Latest news with #PrimaryTransitNetwork
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Winnipeg unveils new transit network in historic 142-year overhaul
City staffers are holding a special bus stop sign, in celebration of the Primary Transit Network's launch on June 29, 2025. (Harrison Shin/CTV News Winnipeg) Changes to the transit system are now in effect. The City of Winnipeg has officially launched the Primary Transit Network — a major change to the transit system in its 142-year history, according to a media release. The new network, rolled out early Sunday morning, introduces a simplified 'spine-and-feeder' system designed to improve frequency, connectivity and service efficiency. The first in-service bus under the revamped network departed from Portage Avenue and Spence Street at 5:32 a.m. 'This will mean better frequency and better service, and that's what we want on our buses – better service,' said Janice Lukes, chairperson of the Standing Policy Committee on Public Works. The Primary Transit Network is built on a backbone of high-frequency routes — the 'spine' — supported by community feeder routes that connect neighbourhoods to main lines. The city also announced an expansion of its On-Request transit zones, which have grown from four to 12 across Winnipeg. To help passengers adjust, Winnipeg Transit is deploying street teams to assist riders in high-traffic areas over the next several days. Mayor Scott Gillingham's message to the riders is to be patient and provide feedback. 'This is all new to them (the transit operators) also. So if you have questions or want to provide feedback, please do so,' Gillingham told CTV News. Riders can plan their trips using the updated Navigo trip planner or the Transit app. Full route maps and service information are available at city's website.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
New transit system launches
Winnipeg's new bus network is now in effect, with the first bus on the Primary Transit Network departing Portage Avenue at Spence Street just after 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The new spine-and-feeder transit model means most bus routes have changed with this overhaul to the city's transit system, and teams of Winnipeg Transit staff are set to hit the streets in high-bus-traffic areas to help transit users navigate the changes. Users can map their new bus routes in advance using Winnipeg Transit's Navigo online or on the app. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Bjorn Radstrom is the manager of Transit Service Development and project manager for the new transit network. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The city has said the new network, consisting of a main bus line (spine) that connects to feeder buses along community routes, will provide more reliable and frequent service. It's being hailed as the biggest change in Winnipeg Transit's 142-year history. The project manager for the Primary Transit Network, Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit's manager of service development, is set to provide an update this morning about the launch. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES The new Winnipeg Primary Transit network came into effect early Sunday morning, representing an overhaul of the city's bus system. We want to hear about your experiences with the new Winnipeg transit network. Share your thoughts online. Here's an online survival guide to help navigate the transit changes.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Massive murals won't just brighten Winnipeg's Graham Avenue, they will make it safer
Murals, not buses, will soon running be up and down Graham Avenue. Winnipeg is one of only 10 cities in North America — and just two in Canada, the other being Ottawa — selected for the US$100,000 Asphalt Art Initiative launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The project turns the formerly transit-heavy corridor into a whimsical urban canvas. Beginning Monday, local artists will cover the asphalt with large-scale, street-level murals. Asphalt Art Initiative projects include Billings, Mont. The public art initiative is part of the broader Reimagining Graham Avenue, which is seeing the four-block zone from Carlton to Garry Street transformed into a pedestrian-first corridor. 'It's not often where that scale of a (mural) project can happen this fast,' says project lead Stéphane Dorge, an organizer with CoolStreetsWPG, which specializes in transforming community spaces through art. 