Transit service needed on Portage west of Perimeter, city councillor says after pulling plug on dangerous walk

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This article was published 25/02/2025 (248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A city councillor who aborted a dangerous walk to pick up his car from a west Portage Avenue dealership and called for a ride instead wants to know if bus service can be extended to the Assiniboia Downs area.

Coun. Shawn Dobson (St. James) travelled by bus from city hall to the Unicity shopping area Monday, which is as far west on Portage as Winnipeg Transit goes.

He intended to walk from there to Birchwood Auto Park west of the Perimeter Highway, which is located near the Downs, Red River Exhibition Park and the Hockey For All Centre.

That is, until Dobson ambled toward the numerous transport trucks and other vehicles merging on and off the Trans-Canada and Perimeter highways at high speeds.

“I wouldn’t do it,” he said Tuesday. “I didn’t feel it was safe. There’s no sidewalk there. I think it is probably one of the most dangerous areas in the city for a pedestrian. That’s when I called (an Uber).”

Dobson said the experience made it easy to support a motion from Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood — Tuxedo — Westwood), at Tuesday’s Assiniboia Community Committee meeting asking the city for a report on the cost of extending service slightly further west to Festival Drive, a new apartment-housing and retail development that includes a Costco warehouse.

The motion passed unanimously, as did another motion, asking for a report on adding dedicated Winnipeg Transit service to and from Linden Woods to Shaftesbury High School and Ecole secondaire Oak Park High School.

The bus route for students would replace one that has been running for decades, but is slated to be discontinued due to the launch of the new Winnipeg Transit Master Plan on June 29.

The plan, which will see changes to the majority of current routes through the city, is based on a “spoke-and-feeder” system in which shorter routes will wind through neighbourhoods to hubs, where passengers who want to go to other parts of the city will transfer to different buses.

Most bus routes currently travel thorough or end up downtown.

Assiniboia Downs CEO Darren Dunn said the racetrack operation would welcome the addition of bus service.

“Our customers would benefit, including for our neighbouring businesses, and there would be an additional benefit in the ability to attract and retain employees,” Dunn said.

“A final important note is the safety factor that exists. We consistently see people trying to walk alongside, or cross, the Perimeter and/or Highway 1 west on foot against the backdrop of high-speed traffic, and it is a clear and present danger that would be significantly mitigated through the addition of bus service.”

Duncan said he knows what it is like to get to Assiniboia Downs without a vehicle; he did it when he was a teenager.

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“I worked in concessions,” he said. “We had to carpool to get out there. (Adding bus service) would be so people can get out to the amenities that have been out there for decades. We need to figure out how to get people out there safely… there is no sidewalk there — this should be prioritized based on safety.”

City spokeswoman Megan Benedictson said a bus route to Assiniboia Downs is part of Winnipeg Transit’s long-term planning.

“(The plan) is designed to be implemented gradually over the next 25 years with each service extension shown being launched as funding becomes available for design refinement, which could impact final routing, required infrastructure, etc.,” she said.

“If these service extensions are approved, and ultimately funded, they represent steps in the implementation of the Long Term Network Plan.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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