Online tool lets transit riders take incoming spine-and-feeder network for a spin By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 5:19 PM CDT Thursday, May. 1, 2025 Last Modified: 5:27 PM CDT Thursday, May. 1, 2025 Updates

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Winnipeggers can start planning for a massive transformation that’s set to alter virtually every bus route.

Winnipeg Transit will launch a new primary transit network on June 29. On Thursday, transit posted the upcoming schedules online, so users can try out virtual trips and sort out their best options in advance.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the information will help prepare riders for the biggest single-day change in Winnipeg Transit’s history.

“With this new network, you’ll be able to get anywhere in Winnipeg more easily on routes that are more frequent, more reliable and more direct. It means faster commutes, shorter wait times and better customer service… This is big. This is bold change,” said Gillingham.

Riders can visit Winnipeg Transit to preview stops, routes, and trip plans.

The new primary network will use a spine-and-feeder concept, where direct spines along major corridors are supported by a network of feeder routes throughout the city.

“It’s a big change for passengers and we know how people like change,” joked Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works. “So, I think all the information we’re launching today, all the training that we’re offering, will help demystify this transformation.”

Lukes (Waverley West) said some of the most frequent routes will have buses arrive so often that Winnipeggers can just show up at times without checking the schedule first.

“It will make transit better, so much better that probably our next big issue will be overcrowding on the buses because that’s what we’re seeing with the Blue Line (now),” she said.

Lukes said Winnipeg Transit’s Blue Line, which stretches from southwest Winnipeg to downtown, has operated in similar fashion to the new network since 2020, proving the concept works.

To support the broader change, the councillor said “travel trainers” will help educate the public, including students and seniors groups, about the new system.

Bus drivers will receive extra help when they sign up for specific routes in the next week or so, said Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit’s manager of service development.

“It will make transit better, so much better that probably our next big issue will be overcrowding on the buses because that’s what we’re seeing with the Blue Line (now).”–Coun. Janice Lukes

“We want them to not just know the route they’re driving, but understand the entire network,” said Radstrom.

Winnipeg Transit has had a shortage of drivers in recent years but heavy recruitment has recently paid off, with sufficient drivers now in place to carry out a full summer schedule, he said.

“It’s looking better than it has in a very long time,” said Radstrom.

Transit said bus routes are operating at six per cent below normal, but full service should be restored in the summer.

Once the new network is implemented, a bus is expected to arrive every five to 15 minutes along each of the most frequent routes during peak periods, while connector route buses would come every 15 to 30 minutes, the city’s website says.

Radstrom said the city hopes to release its fall schedule by July to allow more planning time for updated school routes.

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A transit advocate expects the new network will greatly improve service.

“Frequent service helps so many people to be able to rely on the system because it reduces uncertainty and provides access to more buses more often, with shorter waits, faster transfers and increased reliability. There are sweeping benefits,” said Kyle Owens, president of Functional Transit Winnipeg.

Owens said routes are all interconnected, so it makes sense to overhaul the system at once, while the early route notice will help users prepare for it.

The new system will require more transfers on many routes, though these should be more reliable, while riders may have to adjust to community routes ending earlier in the evening, he said.

“Fewer stops getting them across the city quickly is fantastic but (passengers) are going to need to anticipate when the feeder routes may end,” said Owens.

The head of the union that represents transit drivers welcomed Thursday’s commitment to help prepare drivers for the new routes. In the meantime, he urged the public to be patient.

“We are concerned about people being impatient with this change, taking out their frustrations on the others… riding the bus or our operators,” said Chris Scott, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505.

Transit will provide drivers with business cards that contain QR codes that they can give to passengers to look up information en route, he said.

“That’s something small and convenient that an operator can grab at the garage to hand out to anybody that they can’t give the answer to,” he said.

Scott said driver staffing levels have greatly improved due to the ongoing “hiring blitz,” though about 80 more operators would be needed to meet the full service level in the fall.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.