Winnipeg | The Forks Market | Railside at The Forks

[Peggerino]

As the neighbourhoods around the Forks densify (downtown, WB, St. B and OV) it would make sense that the businesses will be even less reliant on suburban folks driving in.

[buzzg]

Is the Forks even that hard to get to by bus? 13 bus routes stop at Main & Broadway/Assiniboine, including BLUE – which means that any route that comes downtown and uses or crosses Graham or Main downtown can easily transfer to BLUE. If you can get to Union Station, you're already at The Forks.

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

The worst part of all of it is the transfer from the bus from the Forks to other services. Navigo recommends getting off at Portage Avenue East and walking to Main and McDermot... Talk about no fun on a windy winter day.

I hope the new Transit Master Plan addresses how difficult The Forks is to get to by bus.

I'm very confused with what you're saying here. It's not at all difficult to get to the Forks by bus. The bus stop at Main & Assiniboine is right around the corner from the back door of the Forks Market. And that stop is served by buses from all over the city: the Blue Line in addition to major routes like the 14, 19, 47, 55, and 66.

It's about the same distance as getting off a bus at Polo Park and walking into the mall:



It won't change much under the master plan; if anything it will be a slightly longer walk, because I think there won't be a stop at Main & Assiniboine anymore and you'll have to walk from Union Station.

(There will also be the Sargent and Ellice buses going directly into the Forks Market instead of the Salter bus that currently goes there.)

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by GarryEllice

I'm very confused with what you're saying here. It's not at all difficult to get to the Forks by bus. The bus stop at Main & Assiniboine is right around the corner from the back door of the Forks Market. And that stop is served by buses from all over the city: the Blue Line in addition to major routes like the 14, 19, 47, 55, and 66.

It's about the same distance as getting off a bus at Polo Park and walking into the mall:

It won't change much under the master plan; if anything it will be a slightly longer walk, because I think there won't be a stop at Main & Assiniboine anymore and you'll have to walk from Union Station.

(There will also be the Sargent and Ellice buses going directly into the Forks Market instead of the Salter bus that currently goes there.)

Going north on Main Street into the north end. The 18 goes from Graham onto Main Street. The recommended route is catch the bus at Eastbound Forks Market and transfer at Main and Portage by walking from the Fairmont stop to Main and McDermot.

It likely would have been easier to walk through Union Station to the stops in front of there and transfer at Graham at Fort I suppose. I'll remember that for next time too.

EDIT: I just plugged it into Navigo -- it actually recommends walking from Main and Broadway to Main and Pioneer. So yes, it is still hard to get to the Forks from North Main.

[buzzg]

Navigo is dumb. Ride the 18 til it turns onto Graham, then get off and switch to the BLUE Line across the street, which comes so frequently you wouldn't even have to plan it. Very simple.

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

Going north on Main Street into the north end. The 18 goes from Graham onto Main Street. The recommended route is catch the bus at Eastbound Forks Market and transfer at Main and Portage by walking from the Fairmont stop to Main and McDermot.

It likely would have been easier to walk through Union Station to the stops in front of there and transfer at Graham at Fort I suppose. I'll remember that for next time too.

EDIT: I just plugged it into Navigo -- it actually recommends walking from Main and Broadway to Main and Pioneer. So yes, it is still hard to get to the Forks from North Main.

No, it's not. That just shows that Navigo sucks at figuring out connections.

To get from the Forks to North Main, walk 2 minutes from the Forks Market to Main & Assiniboine (no need to walk all the way to Union Station), get on a 47, and then transfer to an 18 at any of the stops on Main between Pioneer and Higgins.

Alternatively, get on literally any other bus at Main & Assiniboine (there's always something coming) and transfer to an 18 at Graham & Fort.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Is the Forks even that hard to get to by bus? 13 bus routes stop at Main & Broadway/Assiniboine, including BLUE – which means that any route that comes downtown and uses or crosses Graham or Main downtown can easily transfer to BLUE. If you can get to Union Station, you're already at The Forks.

depends witch part of the city ur comming from

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by GarryEllice

No, it's not. That just shows that Navigo sucks at figuring out connections.

To get from the Forks to North Main, walk 2 minutes from the Forks Market to Main & Assiniboine (no need to walk all the way to Union Station), get on a 47, and then transfer to an 18 at any of the stops on Main between Pioneer and Higgins.

Alternatively, get on literally any other bus at Main & Assiniboine (there's always something coming) and transfer to an 18 at Graham & Fort.

Well, Navigo is what a tourist would use if they were to catch the bus in Winnipeg. I also haven't been in Winnipeg for over 5 years, so am not completely across these things just yet.

Thanks again for the recommendation, I'll use it the next time I go.

[bomberjet]

There are definitely some silly navigo routings. I find that gap from Main St over to the forks, waterfont is not right. Like was mentioned. transferring buses to cross the street.

Or transferring to get across the railway when you can just walk.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

Well, Navigo is what a tourist would use if they were to catch the bus in Winnipeg.

Navigo is absolutely not what a tourist would use. A tourist would use Google Maps.