'This is kind of like an arts festival, where we're going to be up to 10 artists on site, plus helpers and volunteers bringing to life about 18,000 square feet of murals to animate the Graham Avenue space, so it's a bit overwhelming.' Muralists include Marc Kuegle, Alex Plante, Kal Barteski, Kale Sheppard, Laura Lee Harasym, Mike Zastre, James Culleton, Architects at Play and lead artist Takashi Iwasaki. Like a cinematically colour-graded street scene, the project will have a rich, overarching palette, but each of the artists was given near carte blanche to create, with an emphasis on play and interactivity. Dorge describes Architects at Play's 13,000-square-foot piece as a 'playable mural where you can bring your own pocket dice or use a dice app on your phone to play.' Varna, Bulgaria, was one of the cities that completed an Asphalt Art initiative in 2023 'I can't wait to unveil it.' Reimagining Graham Avenue dovetails with the city's new spine-and-feeder transit model launching Sunday. Known as Primary Transit Network (PTN), the new system is a historic transformation that will shift transit's focal points away from the downtown core towards other major corridors in the city, prioritizing bus frequency and greater neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood access across Winnipeg. But rather than diminish downtown's place in the city's civic culture, projects such as the PTN and Reimagining Graham Avenue — which coincide with the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street opening to pedestrian traffic — aim to transform the heart of the city into a more walkable social hub. Look up from the asphalt tableaus, and rather than buses you'll soon see a public plaza, including street plants, picnic tables, furniture, benches, ping-pong tables and access ramps. Car traffic will be allowed along other stretches of Graham, where protected bike lanes are also being added. 'When these changes are in place, Graham will be more colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly. One more reason for people to visit, explore and enjoy our downtown,' said Mayor Scott Gillingham. The application to Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charitable organization in New York, for the Asphalt Art Initiative was submitted by Public Works and the Planning, Property and Development departments at the City of Winnipeg. 'It was just a really well-thought-out, really inspired application,' says Nicholas Mosquera, one of the program leads at Bloomberg Philanthropies for the Asphalt Art Initiative. 'It reminded us a lot of work that we'd been doing (in New York City's Times Square). We saw a lot of similarities in the Winnipeg project, and we're happy to be a part of that effort.' Studies consistently show that pedestrian-friendly design makes neighbourhoods feel more connected. For example, research from a University of British Columbia review found walkable neighbourhoods build civic trust and spark friendlier interactions, while a U.K. study showed that quieter, low-traffic streets made people more neighbourly and less lonely. That same study also found that low-traffic, pedestrian-centric neighbourhoods can create public health gains up to 100 times greater than the costs of those plans. SUPPLIED East Providence, Rhode Island Asphalt Art Initiative drone image. And while public arts and beautification projects are sometimes criticized as a superficial fix to the social problems undergirding urban distress, a growing body of literature shows the social benefits run deeper than fleeting eye candy. The Asphalt Art Safety Study, conducted by Sam Schwartz Consulting in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, analyzed 17 asphalt art sites across the United States. Among the outcomes reassuring them of their good work, they found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists were halved, while crashes resulting in injuries decreased by 37 per cent, along with a 27 per cent increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians with the right-of-way. 'They're really striking results. We're really proud of that — (it's) some of the first research, certainly to our knowledge, to look at multiple arts-driven street-design projects,' says Mosquera. A number of independent studies, mostly focusing on green projects, illuminate the effects of community beautification on improving mental health and community connectivity. 'It's incredible when we can see that the street is actually going to turn into a large piece of art,' said Kate Fenske, Downtown Winnipeg BIZ's chief executive officer, of Reimagining Graham Avenue. Birmingham, Alabama Asphalt Art Initiative 'I hope this isn't the full catalyst, though,' says Dorge. 'We still need development of the surface lots and Graham. We need more housing downtown. But I hope this draws attention to that need and, hopefully, spurs prioritization from developers to focus on rebuilding that area and making it more vibrant.' From July 5 to Sept. 28, Graham Avenue will host four art installations by designers from New York, Halifax and Winnipeg — including a bike-powered giant fan and a coastal-themed landscape — along with projects by Art City (opens July 11) and the Manitoba Métis Federation. This other wave of installations is part of Storefront Manitoba's Cool Gardens, a landscape art and design festival, now in its 10th edition, similar to the Warming Huts competition. (The event is not to be confused with CoolStreetsWpg, which leads the mural initiative on Graham; cool people abound in Winnipeg's public art field.) This year, Cool Gardens also plans vibrant installations at Assiniboine Park, Osborne Village, St. Boniface and The Forks. Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
