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Winnipeg Transit and area


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In the area between Ft. Rouge Stn. and Osborne Stn. sits a few of those fancier transit signs. It's fairly far away and the vehicle is traveling too fast and my eyesight not as young as it used to be.

Does anyone know why they are being stored there, and what are some of labels on the signs?

If I were to point my camera phone out the window as we whoosh by at 80 km/h ??‍♂️, wonder if later on in editing I could freeze frame it to see better details. Or are there people here (cough cough) who regularly visit the FRG (cough cough) who can do a photo of the "clump" while standing completely stationary (cough).

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32 minutes ago, LilZebra said:

In the area between Ft. Rouge Stn. and Osborne Stn. sits a few of those fancier transit signs. It's fairly far away and the vehicle is traveling too fast and my eyesight not as young as it used to be.

Does anyone know why they are being stored there, and what are some of labels on the signs?

If I were to point my camera phone out the window as we whoosh by at 80 km/h ??‍♂️, wonder if later on in editing I could freeze frame it to see better details. Or are there people here (cough cough) who regularly visit the FRG (cough cough) who can do a photo of the "clump" while standing completely stationary (cough).

Few of the signs from the old university of Manitoba terminal and few other ones and some transit inspectors shacks to 

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, armorand said:

Winnipeg Transit free-fare day all Thursday - i wonder how it turned out?

I noticed few passengers, maybe 5 or less on the 11 Portage bus I took from Sherbrook heading east early Thurs. afternoon.

Bumped into DavidW and we rode the 60 Pembina together northbound in OV when I got off at The Bay. Most seats were occupied.

Rode the "blue luminator bus", no. 369 at 7:56 pm on the 29 Sherbrook. There were not many on the 66 Grant around 8 pm from Stafford heading west.

Didn't notice whether people paid or not. I didn't hear too many BEEPS. One woman insisted she scan her transfer. i told her not to worry about it.

So WT may have lost some $ but maybe as much as in May not more, due to fewer passengers riding today.

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Ah. Well on the bright side, those Free Press stories of mothers in the North End with their three kids getting groceries... they probably saved at least $12, and if they used the money right, thats enough groceries for a week (8kg rice, bread, butter). If return trip involved, throw in some KD and milk too. It does go a long way indeed. 

But I'm just wondering - why doesn't Winnipeg Transit just strike already? Are they just testing City buttons and trying to get locked out of the garages, so they can blame it on the city itself? 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-transit-union-no-fair-1.5190320

Quote

CBC: "The union and the city are "still quite far apart," the ATU said, citing a refusal to set standards for operating schedules, an unwillingness to have riders represented on internal decision-making committees and the city's plans to bring in more part-time operators at lower wages without benefits or pensions."

Right along the heels of Handi-Transit being folded back into the Winnipeg Transit system? Is this also why this is happening? Along with Winnipeg Transit resuming control over Handi-Transit/"Winnipeg Transit Plus" which also happen to run Arbocs... are they trying to do what I think they're doing, running shuttlebuses like Calgary, with Arbocs and non-union operators with less wages, and no benefits? Is this a hidden reason why Winnipeg Transit employees and the unions are taking action?

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13 hours ago, armorand said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/folk-festival-winnipeg-transit-labour-dispute-1.5196819

Nice to know that Winnipeg Transit is losing riders, burning through money and destroying any leftover confidence, by the day... 

The Folk Festival service has, in recent years, been a charter operation paid for by the Folk Festival. As such I expect the Festival would solicit bids and pick the best response. I'd be curious to know if Winnipeg Transit was underbid, or if the possibility of labour action (strike or lockout or Union overtime ban) meant Transit Tom couldn't guarantee service...

I wonder who else besides Winnipeg Transit can offer wheelchair accessible buses? (Or was that not a requirement?)

It's my impression that the course of negotiations with ATU 1505 is largely being dictated by 510 Main Street, not 421 Osborne Street. I don't expect Winnipeg Transit management itself has much freedom of action. 

I do kind of agree with the general impression that Winnipeg Transit is not what it should be, and not what it used to be. From on time performance (buses are not on time 43% of the time according to just released data) to the decrepit state of bus stop signs (electronic and not) to overcrowding to network design to frequency to, well, everything else. It's like 40+ years of just scraping by and "making do" and "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" it's all collapsing slowly before our eyes.

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Like it or not, the City is legally in the right. Criminal Code of Canada:

Fraud in relation to fares, etc.

  • 393 (1) Every one whose duty it is to collect a fare, toll, ticket or admission who wilfully

    • (a) fails to collect it,

    • (b) collects less than the proper amount payable in respect thereof, or

    • (c) accepts any valuable consideration for failing to collect it or for collecting less than the proper amount payable in respect thereof,

    is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

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1 hour ago, Mark Walton said:

Criminal Code of Canada: [...] is guilty of an indictable offence [...]

I think the City of Winnipeg would have to think very carefully about the immediate and long term consequences of filing criminal charges against its drivers. Going that route might guarantee years of labour strife...

