Katz's transit vision is to look to the past

Right off the bat, I have to admit I know less about public transit than Mayor Sam Katz. As a transit authority, he is in a league of his own.

The other day, Katz developed a sudden passion for streetcars and he talked many councillors into backing his inspiration. A few complained the documentation he tabled in support of his dream was incomplete and inaccurate. Katz brushed aside the whiners.

I hesitate to get involved in the debate, but I've just returned from Ottawa and I'd like, as young people say, to put a few thoughts "out there."

Ottawa has wound up with part of a light rail transit system and part of a bus rapid transit system. They don't work well together.

Katz, in my humble opinion, seems to be heading in the same direction. Taxpayers are already building a busway from near The Forks to Jubilee Avenue at a cost of $138 million. Why? I'm not sure, but there seems to be a feeling that a lot of people on Jubilee want to take samba lessons at The Forks.

Ottawa, the province and the city are partners in this "Samba line." The senior partners want to extend the line from Jubilee to the University of Manitoba at a cost of $270 million.

Katz disagrees. He wants the money set aside for Phase 2 to be used for street repairs and sewers. He also wants the senior governments to fund rapid transit from another part of their budgets. And he doesn't like buses anymore. His new playthings are streetcars.

As far as I can tell, this could mean people will take a streetcar to The Forks, then leap on a bus to Jubilee, then jump on a streetcar to the U of M. This is not a transit line, it's a moving museum of public transit vehicles.

Foes of Katz's field-of-dreams transit theories ("build it and they will come") say transit lines should not be built piecemeal. They should be planned in totality, taking into account factors such as geography, traffic patterns, costs and markets. Then -- and only then -- you should pick a vehicle that meets all your requirements. Don't pick a vehicle and then try to squish it into a route. Before asking for taxpayer dollars, you should present a business plan showing how the whole project is going to make money.

Ottawa didn't do it this way. Its council, one of Canada's silliest, decided to develop light rail transit on part of an old rail line. Some environmentalists jumped for joy. The city is recycling, they enthused. The problem was that not many people lived near the rail line, but the LRT was cheap to build. The line is now closed for "repairs," and few are complaining.

Ottawa's other foray into public transit was also a cheapie. It built a bus transit way beside a National Capital Commission parkway, which is pretty, but not close to many people.

The problem came when the city's articulated, double buses hit Ottawa's traffic-choked downtown. Everything slowed to a snail's pace. Diamond bus lanes didn't help much. Many in Ottawa now realize what the city really needs is a subway under its congested core.

Downtowns are the Gordian knots of public transit, which must be able to tell customers: "We can get you downtown faster than driving in a car." In Winnipeg, that's a huge challenge. Buses get slowed down in traffic and stop signs. So, Katz should note, do streetcars.

Calgary tried to avoid the problem by dedicating a downtown street to light rail transit. When I was there in 1988, I watched the street gradually become a slum.

Katz says he's a visionary. Perhaps, he might like to look at Vancouver's SkyTrain which whizzes around the city on 50 kilometres of elevated track. It is the world's largest system of driverless trains. The SkyTrain ducks below ground when it gets close to its downtown terminal.

Katz's vision is a look to the past. Winnipeg helped pioneer streetcars in North America. But they were scrapped because they were slow, inflexible and difficult to repair. Katz, our transit authority, seems to be taking us back to the future.

Tom Ford is managing editor of The Issues Network

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2010 A15