Winnipeg City Transit/Rapid Transit

[bomberjet]

From the report.

Since August 31, 2019, Winnipeg Transit has completed installation of all RPass 3
software units at merchant partner locations (as of November 8th, 2019). Feedback on
this system has been positive, as transaction times have been reduced from an average
of 57 seconds per transaction to an average of 8 seconds per transaction. System
functions such as end-of-day reports are now also easier to navigate for merchant
partner users.
Since August 31, 2019 Winnipeg Transit has been conducting a field test of farebox
firmware that increases the speed of peggo card taps at the farebox. The time required
for a tap at the farebox has been reduced from an average of 1.4 seconds to an
average of below 0.5 seconds. Increasing tap speeds allows for a faster boarding
process for riders, thus improving Transit’s on-time performance. As well, increased tap
speeds will reduce the likelihood of card errors resulting from cards being removed from
the card reader before data has finished transferring. As of November 2019, the field
test has been expanded to 40 buses, and results have been positive.
Transit staff are currently evaluating whether the criteria have been met to accept
Milestone 2.6, and anticipate that the milestone will be accepted in December 2019.

In the report it also says they spent 100% of the budget, but are only 87% complete with the program.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

That's good news, as it means they sorted out the system issues. Now just to teach people how it works. As was mentioned, the biggest downfall is online payments taking a couple days to load. Otherwise I found it worked just fine.

That’s a fatal flaw though. Sure they may have completed what they bought, but they bought a product that is 15 years obsolete. It was obselete before they even started, let alone now.

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

They still have paper passes because people cant figure out how to use Peggo.

I still get the paper passes because I find it much faster for boarding. Just flash it at the driver as you walk past. No need to stop and hold it against the farebox and wait seemingly forever for it to beep. Of all the transit card systems I've used, Peggo has by far the slowest response time.

[bomberjet]

I find the upgraded fare boxes work very quickly.

What do other cities do, besides paid fare zones, for their prepaid cards?

[sbedard91]

Was wondering what anyone thought about Bowmans proposal to shift future federal transit funds towards the north end sewage plant project.

[esquire]

^ I read the Freep article about that but it wasn't clear as to what transit was planning to do with that money. I'd be curious to know what it was intended for, and what the City will do to make up for that loss.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I find the upgraded fare boxes work very quickly.

What do other cities do, besides paid fare zones, for their prepaid cards?

Paid fares for some, just walk on without paying for others, masks for some as required, but for the non paying masks not required, vulgar behaviour in an intoxicated state also okay for the non paying any thing goes with Winnipeg Transit, wouldn’t want to offend anyone after all!

Small problem: with non-paying, intoxicated unruly bus patrons, not according to the city of Winnipeg, riders take: - huge problem!

[tree]

re: Downtown Spirit - am going to try to find out what the plans are for it. So far all the stops are up but can't imagine they will keep them in any capacity if plan is for permanent removal the route. I suspect this may be the case since those (horribly small resolution) transit maps showing their new plan had no mention of the Spirit or a similar route through downtown.

re: Peggo - to be clear, the biggest problem with this system is the delay in recharging the card. Can you get notified at least when the balance is activated? There may be technical limitations with this kind of system (the busses readers must have to communicate with a server to verify the card's associated account balance for example - they either do this wirelessly constantly or are updated at intervals throughout the day or at night?) - but I'm guessing other cities transit systems have figured this out?

[bomberjet]

The fare boxes need to update and from what I remember it's only done at the garage over nights. Your card is then loaded with the fare next time you scan it when getting on the bus.

They do not have the capability to auto update via wireless network it seems.

[ywgwalk]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

The fare boxes need to update and from what I remember it's only done at the garage over nights. Your card is then loaded with the fare next time you scan it when getting on the bus.

They do not have the capability to auto update via wireless network it seems.

It's possible the wifi-enabled buses have the ability to update more often? I thought that was a side benefit of the wifi buses but I could be wrong.

[bomberjet]

I have no idea. I was meaning more of a wireless cellular network. Where it would be up to date all the time. I assume that's how other cities systems would work. Some type of radio network maybe.

Otherwise how would either your card or the fare box update with your online purchases?

[buzzg]

Unfortunately Winnipeg Transit didn't discover the advent of the internet until 2017.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Unfortunately Winnipeg Transit didn't discover the advent of the internet until 2017.

You guys act like Transit is stuffed with a bunch of tech-illiterate boomers from Whyte Ridge that have never taken the bus once in their life but are still responsible for planning the system. I guarantee that Winnipeg Transit has a ton of progressive thinkers that would have no problem finding solutions to may of our transit problems if they were given the money.

Our transit system has been given a shoe-string budget that is significantly less on a per-capita basis compared to other Canadian cities to try and accomplish a monumental task: convince people in a cold, prairie climate where parking and insurance is abundant and cheap, and commutes by car are generally short, to abandon their cars.

