It’s here! The 3.6 kilometre stretch of the Southwest Transitway is now open, allowing riders to travel from downtown to Pembina and Jubilee, bypassing traffic at Osborne and Pembina Highway. This project has been 36 years in the making and Green Action Centre is very excited to see it arrive.
For those eager to try out the new route, it is important to also note is that there are changes to 18 existing bus schedules and the creation of some new ones as well. Ten bus services will use the new route including a new bus No. 185 Express that will loop through Osborne Village and travel to the University of Manitoba, thereby reducing the capacity stress on the No. 60 bus.
Three other bus routes will use the line from Queen Elizabeth Way to Warsaw Avenue before exiting to Charleswood and Lindenwoods. Another four routes are being modified to connect to the line and a new No. 99 bus will run from downtown to Osborne Village to replace the routes that shifted to the transitway.
New stations are placed at Harkness, Osborne Street and Morley Avenue in Fort Rouge, plus a Balmoral Street terminus on the University of Winnipeg campus.
For cyclists, new bike stations have also been placed at stops including 8 enclosed lockers at Fort Rouge and 4 each at Harkness and Osborne Stations. Please bring your own locks but also note that Winnipeg Transit is developing a locker maintenance schedule that will result in removal of locks left too long.
New bike and pedestrian pathways have been upgraded and added. For a detailed map of the Active Transportation Pathways, please click here. For more details about service and schedule changes, please see the Winnipeg Transit- Rapid Transit page. More information about the opening of the Rapid Transit line can be found in the Winnipeg Free Press article here.
Also, for those still having trouble figuring out how to open the back door on the bus, our Exiting the Back Door blog is here to help!
Summary of bus routes affected
Bus routes using entire transitway
- 137 Richmond Super Express (formerly 37)
- 160 Downtown-University of Manitoba (new route)
- 161 University Super Express (formerly 61)
- 162 Downtown-Fort Richmond-St. Norbert Express (formerly 62 Richmond Express)
- 163 Waverley Heights Express (formerly 63)
- 170 Downtown-Fort Richmond-St. Norbert (formerly 70 Richmond)
- 180 Industrial Express (formerly 80)
- 181 Whyte Ridge Express (formerly 81)
- 183 Richmond West Express (new route)
- 185 Osborne Village Express (new route)
Routes using northern portion of transitway
- 64 Lindenwoods Express
- 65 Grant Express
- 66 Grant
Changes to on-street routes
- 36 Northwest Super Express: New express stop at Point Road/Windermere to connect to rapid-transit routes.
- 60 Pembina: Reduced service.
- 84 and 86 Whyte Ridge: Extended to Pembina and Windermere to connect to rapid-transit routes.
- 95 Tuxedo-Riverview: Extended to Pembina and Windermere to connect to rapid-transit route.
- 99 Downtown-Osborne Village: New route running along Smith/Donald streets and Stradbrook/River avenues to make up for buses moved to transitway
“reducing the capacity stress on the No. 60 bus”… sounds so euphamistic! I feel like ever since April 8th, I’ve been living an a transit black hole somewhere between Osborne Junction and Jubilee. Obviously some huge tradeoffs were made. Seems like rapid transit planners didn’t pay much attention to density, building on undeveloped land, rather than creating a transit system that makes sense for people on the ground.
There are winners and losers, probably more of the later.
Local bus service on Pembina Hwy is much reduced, particularly on the stretch parallel to the bus way. Many people who chose to live in this area because of access to frequent bus service feel they have been betrayed by Winnipeg Transit. They have lost access service on the 62 and 70, to all service after 10 pm, and have much reduced service on the number 60. Those who live further out Pembia also have reduced service since the 60 and 160 usually come within a minute of each other. They too have to wait up to half an hour for a bus instead of 12 to 15 minutes.
People who used to change buses at Osborne Junction, have now lost this convenience and have to walk a block and up a flight of stairs or a ramp. I thought there would be some amenities there. There are none.
Many people who have a choice of buses and will take whichever comes first, now have to guess which one will come next since they have to stand in different places. There is no information at at places like Balmoral station as to when buses will arrive and depart.
The 185, which is supposed to serve Osborne Village, stops short of the village for a 14 minute lay over. It is no wonder people are not using it. I took it today and was the only passenger. The driver told me he had two passengers in the opposite direction. I for one will never take it again.
If there is any one who should enjoy this rapid transit service, it should be me. I have a walk of less than 10 minutes to a stop serviced by 8 different express routes at rush hour. I don’t often travel at rush hour, and it is a less convenient trip to some of the places where I go frequently. I used to pick up groceries on my way home from church. That has been made more inconvenient, and I may ironically end up driving my car more often.
I have been raising some of these concerns for a long time, but it appears that Winnipeg Transit is willing to sacrifice its loyal customers in the hope that they might, with the use of a bit of glamour, attract some new passengers from the south end suburbs. A faster bus in this case does not always translate into a faster or more convenient ride.
I would recommend that transit restore full local service (no. 60) to Pembina Hwy and Osborne Vilage and remove or reduce the 160 and 185 service. There should be more bus arrival information at new stations,and there should be information at Osborne Junction about the arrival of buses at the Osborne Station. I hope that Transit will listen to the concerns of its riders. One rider commented to me that the person who designed the system must not be a transit user. That, I know, is not true, but that is what it feels like to many who rely on Winnipeg Transit, either out of necessity or conviction.
Actually, there is plenty of information at Balmoral Station (the same sort of ticker signs you find at stops elsewhere in the city.)
Also, I take the 185 all the time and have never had a 14-minute layover– or any layover for that matter.
Lastly, I don’t know where you get this idea of no service along Pembina after 10pm– there is still plenty of service. Granted that the 60 cuts off at midnight now, but your 10pm figure is just plain incorrect.
Unless the schedules on line for the #60 bus are wrong, it could be that you are the one that is plain wrong about time of the last bus of the day. According to these schedues the last bus heading south from Osborne Junction leaves at 22:04 on a weekday, at 22:11 on a Saturday and 19:18 on a Sunday. None of these times come close to midnight. Those who live along that strip and want to get home by bus from a show or a symphony, may be simply be out of luck.
If you have never had a layover of delay on the #185, it is possibly because you were going toward the U of M in the morning and returning to the Village in the evening. If you have 14 minutes to kill, try it in the opposite direction, or the next time you take the # 185 just as the driver if he or she has a layover at River and Donald on the return trip.
I was wrong about the lack of information at the Balmoral Station. That seemed to have been a temporary problem.
As I said, there are winners and losers. I am glad for you that you are a winner. Its just a shame that there are losers too, some of whom have been loyal transit users.