Winnipeg Construction IX

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ With respect to public transportation, Winnipeg's could be better, for sure. But in our defence, I will say that I haven't encountered too many places in North America with under a million people that have top notch public transportation for any circumstance other than traditional Monday-Friday rush hour commutes.

For whatever reason, we tend to compare ourselves to much bigger cities like Calgary, Vancouver and Minneapolis and beat ourselves up for not having the same transit infrastructure. But in reality, our comparables are more like Hamilton, Halifax and El Paso... none of which have rail based rapid transit.

Hamilton is about to start construction on a 14 kilometer LRT line.
Kitchener (CMA population 520,000) is about to open a 20 kilometer LRT line.
Ottawa has a 10 line, 58 station BRT system and is constructing a 35 kilometer LRT to be open by 2023. (It’s first BRT line opened in 1983 when the CMA population was 550,000)

Winnipeg will have a 10 kilometer BRT line.

[Kinguni]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

That's the correct name used by WPS and WFPS personnel when talking about that area!

And bus operators. "Hey! How do I get to Jigtown?"

[asher__jo]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Hamilton is about to start construction on a 14 kilometer LRT line.
Kitchener (metro population 520,000) is about to open a 20 kilometer LRT line.
Ottawa has a 10 line, 58 station BRT system and is constructing a 35 kilometer LRT to be open by 2023.

Winnipeg will have a 10 kilometer BRT line.

Someone on this forum that actually gets it

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Hamilton's LRT is contingent on Ontario providing 100% of the funding with the City of Hamilton paying zero for construction. The new provincial government is already on record that they are willing to reallocate the somewhat nebulous funding to "other transportation projects" as local demand desires.

Kitcherner-Waterloo is somewhat unique in that there is really only one major north-south street between the two downtowns and in various places it is one driving lane in each direction. A north-south expressway bypass was bult long ago. While the LRT follows a somewhat erratic route it will allow a great increase in density along that corridor that the street grid simply can't handle.

[trueviking]

^ Yeah. The Ford government is obviously regressive but Hamilton is a long way down the path and will choose LRT. Not sure what the point about Kitchener is meant to be.

I personally don’t accept the we are too small to build proper transit argument. Just because El Paso is a 🞵🞵🞵🞵 city doesn’t mean winnipeg has to be. Lots of small cities all around the world have great public transit. It’s just a matter of priority. No other reason. We compete with Edmonton Calgary Ottawa. Not Halifax. Why not try to punch above our weight instead of being satisfied with matching what mediocre cities do?

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^ Yeah. The Ford government is obviously regressive but Hamilton is a long way down the path and will choose LRT. Not sure what the point about Kitchener is meant to be.

I personally don’t accept the we are too small to build proper transit argument. Just because El Paso is a 🞵🞵🞵🞵 city doesn’t mean winnipeg has to be. Lots of small cities all around the world have great public transit. It’s just a matter of priority. No other reason. We compete with Edmonton Calgary Ottawa. Not Halifax. Why not try to punch above our weight instead of being satisfied with matching what mediocre cities do?

You also don't need rail for transit to be quality though.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Kitchener is unique in that everything is located along one fairly narrow corridor. There really aren't any other places to put another line. The only thing that will happen in the future is the one line will be extended further to get to Cambridge. In most cities, like Winnipeg, there are numerous corridors that could use a rapid transit line. There is no build one thing and it is done scenario.

It remains to be seen if the Ford Tories will fund an LRT through a 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 NDP area like most of Hamilton below the "Mountain". Look at northwestern Ontario. Under the previous government, the push was to twin the highway between Thunder Bay and Nipigon. Now that the government has changed the push has moved from a Liberal area to provincially Conservative Kenora.

To me, Winnipeg should really be looking to Ottawa's experience. Essentially there are dedicated BRT roadways running east and west from downtown with another one running to the south. The east/west branches connect through downtown using diamond lanes on one way streets. As time passed, various branches were built as you got into the suburbs. It took decades but it became one of if not the most successful BRT networks in North America. Eventually it reached capacity. At times you could stand on Mackenzie King Bridge and watch an infinite number of buses slowly trundle by bumper to bumper. The current 12.5 km LRT project will replace the central portion of the BRT line and will finally tunnel underground through downtown. The contracts are fairly far along for Stage 2 so I am hoping it does proceed once the first part finally opens.

IMO, Winnipeg just needs to get building. Once a network is built, promote the heck out of it. Get people to think of transit as a legitimate transportation option. If done well, it really is one of those "build it and they will come" things.

[trueviking]

^ good points. Thanks.

