I'm glad that I managed to spark some interest in this topic again! I no longer want to pay these insane gas prices to fill a Jeep Liberty every week and I would really be thrilled to see rapid transit here. When will Winnipeg get with the 1960's and implement some type of high quality transit here instead of constantly dodging the reality of the world around us?
With that said, I notice that a few of you have mentioned building a subway system here.
I agree with parts of the argument for a subway. I believe that the stations along any route we build should be designed for all seasons and that speed should be a primary design factor and not just cost or ease to implement. Rapid transit is supposed to send a loud message that the city is ready to grow smarter and put forth a serious effort to improve downtown. This is not something that should simply be done in the cheapest and easiest way possible because it indicates a lack of commitment or care.
However, people must realize that the only reason subways have fallen out of favour in these modern times is because they are
very expensive. There is no debating that they are an extremely fast and effective form of transportation. If cities like Toronto and even New York have trouble constructing new lines because of high costs, I don't see why this would be any different for Winnipeg. We saw people complaining about the cost of a 50 million dollar bus rapid transit line; I couldn't imagine the backlash for a subway system that would, in all likelihood, near or exceed a billion dollars.
Aiming too high by ignoring logistic and economic realities produces the same problem seen when we only focus on keeping the cost as low as possible like the Rapid Transit Task Force seemed to do. Instead, all factors including speed, cost, and comfort need to be considered. We will not be able to fix our city by simply copying the ideas of others. Calgary, Minneapolis, Toronto, and Montreal are all very different cities than Winnipeg and we need to realize that simply transplanting their systems here is not the answer.
This is the reason that I decided to show you several different rapid transit technologies in my previous post. We have got to stop thinking about what Vancouver or Calgary has and start thinking about what will work for us - what will work here.
My personal favourite is the Aerobus.
http://www.aerobus.com/home.html
It offers the speed and comfort of a monorail system without the high construction costs and ugly poles that loom over the streetscape.
Anyways, my point is that it is unfair to simply ignore the opinions of those people who say that something like a subway would cost too much. Regardless of whether or not you think that is reasonable, you have to admit that cost needs to be an important part of any major project like this. We need to start innovating to address both sides of this argument instead of recklessly throwing money at it or doing the least possible.