New transit system promises faster, more reliable service. It's now up to Winnipeggers to decide if they like the new ride
Forget Hamlet, today's great existential dilemma might be, 'Do I wait for the next bus or start walking?' At least according to behavioural economists, who use the wait-walk dilemma to explore trade-offs between waiting for better opportunities or taking immediate action amid uncertainty. Winnipeg Transit gives the dilemma, in its literal form, an especially cruel edge. Winter lasts for months. Buses in many areas are infrequent. Routes can be as winding and indirect as the streets themselves. Miss a transfer and — walk or wait — you could be stuck in Mars-level cold for the next 45 minutes. With choices like these, it's little wonder that more than 90 per cent of Winnipeggers say 'not to be' when it comes to commuting via bus, preferring to drive, bike or walk. Bjorn Radstrom, manager of Transit Service Development at the City of Winnipeg, is the lead behind a new experiment he hopes will nudge ambivalent commuters in the right direction: stand tall and wait for Winnipeg's public chariot. 'I'm an absolute transit nerd… (and) this is a once-in-a-lifetime project,' he says of the Primary Transit Network, the city's new system of bus 'spine' lines, which debuts Sunday. It was designed and planned in collaboration with Stantec, a global design and consulting firm. 'Not many cities have done a wholesale overhaul of their entire network like this. It's probably the biggest ever in Canada or in the United States, and it's one of the biggest ever in the world.' The new transit network's backbone is a series of high-frequency 'spine' routes, with buses every 10-15 minutes, along major corridors – including St Mary's, Grant, Portage, Donald, Osborne, Provencher, Pembina and Abinojii Mikanah. Commuters squinting at the display on approaching buses on these lines will spot an 'F' or 'FX' prefix, standing for frequent and frequent express. CITY OF WINNIPEG The system map for Winnipeg's new transit network launching June 29. The system map for Winnipeg's new transit network launching June 29. '(For a lot of routes), you won't have to even consult a schedule. You can just walk out because the bus is going to be coming,' Radstrom says. The F lines join the network's BLUE Line, Winnipeg's first rapid transit service (arriving every 4-10 minutes during peak hours) connecting the downtown to the University of Manitoba and St. Norbert through the bus-only Southwest Transitway corridor. There's also the new D (direct), R (regular) and E (Express) lines, which differ somewhat in terms of bus-stop spacing and service speed but, like F and FX, run along thoroughfares. As well as reducing wait times, the new network allows Winnipeg Transit to wring a de facto 'grid' out of the city's sometimes jumbled topology, a shape generally considered a marker of transit efficiency. All this means scrapping the buses' oddly cherished naming system, where most were labeled with a number that often stuck for decades. Numbers like the '68', '20' and '11' that for many evoke years of commuting and colourful, sometimes surreal, encounters with fellow riders. It also means tossing the city's complex branching patterns — express-only and peak-only services and certain downtown corridors, like Graham Avenue's transit mall. Those many overlapping routes and their multiple variants are now considered redundant. To ensure commuters don't have to walk too far before hopping on a main line, the new system has three categories of feeder routes — connector routes (two-digit numbers), community routes (three-digit numbers), and on-request service. These offer lower-frequency buses connecting neighbourhoods to the spine network; little streams flowing into a big river. We want to hear about your experiences with the new Winnipeg transit network. Share your thoughts online. Winnipeg's transit system is changing. Here's an online survival guide. All the same, it's easy to find commuters on Reddit and social media eulogizing the loss of a familiar, trusty line or venting about now having to walk longer or transfer more often. 'I really value complaints, and I want people to complain if it's not working for them. My only request is be specific and be constructive,' Radstrom says. '(But) with a change of this magnitude … there's no way around it. Things are going to get more challenging for some people.' It's also notable the new system requires more transfers on many routes — changes that may make some Winnipeggers bristle. That's natural when they associate transferring with standing in the cold and checking their phones for a connecting bus that never seems to come. The redesigned network aims to address that with more reliable, regular service. You may have to catch an extra transfer, but the buses should come more quickly. Radstrom — fond of quoting transit pundit and consultant Jarrett Walker's motto, 'Freedom is frequency' — estimates transit will significantly improve for about 60 per cent of current riders and remain functionally the same for 20 to 30 per cent. On the other hand, he predicts things will become more difficult for the remaining 10 to 20 per cent. For the city, it's a make-or-break moment. With years of stagnant ridership and revenue shortfalls, the status quo would no longer do. 