Keeping the wheels going round and round

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2023 (708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Timing, it has often been said, is everything.

The expression has to do with the importance of making the correct decision at precisely the right moment, and having the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time, and seizing opportunities when they present themselves.

It also relates to the virtues of punctuality, and the pitfalls of procrastination.

While it might be both an oversimplification to suggest timing is everything, there’s no disputing its importance in whatever successes we achieve. And, on the other hand, bad timing can be a catalyst for some very unfortunate outcomes.

Were one to be seeking an informed — and, no doubt, impassioned — perspective on the importance of timing, a discussion with a would-be bus rider waiting at a Winnipeg Transit stop might be an interesting place to start. The timing — as in lateness, infrequency and occasional complete absence — of scheduled bus service is central to any conversation about Winnipeg’s much-maligned transit system and its viability as a means of navigating this mid-sized but sprawling city.

Simply put, the majority of Winnipeggers do not view public transit as a primary transportation option. As an urban population, we seem much less inclined to climb aboard than are residents of other similar-sized cities.

In addition to problems with punctuality and reliability, folks hereabouts also have well-founded concerns about safety aboard Transit buses and accessibility of Transit shelters during the city’s many months of inhospitable weather.

It isn’t just riders who are disenchanted with Winnipeg Transit’s current state of affairs; the men and women who make their living behind the wheels of the massive public conveyances are also unhappy — so much so, in fact, that the members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 have rejected two tentative collective agreements endorsed by union leadership and set Dec. 11 as the deadline at which they will go on strike if an acceptable contract deal has not been reached.

The ATU says unsafe working conditions and a high demand for overtime are causing undue stress for Transit’s understaffed complement of 1,100 operators. Those who continue to ride the buses would no doubt sympathize with the drivers’ plight.

The timing of such a disruption could not possibly be worse. In addition to leaving the service’s ever-dwindling ridership literally out in the cold during one of the most challenging times of the year, a strike by Transit drivers would do irreparable harm to the city’s ongoing (but so far largely unsuccessful) effort to restore public confidence in public transit.

As the days tick away toward the Dec. 11 deadline, city council and civic administration have much to consider. Averting a strike isn’t simply a matter of upping the contract-offer ante, as can be done to solve most labour disputes; what’s needed is decisive —and inevitably expensive — action to make public transit safe for operators and customers.

Winnipeg Transit’s master plan, which it released in 2021, sets ambitious goals for making the service more attractive to the city’s residents — including reorganizing routes to triple the number of households living within walking distance of a frequent bus route and increasing frequency to every 10 minutes during rush hour and 15 minutes the rest of the day.

Those are laudable ambitions, as is the longer-term plan to extend rapid-transit corridors to all quadrants of the city (assuming, of course, that ever-constrained civic budgeting allows such a vision to become reality).

In the immediate term, however, questions of safety, staffing and service reliability remain central to Transit’s continuing operation. On the buses and at the bargaining table, at this very moment, timing really is everything.