example, we have X-thousand cars coming in from a particular quarter from outside the city. Can we build a park-and-ride? Can we encourage people to take frequent transit to whatever destination they're going to? Perhaps downtown for employment, perhaps the Polo Park area for employment, or the airport."

The study will not determine whether the city should proceed with park-and-rides at its borders, extend bus service to destinations such as Selkirk or create a new regional transportation authority, Regiec said. Rather, Winnipeg wants to know if these ideas are viable.

"You have to get the numbers right. It's really important for the region, but it has to be done in a way that doesn't cost the taxpayers of Winnipeg," said Colleen Sklar, executive director of the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, which has been lobbying for better transportation connections.

Park-and-ride lots at the city's borders could actually improve the frequency of Winnipeg Transit service, she said. Regional bus service could also work, provided the routes are based on actual demand, she said.

Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson said the provincial and federal governments ought to help Winnipeg and its neighbours improve their transportation connections, and not just for the economic benefits of moving people around more efficiently.

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"We have to look at it from a climate change adaptation perspective. One person in a big truck going back and forth isn't sustainable," he said.

Six transportation studies coming

There are six components of the new Transportation Master Plan. The core study will recommend the roads, bridges, bus corridors and commuter-cycling routes the city ought to prioritize over the next three decades — and come up with cost-benefit rationales for proceeding with them, Regiec said.

The regional transportation review is one of five side studies.

The city also plans to hire another consultant to study the movement of goods around the city as part of an effort to aid the trucking industry.

Another firm will examine the effects of new technologies on transportation, both to ward against cybersecurity threats and to ensure services such as SkipTheDishes don't have an adverse effect on traffic.

Yet another study will examine ways to build new transportation infrastructure without spending a lot of money, and the fifth and final side report will revamp Winnipeg's active-transportation plan.

Winnipeg Transit's new plan due this summer

All of these reports are due by June 30, 2021, a year after Winnipeg Transit presents a master plan for its operations within the city.

This coming June, Transit will unveil a new plan that promises to overhaul service across the city and outline the future of rapid transit.

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Some of the broad strokes of the plan have already been revealed. The city has scrapped the idea of building six bus corridors and replaced it with three rapid transit lines, said Kevin Sturgeon, a senior Winnipeg Transit planner.

One crescent-shaped route would run from Fort Garry to Polo Park — encompassing the soon-to-be-completed Southwest Transitway — a new link through downtown and a leg running alongside Portage Avenue, according to plans made public in October.

A second route would run north-south between West Kildonan and South St. Vital, encompassing Main Street, the same downtown link and St. Mary's Road.

A third route would run east-west between Tuxedo and Transcona, utilizing Grant Avenue, the downtown link and a leg running through Point Douglas, across the Red River and then alongside Nairn Avenue.

The downtown link used by all three lines could run on a section of unused elevated rail track east of Main Street, with Union Station as a central hub, Sturgeon said.

He declined to say how dedicated bus corridors along all three routes will utilize existing roads, adding more details will be unveiled in March.

Transit has co-ordinated its new master plan with the public works team developing the city's transportation master plan, Sturgeon said.

"We work together on all our planning. We sit on each other's committees. We're never planning to make a proposal that surprises another department within the city," he said.

The release of Winnipeg Transit's master plan will coincide with a recommendation on a rapid-transit route through Point Douglas — both Sutherland Avenue and Higgins Avenue are on the table as options — as well as preliminary plans for a replacement of the Louise Bridge, Sturgeon said.