'For those that may be concerned about the changes, I can appreciate that, but I think the general principle I would ask everyone to please remember is that we would not be making these changes to make things worse,' Mayor Scott Gillingham says. '(It's) the biggest modernization of Winnipeg transit service in 60 years.' RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Bjorn Radstrom, Manager of Transit Service Development, with one of the signs for the new transit system. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Bjorn Radstrom, Manager of Transit Service Development, with one of the signs for the new transit system. City modernization initiatives almost always have trade-offs and discontentment, and it's no different with public transit. Among transit wonks, one of the hotter debates is whether cities are better off with the hub-and-spoke model Winnipeg is ditching, or the spine-and-feeder approach behind the new system. The hub-and-spoke system is a radial one. It gets its name from its wheel-like shape: a central hub — typically downtown — with spokes stretching outward. Downtown has been the heart of Winnipeg's transit system since 1891, when electric streetcars began running along River Avenue, radiating in and out from the city's core. The story of Winnipeg's modern transit system begins about a half century ago. FREE PRESS FILES TThe era of the streetcar as Winnipeg's chief means of mass transportation ended in 1955. The era of the streetcar as Winnipeg's chief means of mass transportation ended in 1955. In 1955, the city scrapped its streetcars – marked by a symbolic 'funeral' with hundreds gathering at Portage and Main to watch a ceremonial streetcar parade and to flatten coins on the rails one last time. Over the next 15 years, Winnipeg's transit switched gears, as rubber-tired trolleys — still powered by overhead wires — gradually gave way to diesel buses. In 1963, the city launched the Winnipeg Area Transportation Study. It reflected the post-war modernist ethos — promoting radial expressways, geared towards drivers in their big Meteors, Impalas and Fairlines. It also recommended that the system be radial and downtown-centric. After all, the country was enjoying its post-war boom. The suburbs were young and multiplying, the middle-class now had cars and commercial life was centred around Portage and Main. A gloom had yet to envelope the downtown. There was still hope it might serve as a civic hub for residents of new suburbs like St. Vital and Tuxedo, with a slew of downtown cultural attractions like Centennial Concert Hall (built 1967) and the Manitoba Theatre Centre (1970) all soon on the way. In the 1970s, the city went all-in with diesel, rolling out Winnipeg's classic buses, like the 66, the 75 and the 11 – funnelling riders to and from the downtown. 'The (old) network doesn't work because it's built for the city of the 1950s, maybe 1960s, when everybody's commuting into downtown in the morning, out of downtown in the afternoon,' Radstrom says. 'But it didn't serve people for all the other trips they want to do, for work, first of all, but also just for daily life — if they want to go shopping, visit their friends, all that kind of stuff.' It's rare to see a city's transit switch suddenly from a hub-and-spoke to a spine-and-feeder model. In this shift, Winnipeg joins cities like Madison, Wis. — which launched a new grid-like transit system in 2023 — and Dublin, Ireland, where similar changes began to take root in 2021. Winnipeg's shift, while reflecting an ongoing downtown malaise, also evokes broader debates about how cities should grow. Urbanists tend to champion grid-like systems for transit and streets, viewing them as a more rational and efficient way to guide people and vehicles. This makes spine-and-feeder inherently attractive. However, large-scale efforts to reform transit with watchwords like 'rationality' and 'efficiency' are often criticized as too top-down. Conservatives and grassroots progressives alike share these concerns, wary of centralized overhauls that disrupt daily routines with new abstract frameworks — especially if they're rolled out without public input. Others argue this view underestimates our ability to plan effective transit and that even large-scale systems like spine-and-feeder models can promote a different kind of decentralization. These models push back on the downtown-centrism of planning and reflect that over time cities tend to see jobs, schools and shopping services dispersed across neighbourhoods. They can do this by enabling transit users to travel across town rather than always through the core. When done well, spine-and-feeder systems promote transit frequency and directness – and, as many argue, help knit a city's diverse neighbourhoods more closely together. While major city projects still evoke a technocratic image, today's planners are expected to engage in deeper, more inclusive public consultation than in the past. 