Public Transport - Prairies

[VANRIDERFAN]

There isn't any.

So I was back in the homeland for a week. Now most of my troubles were of my own doing, but it hit me right between the eyes that if you don't have a car, there is zero ability to travel anywhere within the Saskatoba Region.

My overall plan:
Fly into Winnipeg
Take the Airport Shuttle to Brandon
Meet the siblings in S MB
Take a bus from Brandon to Regina
Visit daughter in Regina
Fly back to Ottawa

What happened
Flight from Ottawa delayed an hour - Missed last shuttle to Brandon
(Tried to get a one way rental car but none available)
Able to stay at niece's place in Winnipeg
Had to wait for the afternoon shuttle, get to Brandon late afternoon. (Tried to get a one way rental car but none available)
Visit siblings
Find out that only bus running between Winnipeg and Calgary only runs on Fridays
Attempt to get a one way rental - none available
Arrange a meetup in Moosomin (bro takes me there and daughter picks me up) but that falls through due to other issues
Sister decides to help brother out and will take me to Regina
Try Enterprise one more time for a one way, none available. But wait, we may have one coming later today that you can have.
We wait til 4:30 only to be told that the car did not arrive.
Hit the road to Regina, and of course just past Alexander, my phone rings and its Enterprise, the car showed up and I can have it.
Huge sigh of relief from sis as we turn back to Brandon.
Take the car to Regina and then Fly back to Ottawa via Calgary.

Moral of the story is to fly to one city, rent a car and fly home from same city. But damn the days of buses from Winnipeg to Brandon or Regina and even the ones that went down a bunch of the PTH's are long long gone. Which is very sad.

[FactaNV]

I get that. It's sad to think that this is the state of transport when in the past you could take a train pretty well anywhere in the West. The private sector doesn't want to touch this because it's probably a money pit and the government doesn't want to touch this since it's probably a money pit. As a result the people suffer.

[BlackDog204]

Rideshare.

If the guy does not look like a serial killer, 99% of the time he is not.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

Rideshare.

If the guy does not look like a serial killer, 99% of the time he is not.

Idk if in this day and age people would be willing to ride with complete strangers in a private setting. I personally lean more to towards minibuses myself with some full sized for city routes. Might work, might not. I think the path of least resistance at least would be WT taking over Winnipeg metro traffic and running lines to the nearby towns and cities, but then you run into the problem of who pays for it, where do the buses and drivers come from and how do you structure fares.

[peg]

Originally Posted by FactaNV

Idk if in this day and age people would be willing to ride with complete strangers in a private setting. I personally lean more to towards minibuses myself with some full sized for city routes. Might work, might not. I think the path of least resistance at least would be WT taking over Winnipeg metro traffic and running lines to the nearby towns and cities, but then you run into the problem of who pays for it, where do the buses and drivers come from and how do you structure fares.

The Winnipeg Metro Region needs to create a regional transportation authority, in my opinion, to solve the responsibility of things (assuming the province and WMR partners contribute).

I would love to see routes established within the WMR, and eventually some other city-to-city options within MB and SK/MN.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by peg

The Winnipeg Metro Region needs to create a regional transportation authority, in my opinion, to solve the responsibility of things (assuming the province and WMR partners contribute).

I would love to see routes established within the WMR, and eventually some other city-to-city options within MB and SK/MN.

To start it'd probably have to be limited to Selkirk, Steinbach maybe Headingley and then weekend runs to Birds Hill Park and maybe Winnipeg Beach, Grand Beach or Gimli. Get too in the weeds with smaller towns and it'd be a disaster. It'd be a money pit for a while but I bet once people get used to the idea, it'd at least be revenue neutral. Say $10 a way or something like that to incentivize people out of their cars, no parking, no gas money, no wear and tear, etc.

[FactaNV]

Meanwhile - in the East.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10675060/...-rail-project/

I get that this makes way more sense in a high density corridor like this but man, if they're getting the largest ever Canadian infrastructure project, to the tune of tens of billions of tax dollars, it sure would be nice to get a few hundred mil for regional and local transit in the rest of Canada.

"If it goes ahead, it will be the biggest Canadian infrastructure and transportation project in the 60 years since the St. Lawrence Seaway was built. It will likely cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars."

[peg]

Originally Posted by FactaNV

To start it'd probably have to be limited to Selkirk, Steinbach maybe Headingley and then weekend runs to Birds Hill Park and maybe Winnipeg Beach, Grand Beach or Gimli. Get too in the weeds with smaller towns and it'd be a disaster. It'd be a money pit for a while but I bet once people get used to the idea, it'd at least be revenue neutral. Say $10 a way or something like that to incentivize people out of their cars, no parking, no gas money, no wear and tear, etc.

Agreed - there needs to be a hierarchy. The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region's Plan 20-50 lays out a handful of regional centres (Selkirk, Stonewall, and Niverville within the Metro region). I would say that these are a good start, especially since they have rail ROWs that could be used in the future for higher-order transportation. Collaboration with other municipalities and the provincial government could expand transportation out of the WMR.

Start with buses and work your way up over time. Hell, make a deal with Newflyer to add local jobs to make the vehicles and grow some local talent too.

Also - if you haven't checked it out yet, take a look at the Plan 20-50 for the region: Plan 20-50 (Page 63 has the map of regional centres).