Intercity bus depot might go to airport
Greyhound explores move from downtown
Wed Dec 13 2006
By Nick Martin and Joe Paraskevas | Winnipeg Free Press
GREYHOUND Canada is talking with Winnipeg airport officials about moving the city's downtown bus depot to the airport.
"Their lease is coming up for renewal and they're looking for a new spot. We'd love to have them out here," Christine Alongi, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Airports Authority, said Tuesday.
She said Greyhound's lease for the Portage Avenue bus depot expires in 2009.
"Greyhound definitely needs to find a new location. They've had discussions with the airport authority," Alongi said. "It's definitely something I know they've explored."
She was unaware whether Greyhound and the WAA have looked at specific pieces of land and road access at the airport, or whether there have been talks about connecting a bus depot to the airport terminal.
"We have lots of land," she pointed out.
It's up to Greyhound to come back to the airports authority with a business proposal, she said. "We're looking for Greyhound to come back and see if it's viable. There hasn't been any talk of design," Alongi said.
But she said Winnipeg Airports Authority CEO Barry Rempel has a vision of the airport as a passenger hub.
"Barry Rempel's vision of creating an airport campus reflects a bus depot, planes, trains, automobiles," she said.
Meanwhile, University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy said Tuesday he hopes to acquire the city's downtown bus terminal and expand onto the site.
"We're working on it," Axworthy said.
He pointed out that the bus depot has a lease, and emphasized that there is nothing happening imminently. But it is beyond a casual wish list for the university, he conceded.
"There's been lots of talking about them moving out to the airport. It's (the current depot) a great location for us," Axworthy said.
The bus depot is a block east of the U of W's main campus. Axworthy said the U of W has no concrete plans should it eventually acquire the bus depot site.
But he said the university is always interested in expanding its continuing education and community programs, especially for residents of the core area.
MP Pat Martin (NDP-Winnipeg Centre) said from Ottawa he's thrilled that rumours he's heard of the bus depot's move to the airport may be coming true.
"Having the bus depot where it is, is an eyesore, a nuisance, a headache, an absolute disaster. It's so inappropriate for it to be where it is," Martin said.
Having the bus depot at the airport links major transportation services, he said, adding that Winnipeg Transit could extend routes so that lower-income bus passengers would not have to cab it downtown.
Passengers at the downtown terminal Tuesday evening were largely critical of any plan that would have them arriving and departing far from the city's core.
"I don't like that idea," said Torontonian Dave Neron, 22, passing through the city on his way to Kamloops, B.C. Neron said security could be much tighter in a combined airport-bus terminal, a drawback for bus travellers with little to declare.
"People going in-country shouldn't have the inconvenience of going through that," Neron said.
For Bob Lyons, the inconvenience of a bus terminal far from downtown meant the need for extra time and money to go to the hospital. Lyons, who said he was "over 55," comes to Winnipeg from Lynn Lake about eight times a year for medical treatment after having "an arterial bypass." "For me, it's not going to work out," Lyons said, before catching a ride back to his hometown. "This place is central."
Such an attitude would be widely held among northern Manitobans, said a woman who didn't want to give her name, but who said she had lived in Thompson and Lynn Lake.
The woman, now a Winnipeg social worker, said many northern bus users would have difficulty paying for a taxi or downtown shuttle. She said she knew friends who would come to Winnipeg for baseball or hockey games who would give an airport-based bus terminal a thumbs down.
Even the prospect of a brand-new bus terminal at the airport couldn't sway her.
"Have you gone there lately?" the woman said of the airport. "You need a road map. Right now, it's like an obstacle course."
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca