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DavidW

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  1. CBC news story: Winnipeg family gives up on car-free lifestyle after struggles with public transit 24 hours ago A Winnipeg couple who publicly announced they'd given up their vehicle last summer are now throwing in the towel on their car-free lifestyle, citing problems with Winnipeg Transit as the biggest obstacle. For the written article, see CBC News. For the video story, see CBC website. Some quotes: "The bus would often come late, or not at all," ... "Most of the bus shelters have homeless people living in them," said Palmquist. "There's meth pipes, there's broken beer bottles." ... Waters said the family has also encountered security concerns onboard buses, including an encounter with a person in a mental health crisis that left her deeply shaken.
  2. Given the lesser peak vehicle requirements in the summer it could also be that they're too far down the age/condition ordered-list to get sent out more than rarely, and they might be seen more frequently again after Labour Day... Even so, "use me last" is next to "scrap me".
  3. I've been an every-day transit rider since the 1980s and am very well aware of the issue and its history. Since 2020 it's at a whole different level.
  4. The COVID-19 pandemic seemed to bring a near collapse of social services in Winnipeg and resulted in many choosing transit shelters as a refuge. As disturbing as these photographs might be, I thought it was important to place them on the public record. They are not a widespread sample, concentrating along Osborne Street, however such scenes could be captured not only in the city centre but at various suburban locations too. I stopped documenting the problem some time in 2021, but it continued through the winter of 2022/23. Summer seems to have lessened the issue but what will happen as Fall turns to Winter later this year is anyone's guess.
  5. The Annual General Meeting of the Manitoba Transit Heritage Association, Inc., will take place Friday 26 May 2023 7:00PM - 9:00PM in Headingley, Manitoba. RSVP is requested if you plan to attend the meeting, and if you would like to ride to and from the meeting by MTHA vintage bus. Annual membership in the MTHA is CAD $25.00. Memberships can be purchased through www.mtha.ca . If you would would like to attend you can email contact@mtha.ca . RSVP's will receive a reply with details about the location of the AGM and the arrangements for the vintage bus transportation.
  6. I think the Blue Line is more easily fixed with higher frequency for now. In the early 1980s the PEMBINA bus, in mixed traffic on Pembina Highway, and with 40 ft/12.2m buses, ran every two to three minutes in peak periods. Artics on private right-of way should be able to do better than that with ease. Winnipeg Transit's inability to adapt to the pass-ups problem on the Blue Line is a glaring example of what can go wrong with a busway. If you cannot afford to hire drivers and buy/garage/maintain buses to respond to better ridership maybe you should have spent more on capital so you can spend less on operating. I also wouldn't spend money to convert our one-and-only rapid transit (ish) line to something else. There is more to Winnipeg than the 500 metre circles around the Blue Line stations. A second line somewhere else would be more beneficial to transit ridership and mode shift than Blue Line round two at this point. Bite the bullet and cough up the operating money to make the Blue Line work, learn the lessons (good, bad or otherwise) from it, and start on a second line. Hopefully something more than painted lines on a few streets (the current plan) or a busway you can't afford to operate properly (I'm looking at you, Blue Line).
  7. The economics is just not as simple as that. Yes, the capital cost of building LRT is higher. The operating cost per passenger should be lower. Over time LRT should pay off. There are also other factors that should be taken into consideration. What are you getting for what you are spending? Comparing rail to buses is quite apples-to-oranges. Ride quality, environmental benefit, ability to drive investment in housing and commercial properties. We'll have to see if the Blue Line can drive any densification. Half of the block between Mayfair and River near Harkness Station has been cleared, but remains vacant a decade after Harkness opened. The one new office block built between confusion corner and Osborne Station is mostly vacant. There are a couple of apartment towers a couple of blocks south of Osborne Station probably built in anticipation of rapid transit. There's some in the old Fort Rouge yards around Fort Rouge and Jubilee Stations, but still lots of empty spaces. The City planning department seems hell bent on blocking development around Beaumont station. The developer got a court decision to order the City to stop obstructing development but the City is still stalling. Seel, Chevrier and Clarence Stations are in no-mans land between the back yards of single-family homes and warehouse industrial. The high voltage transmission lines constrict the close-up development sites to parking lot use. There's a large "transit oriented development" project west of Plaza Station. The developer has firmly oriented the development away from the station. They initially installed a barrier fence making access to the station impossible. They've since cut an opening into the fence but there's no sidewalk between station and the development. It's an outstanding example of a developer using current buzz words (TOD) to bamboozle permission. Chancellor, Markham, and South Park stations will take longer to influence the future of their immediate surroundings. The neighbourhood is well built out and there aren't a lot of empty spaces for immediate redevelopment. The common observation is that bus-based rapid transit has a much less successful record of driving land use improvements than rail-based rapid transit. We'll have to see if Winnipeg fits the common observation or defies it.