[buzzg]

I have almost never gone out of my way to find a local transit app when travelling, and I always walk or use transit when I travel as much as possible. Either use Google or there's an app called Transit that's even better. Both take info from the transit agencies, but then use AI to supplement for transferring and connections, based on actual users' use. Navigo is not very intelligent.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by buzzg

I have almost never gone out of my way to find a local transit app when travelling, and I always walk or use transit when I travel as much as possible. Either use Google or there's an app called Transit that's even better. Both take info from the transit agencies, but then use AI to supplement for transferring and connections, based on actual users' use. Navigo is not very intelligent.

I have never used google maps for anything but driving directions and streetview. I've always looked at a cities transit website instead.

Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon.

[biguc]

Google maps is undeniably useful for transit, even if you have to juke the settings and your starting point a bit to get it to give out directions that actually make sense. I usually end up using it just to get an idea of how long a trip will take, even when I already know what transit I'll use.

I just checked out Transit. Thanks for the recommendation, buzz. That app is a trove of information. Too bad it won't stop crawling up my ass about turning location services on.

[sleepyeyed]

there's a new image of the public realm from the Forks 20-30 website


from https://connecting2030.theforks.com/

[Spocket]

Just curious here but what exactly is taking so long at this point? I mean, hasn't the city been talking about developing these lands for the last...uh...30 years? We've got proposals now so when do they start construction?

[esquire]

Not a fan at all of the Block A, B and C components on Main Street. Keep the park stuff at The Forks proper and leave Main Street as a part of the traditional downtown built environment. The Forks has enough redevelopment work on its plate without having to annex more of downtown.

[buzzg]

A agree about block A, but B & C make sense to me. B & C both appear to be on podiums – C is also mostly owned by Earls, with the north strip of it (where the overpass is likely) owned by the city. Love all the added trees and idea of Main Street being a linear parkway – does that mean an AT path on the west side??

Block B has been planned as a parkade for a long time, so the fact there appears to be "towers" on top of the parkade podium is a good sign. There will also be a major RT station on the street right in front of Union Station – so that V-cut plaza area will likely provide some welcome and necessary open space. The Forks also plans to move their front desk and board room out of the north-south hallway once Environment Canada relocates, so that north entrance of Union Station will be quite busy eventually.

While I hope Block C is a dense podium with some "tower" component also, I really like the updates to the overpass/walkway plan. Will provide the only really nice outdoor entrance to The Forks from Main. Again, this is private property so it likely won't look like The Forks.

The most interesting thing here to me is that they show the RT line coming down at and connecting to St. Mary. What the hell is that? Is that going to be the BS compromise to the city not growing a pair and building a proper P&M station?

Also there's a few buildings that are mislabelled – just a dumb mistake or are there things we don't know about? Scotiabank going to take over some of BellMTS' space after just doing a big reno? They also have BMO at Richardson lol.

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by buzzg

While I hope Block C is a dense podium with some "tower" component also, I really like the updates to the overpass/walkway plan. Will provide the only really nice outdoor entrance to The Forks from Main. Again, this is private property so it likely won't look like The Forks.

The most interesting thing here to me is that they show the RT line coming down at and connecting to St. Mary. What the hell is that? Is that going to be the BS compromise to the city not growing a pair and building a proper P&M station?

Totally agree. Along Main Street, at least, the density should be much higher but as long as it's above 10 floors, I think it'll do.

As for the P&M station...good question, actually. I mean, I have no idea how they'd do it considering the space limitations and if it required anything more complicated than a curb cut the city won't pony up the cash (as we know)

[esquire]

Originally Posted by buzzg

A agree about block A, but B & C make sense to me. B & C both appear to be on podiums – C is also mostly owned by Earls, with the north strip of it (where the overpass is likely) owned by the city. Love all the added trees and idea of Main Street being a linear parkway – does that mean an AT path on the west side??

OK, I didn't realize the podium part. If that's the case then it's more palatable. But why not orient the buildings on top properly instead of that odd angle?

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by buzzg

The most interesting thing here to me is that they show the RT line coming down at and connecting to St. Mary. What the hell is that? Is that going to be the BS compromise to the city not growing a pair and building a proper P&M station?

This used to be shown on older RT plans, so I'm thinking it's probably just a result of the Forks not updating their planning to reflect the brand-new transit master plan? The new plan was only approved by council a few weeks ago, so it wasn't really official until then.

Originally Posted by esquire

OK, I didn't realize the podium part. If that's the case then it's more palatable. But why not orient the buildings on top properly instead of that odd angle?

Yeah, I'm really not seeing the reason for all the buildings on Main to be angled 45 degrees. It's not as though it'll tie them together with the Railside development -- from street level you can't even see across the rail corridor. It's just going to be a couple of blocks of Main Street where the buildings are pointlessly angled. I guess it'll look cool in satellite images and the planners can congratulate themselves for being "innovative" again?

Especially the lot at Main & Broadway -- can we please just have a nice urban building that provides a proper street wall rather than pointless triangular plazas?

I can't believe that in this whole development plan, for all of Railside and south Main, there isn't a single traditional urban street front anywhere!