I've said this time and time again: in a city where car ownership and downtown parking is inexpensive, and where commute times via the car to core employment areas are still well below one hour, you are going to have to do some pretty special stuff to woo people away from their convenient cars, and the current system fails in almost every regard in doing so.

The end result is that we are stuck with a bargain-bin (common Winnipeg theme) Transit system that only attracts those who really cannot afford to drive, gets the perception of being dirty and unsafe, yet still tries to be all things to all men by having far-flung routes to suburbs and areas of low-density, resulting in longer ride times further compounding the "I'll never give up my car!" attitude held by many.

If you want a good transit system that encourages the typical commuter to adopt it, you need consistent money, and a lot of it.

To think that Transit's woes are solely the responsibility of a "lack of innovation and foresight" in the Transit department really glosses over a whole slew of much deeper issues. I bet if you doubled Transit's funding over night, the smart folks over in Transit would know exactly what to do to make service better. But of course, that will never happen in this City.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

You guys act like Transit is stuffed with a bunch of tech-illiterate boomers from Whyte Ridge that have never taken the bus once in their life but are still responsible for planning the system. I guarantee that Winnipeg Transit has a ton of progressive thinkers that would have no problem finding solutions to may of our transit problems if they were given the money.

Our transit system has been given a shoe-string budget that is significantly less on a per-capita basis compared to other Canadian cities to try and accomplish a monumental task: convince people in a cold, prairie climate where parking and insurance is abundant and cheap, and commutes by car are generally short, to abandon their cars.

I've said this time and time again: in a city where car ownership and downtown parking is inexpensive, and where commute times via the car to core employment areas are still well below one hour, you are going to have to do some pretty special stuff to woo people away from their convenient cars, and the current system fails in almost every regard in doing so.

The end result is that we are stuck with a bargain-bin (common Winnipeg theme) Transit system that only attracts those who really cannot afford to drive, gets the perception of being dirty and unsafe, yet still tries to be all things to all men by having far-flung routes to suburbs and areas of low-density, resulting in longer ride times further compounding the "I'll never give up my car!" attitude held by many.

If you want a good transit system that encourages the typical commuter to adopt it, you need consistent money, and a lot of it.

To think that Transit's woes are solely the responsibility of a "lack of innovation and foresight" in the Transit department really glosses over a whole slew of much deeper issues. I bet if you doubled Transit's funding over night, the smart folks over in Transit would know exactly what to do to make service better. But of course, that will never happen in this City.

That’s all fine and dandy but explain why the deep thinkers at Winnipeg Transit got away with building a pretty much useless BRT line for close to a $billion that saves no more than 5 minutes each way, meanwhile people stand along major routes waiting for a bus that never comes or passes by full and unable to carry more passengers! Years in the card system Wpg transit uses is still full of flaws and glitches, people can decide not to pay at all with no consequence, can ride stoned or inebriated and bother other riders with no consequences....

[buzzg]

The bus shelter and all signage was removed at NB Main @ Assiniboine. Stop is still there with temporary sign. Are they finally taking some of the NWC land and making the proper bike route connection?!

[zalf]

Phase III of the Draft Transit Master Plan has been released (PDF):

https://winnipegtransit.com/assets/2...Plan23_web.pdf

[esquire]

^ Interesting. If all we're going to have for the foreseeable future is buses, then that will at least improve the level of bus service.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Interesting. If all we're going to have for the foreseeable future is buses, then that will at least improve the level of bus service.

Back like a year ago when they were doing public engagement events for the Transit Master Plan, I ended up chatting with one of the engineers for a while. He admitted that although the public has it in their heads that LRT is just around the corner, it's still decades away. It would cost something like $500M before trains even started rolling. That being said, he stated that the BRT routes were selected to ensure the geometries would allow upgrading to LRT when the time eventually comes.

I'm pretty sanguine about the whole project. It seems like the current transit network the result of a century's worth of accretion of locally optimal tweaks resulting in a globally dysfunctional system. I appreciate Winnipeg Transit's moxie for being willing to do a ground-up rebuild of transit routes in the city.

[Peggerino]

Anyone else distracted by the (non-winnipeg) road network background?

The renderings for Union Station look nice though. A transit station at Portage and Main is also very intriguing.

[GarryEllice]

Some good improvements over the first draft of the plan.

Love the idea of an RT bridge connecting the U of M to south St. Vital. That would be truly transformative. Not so sure that we'll ever see it happen, though.

Little bit awkward how one of the main connecting hubs of the system is at Portage & Main, and they have to dance around the issue of whether people will actually be allowed to cross the street to change buses...

Edit: The short-term network plan on page 20 is somewhat shocking. No transit service at all on Portage Avenue east of Hargrave.