  8. Sorry to resurrect a thread from 2016. Winnipeg Transit has given City Council another iteration of their "no light rail" expert advice... Article from the Winnipeg Free Press: Light rail transit out of Winnipeg’s reach: city official By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 6:06 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023 Strangely for a Winnipeg Free Press article, this one doesn't seem to be behind their pay wall [as of this posting]. I get tired of these. They're a regurgitation of the "conventional wisdom" that Winnipeg is too small [and/or too poor] to have LRT. Transit's report to council could have been written any time in the last 50 years. ==== The interesting thing [to me] is that just now there actually might be some good arguments why now is not the right moment to make a light rail decision. I don't know what the future of downtown is going to be. (a). Shopping (department stores, retail malls, etc) is dead downtown, and it seems unlikely to me downtown will become a place where people from all over the city go to shop again any time soon. (b). What is the future of downtown offices? What percentage of downtown workers who've been working from home for the last three years will be returning to the office towers downtown? A case for light rail is very difficult to make if the return is not above 80%-ish. (c). Is downtown high-rise living going to be popular. A few apartment/condo towers have been built downtown in the last few years (Winnipeg Square, True North Square) and a couple of office buildings have been converted to residential (Medical Arts, Avenue Bldg, Lindsay Bldg). Will they fill up? Will there be more? (d). Do people still go downtown for professional services (doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, etc)? If downtown's not coming back, then building a light rail line from "A" to "B" is impossible if there's no "A".
  9. Speaking of the past... Dusty Trails to Divided Highways A History of Intercity Bus Lines in Manitoba Revised Edition by Alex Regeic , Dennis R Cavanagh , David Anthony Wyatt Available at McNally-Robinson Booksellers Winnipeg. Also available at Flagstop Hobbies Calgary. This is the 2023 Second Edition, 92 pages. [The first edition was published in 2006 and was 66 pages.]
  10. Hi everyone. I've been googling for recent references to the International Bridge Bus but I can't seem to find anything since about 2019. I'm guessing the pandemic and its border closures suspended or killed it. Does anyone have a date for its discontinuance? Is there any indication it might be revived? I'd like the info to update my All-time List of Canadian Transit Systems SSM page. Thanks.
  11. My sources say Mr. Radstrom will explain to the IPW Committee why LRT cannot be done in Winnipeg. It's the same "song and dance" we've been hearing for at least half a Century. It's accepted "fact" among several generations of municipal and provincial politicians and City bureaucrats to such a degree that they diagnose "insanity" for anyone who doesn't think the way they do. Winnipeg's gonna "winnipeg". "winnipeg" verb. Definition: 1. an action arising from small-town ambition and 'we can't do' attitude. 2. Gimme my discount.
  12. I think the better candidate for light rail might be a Regent/Portage line eventually to stretch from eastern Transcona all the way to western Assiniboia. I would build it in phases over many years, perhaps with a starter line ("Phase Zero"?) from Balmoral Station to Polo Park. The Transcona bit would be from City Hall/Concert Hall/Manitoba Museum eastward. At some point the eastern and western lines would need to be connected with an underground tunnel from Balmoral Station to City Hall/Concert Hall/Manitoba Museum. I wouldn't expect to start construction of "Phase Zero" for around a decade. It's still not clear which changes caused by the pandemic will [gradually] reverse and which changes will turn out to be [mostly] permanent. Will working from home remain big, or will workers gradually return to offices? What's the future of shopping centres versus online shopping? If office towers and shopping centres are significantly diminished travel destinations then what remains? Medical? Manufacturing? You might be able to build a light rail line through downtown based on 260 days/year of office workers but probably not on 40 Jets home games and 10 concerts a year. A factor that would have helped justify LRT would have been the Climate Change crisis, but people (here and everywhere) seem determined to only take token measures. Winnipeg's gonna "winnipeg" and nothing will happen. Story of the last hundred years here. I'm very pessimistic.
  13. Always amusing to bump into another media article about the Edmonton--Calgary hyperloop project. Canada might be getting a 1,000 kph vacuum-tube train Maureen O'Hare, CNN • Updated 1st September 2022
  14. 751 was purchased in 1971 from General Motors in the United States and was built in Pontiac, Michigan. This was done because GM Canada could not supply the required air conditioning.
  15. I observed the following 9000 series units at Fort Rouge Garage on Saturday 06 August 2022: 9425, 9460, 9462, 9472, 9480, 9503, 9504. Together with 9443, 3528, and 9914 reported in 2021 by simer4 that makes ten buses renumbered into the 9000 series. What have others observed? Is this a complete list of "9000s" to date? I know 9425 was converted into a "community engagement" venue. simer4 above reports 9443 and 9528 were transferred to the Winnipeg Police Service. What has been the post-retirement purpose of the other seven?
  16. A few more pictures from the Pony Corral Grant Park car show on Sunday 07 August 2022 are here: flickr album
  17. We have been working hard to marshal drivers and ready buses. This will be our first multi-vehicle display in many years. We're anticipating having six buses available. Exactly which ones depends a bit in which units are operating or can be repaired in time. I know the 1954 GM is ready, and we're expecting to debut the Museum Bus [1979 OBI Orion 01]. What else appears will be "as available"...
  18. Am I remembering correctly that this year's electrics were dependent on Federal grant money? Would that be a separate grant or this big one?
  19. I would guess the 100 electrics won't arrive until after the new garage is ready, so five years out at the earliest? I'm also guessing the 137 diesels will role in first. Maybe 34/year for four years?
  20. I accessed winnipegtransit.com on my smartphone today and landed in the a completely new interface. So far I'm quite disappointed. Things that were a click or two away in the old version are now multiple clicks to access. The list of stops nearby are all indicated by their stop numbers (with the actual description in tiny print underneath). The schedule display for the stop no longer indicates which buses are early or late. The "just passed" buses are gone too. The output has seems to emphasize appearance over information. Huge downgrade in usefulness in my view.
  21. The MTHA has been for some time working on converting our OBI Orion 01 bus to a rolling museum. We have removed most of the seating and installed display cabinets, installed photo walls, and have reversed the back two rows of seats to face a wide-screen TV where we intend to project photos and videos as part of the displays. Last week we were able to put up 31 photographs on the photo wall. The wall holds 32 photos, and the photos are mounted with velcro so they can be changed out. Here are some photos of the photo walls: If you have any transit-related artifacts you would like to contribute to the displays inside the bus, please contact me to let me know.
  22. I came across this article searching Winnipeg Tribune articles. Winnipeg Tribune 13 October 1920. I did not know that Assiniboia once ran its own bus service in competition with Suburban Rapid Transit Co./Winnipeg Electric Railway Company.
  23. The Annual General Meeting of the Manitoba Transit Heritage Association is the evening of the last Monday in May. 7pm Monday 30 May 2022 in the "Transit Break Room" inside the maintenance garage ('G") at Fort Rouge Garage. If you think you might want to join the MTHA this is a great opportunity to check us out. If you're thinking attending please let me know, either through a direct message on this board or by email to contact@mtha.ca .
  24. The bus shelter/homeless shelter at northbound Osborne Street at River Avenue has been attended by police all afternoon today (at least since 1:45pm when I first passed by). The shelter and plaza area between the shelter and Subway was taped off. Around 5pm the police forensic unit was dusting the interior glass. It resembled a search for finger prints I've seen in TV shows...
  25. The bus shelter/homeless shelter at southbound Osborne St N and Broadway has been destroyed by fire. [I hope no one was hurt].
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