'The new routes are built on extensive consultation with transit users and a deep analysis of anonymous data from cellphones, really looking at where people are coming from and going to,' Gillingham says. 'What this is ultimately about is the people of Winnipeg and customer service to Winnipeg,' The mayor is referring to public consultation going back to 2018, unfolding over three phases through late 2020. It included surveys, open houses, pop-up events, workshops and virtual sessions. Starting in 2019, the city partnered with Stantec on public consultancy and released several summaries highlighting residents' calls for more frequent service, better cross-town connections, and shorter walks to stops. These reports also detailed how public feedback shaped the new system's planning. 'If we heard from people that the current network mostly works, but it needs a few tweaks and changes and things like that, we would be willing to go in that direction,' Radstrom says. 'But if we heard from everybody that, no, it absolutely doesn't meet the needs of people today and where they want to travel, how they want to travel — we were going to do something completely different.' The city also used anonymous cellphone location data to map travel patterns — showing, among other things, that many trips bypassed downtown. Radstrom says this gave planners added confidence to push ahead with a bold redesign. Winnipeg Transit also says they plan to gather data for the next year, including by collecting feedback from users through 311, before making any significant changes to the new system. And gathering this data, to continue improving the system, means getting more butts on bus seats. 'I would encourage all Winnipeggers this summer to get on a transit bus if you haven't been on one for years – and just enjoy the new transit experience,' Gillingham says. Though some worry about the scope of change, others worry they're not dramatic enough. 'To get people to use transit, generally transit service has to be comparable to car use,' says Orly Linovski, Associate Professor at the Department of City Planning at the University of Manitoba. 'Transit nerds (take buses) because we love transit, but even with me, if it's going to take an hour and 20 minutes instead of seven or 15 minutes – that's a big ask.' Linovski points out that Winnipeg's relatively low traffic congestion makes driving easy and convenient for most vehicle owners, giving little incentive to switch to public transit. At the same time, it's not surprising that political leaders hesitate to explore policies discouraging car use — and unleash a commuter rage fiercer than a Winnipeg deep freeze. The more popular option for commuters is to make busing more inherently appealing through upgrades and smart reforms. It remains to be seen how commuters will respond to the new network in the long term and the extent to which it will shorten average trip lengths, though Radstrom predicts significant improvements for more than half of riders. And there are other significant upgrades on the horizon for Winnipeg Transit, thanks to significant capital investments coming from all levels of government. This includes a rapid transit corridor design for downtown, rolling out 90 zero-emission buses, installing accessible bus stop platforms and implementing 'intelligent transportation systems', which are supposed to make transit smarter and faster through GPS, sensors, wireless networks and real-time data analytics. For Linovski a key factor is still missing. 'The evidence is pretty clear that the way to increase ridership is to increase service vehicle hours and increase them substantially,' she says, noting the total number of hours buses are in service remains unchanged with the new system. Substantially boosting service hours, however, would increase costs for fuel, maintenance, drivers, administration and other expenses, further straining Winnipeg Transit's operational budget, which is already subsidized at record numbers by the city. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Bjorn Radstrom with one of the new maps that will be given out to riders next week. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Bjorn Radstrom with one of the new maps that will be given out to riders next week. Despite those constraints on the new system, few people are arguing that the old one was working well enough as it was. With only one in 10 Winnipeggers choosing bus as their primary mode of commuting – and public consultations showing a strong demand for reforms – this isn't surprising. As Linovski emphasizes, the impact of the upgrades on ridership, users' experiences and transit's overall efficiency deserves close study, with challenges inevitable. For Winnipeggers, it may initially feel like the new system walks before it runs. But after decades of unreliable and underused transit — the city couldn't wait any longer. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Scaling back plans for transit garage could hurt riders in future: report