[EspionNoir]

Btw I always find it funny that some people think Winnipeg is a small city. If Winnipeg is a small city, let’s call Regina and Saskatoon villages then which is not correct

[esquire]

Originally Posted by asher__jo

...and people in Winnipeg why we don't get anything done. 'It can't work here, we have no money' is the rhetoric that's be spouted for decades instead of looking for real solutions to make things work. It's really all about priorities, and this cities priorities are allowing sprawl to happen, spending money on more suburban roads to feed the masses demanding to drive everywhere.
End of rant

Things are moving in the right direction, though... one BRT line is nearly complete, and work is about to begin on the next one. It's not like the Hamiltons and Kitcheners mentioned in this thread are wildly ahead of us... they're just getting started with all of this too.

I just don't think that the situation here is really that dire. Sure, we may not have the transit infrastructure of a compact European city, but who in North America does? I don't think Winnipeg can be faulted for that.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by esquire

Things are moving in the right direction, though... one BRT line is nearly complete, and work is about to begin on the next one. It's not like the Hamiltons and Kitcheners mentioned in this thread are wildly ahead of us... they're just getting started with all of this too.

I just don't think that the situation here is really that dire. Sure, we may not have the transit infrastructure of a compact European city, but who in North America does? I don't think Winnipeg can be faulted for that.

I agree. Yes, it's taken a long time to get started, but remember there were endless debates about LRT" vs Bus" and start-and-stops before anything finally began. Once the lines are built AND promoted, I think we'll see ridership increase and the critics will look for something else to hate on. How about the wind? "Winnipeg has too mch wind....OTHER cities don't get this kind of wind...why can't WE do something about the wind???" Yep....it has a ring to it!

[cllew]

Northeast Pioneers Greenway along Gateway is only there as a use for the existing rail right of way until the BRT line comes in some time in the future. At that time it will be relocated on to the side.

And if local businessman and philanthropist John Buhler had not bought the land from CP and then sold it to the city in 2006 at his cost it would still be a weed filled scar in the east side of the city. The city and CP could not come to agreement on the cost to change ownership and talks stalled. Buhler a few years later somehow was able to buy the land from CP for less than the city had offered on the initial talks.

As to going to Selkirk, the CP Marconi spur to the Esso refinery (what was left of the Point Du Bois line) veered east towards Beausejour once it passed Birds Hill. The only way to get close to Selkirk would have been to either buy/expropriate farm land or connect to the former CN now CEMR line in Birds Hill that runs to the Hydro plant in East Selkirk.

[EspionNoir]

Any updates on existing projects and upcoming things? Seems that everything is lazy during this Christmas/New Year period.

[esquire]

^ at this time of the year, everyone is either drunk on eggnog based drinks or sleeping off their hangovers. Or down in Mexico.

[EspionNoir]

Hahahaha

[EspionNoir]

Here's another person who loves Winnipeg:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkBeSF2glc-/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=jtk4hcemhc2m

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by EspionNoir

Here's another person who loves Winnipeg:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkBeSF2glc-/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=jtk4hcemhc2m

I lived and worked downtown Winnipeg for a year just over a year ago. It was not a cross between Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal. More like a big Regina? To look like those three cities you need shops, restaurants, and touristy things downtown. Living downtown next to Portage and Main I think I ate at subway and gained 20lbs on smokes poutine as I was already scared to get groceries as the Giant Tiger and Safeway downtown were mugging central. I moved into Winnipeg with a positive attitude and left hoping never to come back lol.

[buzzg]

Last week and Investors Group (IG Wealth Management) sign was installed on the podium of 201 Portage, facing Portage & Main.

Will be interesting to see if more tenant signs go up as well. Looks good, amazing visibility for the company.

[1ajs]

holy 🞵🞵🞵🞵 what on earth happend in here over the last few days...

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by pspeid

I agree. Yes, it's taken a long time to get started, but remember there were endless debates about LRT" vs Bus" and start-and-stops before anything finally began. Once the lines are built AND promoted, I think we'll see ridership increase and the critics will look for something else to hate on. How about the wind? "Winnipeg has too mch wind....OTHER cities don't get this kind of wind...why can't WE do something about the wind???" Yep....it has a ring to it!

Not to mention that we debated whether or not to build any mass rapid transit for decades. For all that time, all I ever seemed to hear when mass rapid transit came up was how we needed a study. All we ever got were studies. It took us probably a good 50 years to go from conceptual planning, to studies, to an actual system of any kind. Hell, under Katz we were going to get a "Made in Winnipeg" rapid transit system which really meant the cheapest, least rapid-transity system anybody anywhere could possibly imagine.