It's my impression that the City is losing the public relations contest with the ATU. The City looks like the bad guys already. Laying criminal charges in a labour dispute would make them look like monsters.

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4 minutes ago, LilZebra said:

Maybe for a movie shoot?

I understand it was to move the vehicle out of the dispatch-able range. It may also be to free up the number range for new deliveries some time in the next couple of years...

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10 hours ago, Mark Walton said:

Like it or not, the City is legally in the right. Criminal Code of Canada:

Fraud in relation to fares, etc.

  • 393 (1) Every one whose duty it is to collect a fare, toll, ticket or admission who wilfully

    • (a) fails to collect it,

    • (b) collects less than the proper amount payable in respect thereof, or

    • (c) accepts any valuable consideration for failing to collect it or for collecting less than the proper amount payable in respect thereof,

    is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

Untrue. It's not the drivers duty to enforce the fare per Winnipeg Transit policy. Only to inform passengers of the correct fare, if they choose not to pay the operators manual states simply to ask "pay double next time" and press the "underpay" button. Winnipeg Transit set this policy to reduce the amount of driver/passenger conflicts. Transit is contradicting themselves saying that it's the operators responsibility to enforce fares. They only monitor payment.

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9425... makes me think I'm staring at a Calgary bus. 

21 hours ago, DavidW said:

I think the City of Winnipeg would have to think very carefully about the immediate and long term consequences of filing criminal charges against its drivers. Going that route might guarantee years of labour strife...

It's my impression that the City is losing the public relations contest with the ATU. The City looks like the bad guys already. Laying criminal charges in a labour dispute would make them look like monsters.

WPS is already bursting at the seams... would arresting a thousand drivers really be even feasible at this point?

As for laying charges, now Winnipeg has declined considerably over the years, and especially since I left out West... but if the city did decide to press charges, I think we would be safe to assume that the City of Winnipeg really HAS jumped over the shark. 

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41 minutes ago, LilZebra said:

I thought that there would never be the day when Tom would jump to the lefty Free Press. Why would he do such a thing?

That's a little beyond my scope of knowledge, haha!

I'm just fascinated by the idea Winnipeg residents have such statistics to work with at all. The transparency is admirable. (I don't ever recall reading about how many people Calgary Transit leaves behind every year.)

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1 hour ago, downbeat said:

I'm just fascinated by the idea Winnipeg residents have such statistics to work with at all. The transparency is admirable. (I don't ever recall reading about how many people Calgary Transit leaves behind every year.)

I'm impressed by the transparency too. But you should know this transparency is less than 48 hours old. For the three-and-a-half decades before now Winnipeg Transit was excessively opaque about all aspects of their operations. You couldn't pry a performance statistic out of them with a crowbar!

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3 hours ago, downbeat said:

That's a little beyond my scope of knowledge, haha!

I'm just fascinated by the idea Winnipeg residents have such statistics to work with at all. The transparency is admirable. (I don't ever recall reading about how many people Calgary Transit leaves behind every year.)

Anything Transit Tom/directly from transit, usually went straight to the Winnipeg Sun - used to go to the Winnipeg Tribune, before they shut in 1980, but seems the Sun has had the transit torch for decades since. :P i did research on it when i was in University, those Tribune articles used to be transparent as all hell.

As David said though, usually transit statistics are hard to come by, unless City Council demands them and it goes onto the public record. They keep a tight lid in-house. We only knew what low ridership routes existed too, only when Winnipeg Transit threatened to cut service due to funding cuts... at least with Calgary Transit, they will warn people that the routes about to get cut, publicly engage and try to render it peacefully. Winnipegs approach is to cover it all, let it reach WAY above critical, then go "oh whoops, we need to CUT SERVICE!!!" and cut the service on maybe not even a weeks notice, usually right before signups and schedule changes. 

Suffice to say, Winnipeg Transit/ATU is most likely doing this now, to pressure the city. If this is a permanent change to transparency across the board... i'd like to see it, but it might just go back to the status quo, once ATU demands are met and wages are negotiated & provided for.

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6 minutes ago, armorand said:

As David said though, usually transit statistics are hard to come by [...] . If this is a permanent change to transparency across the board... i'd like to see it, but it might just go back to the status quo, once ATU demands are met and wages are negotiated & provided for.

Ah, that's interesting. It had not occurred to me this sort of information isn't normally released. I will restrain my enthusiasm! ?

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15 hours ago, downbeat said:

Ah, that's interesting. It had not occurred to me this sort of information isn't normally released. I will restrain my enthusiasm! ?

We are being told that beginning now this data will be released on a regular basis. It's a huge improvement in Transit's openness. Perhaps Transit finally calculated that actual data in public would support third-party efforts to lobby for better funding, and that would be worth whatever criticism gets directed at Winnipeg Transit themselves.

It's a huge first step. Now to use the data to make the case for changes at the political levels.

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