Within about five years, the decision to scale back Winnipeg Transit's new north garage could leave more riders behind as full buses pass them by. A report deems an increase in 'pass-ups' to be the key risk of city council's decision to reduce the scope of the new facility, now known as the Oak Point Garage. The project's scope was clawed back to keep its cost at $200 million instead of increasing it to $305 million, which reduced maintenance and storage space. 'The biggest risk to the (Winnipeg Transit Master Plan) from the smaller scope of (the garage) is the potential for pass-ups on Primary Transit Network lines. This would happen due to a lack of sufficient 60-foot articulated buses in the fleet,' writes Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit's manager of service development. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES The smaller, cheaper facility is slated to replace the current garage on Main Street, which is in poor condition. The smaller, cheaper facility is slated to replace the current garage on Main Street, which is in poor condition and cannot fit articulated buses or newer ones with rooftop air conditioners, Radstrom writes. Shrinking the scope of the new facility means Transit can only store 127 of the longer, articulated buses, while the service estimates it would need between 150 and 200 within the next 10 years, the report said. Transit may also need to request 'significant capital funding within five years' to either expand the Oak Point Garage, which is expected to open in 2028, or retrofit the existing Fort Rouge Garage, Radstrom said. 'By 2030, I would say the risk is getting to be pretty high that we would be experiencing more pass-ups than we would want,' he said, during an interview Thursday. It's difficult to tell how much pass-ups could increase in the next few years, since ridership levels could change, but adding more 60-foot buses could serve growing demand with a limited impact on operating costs, Radstrom said. 'You're not paying for an extra bus operator. It's a much more efficient way to (transport more people) but we need the maintenance space and the storage space for (the buses) … If ridership keeps growing, there's a crunch,' said Radstrom. Pass-ups tend to be highest in September when students return to school, he noted, with full buses passing up waiting riders 2,615 times in September 2024. There have been 410 pass-ups during this month so far. The chairwoman of council's public works committee said council can't afford to increase the budget and scope of the north garage right now. 'We don't have the money,' said Coun. Janice Lukes. Lukes (Waverley West) said council has invested a lot of money in Winnipeg Transit, including a $124-million subsidy this year. The councillor said federal and provincial interest in public transit indicates funding to expand the garage could become available. 'I'm very optimistic that we'll be able to do an expansion to the garage at some point in the future … We are committed to making transit better and we have time to figure out an expansion,' said Lukes. She stressed the risk of a surge in buses lacking enough space for riders is still years away. Mayor Scott Gillingham also noted the city has made major investments in transit lately, including a new primary transit network that's set to take effect Sunday. 'We're investing more in transit than we ever have … We only have so many dollars to invest in that garage at this time. In the future, there may be opportunity, if need arises, for us to expand that garage. But let's keep in mind, these are good days for transit,' said Gillingham. An advocate for transit riders said the switch to a new primary transit network could alleviate a lot of the delay pass-ups cause, though the risk of experiencing more of them is a concern. Wednesdays Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. 'With frequent service, a pass-up will be less devastating than it used to be. Instead of waiting 40 minutes … (it) will probably only mean waiting less than 15 minutes (on the most frequent routes). However, the whole point of the system is that more people use it, that they can rely on it … (and) because the new system relies on transfers as part of almost every trip, missing a bus could potentially mean missing a connecting bus,' said Kyle Owens, president of Functional Transit Winnipeg. The network will use a spine-and-feeder concept, where direct spines along major corridors are supported by a network of feeder routes. Owens said there's also a risk the city will pay even more to expand the new north garage in the future, since construction prices typically rise over time. X: @joyanne_pursaga Joyanne PursagaReporter Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne. Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
