Transit changes get failing grade from U of M students

The father of a first-year University of Manitoba student is angry his daughter was late for class on her first day after waiting more than an hour in the pouring rain as several Winnipeg Transit buses whizzed past her because they were full.

Brandon Boone said his daughter finally called an Uber, from the bus stop, to get to the campus on Sept. 4.

When she tried to catch a bus to return home at the end of the day, she learned buses were running every 30 minutes.

“She eventually walked home, in the rain, which was a 35-minute stroll down Abinojii (Mikanah),” Boone said on Wednesday. “And we live on a major bus route.”

Boone blames Winnipeg Transit’s recent overhaul of routes, in which it switched to a spine-and feeder system — with direct routes on major streets that smaller routes connect to — from a hub-and-spoke model in which routes pass through downtown.

“This is the definition of failing to meet basic services requirements. You can’t ask people to buy in if you can’t deliver.”

Numerous University of Manitoba students have complained to the university students union that the changes have made them late for class or forced them to take an Uber to get to the campus on time.

In one case, a student decided to move into student residence instead of staying at home.

Prabhnoor Singh, president of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union, said he has been hearing complaints since the changes took effect in summer.

Singh said the student reported having to walk 20 minutes to get to a bus stop, followed by a long journey, so they decided it was better to pay thousands of dollars to live in student residence.

“They said it was more economical for them to live on campus at this point,” he said.

Singh noted that while the university’s student population, at 31,578 students this year, makes it one of the most populous cities in the province, Winnipeg Transit never consulted with the student union before the changes were made.

“We ran a small survey and about 92 per cent of students who replied to it expressed that the changes in the system made it worse for them to come to campus or commute to campus,” Singh said.

“They say they are facing greater inconvenience, longer commutes, or more barriers to accessing transit.”

Ken Gordon, who has been a sessional instructor at the university, said a student reached out to him and said they are trying to avoid buses by driving to school, but that presents another problem: the lack of parking spaces on campus.

“They said that the wait-list is over 1,000 students,” Gordon said.

“I suspect a lot of this has to do with the new transit routes and the elimination of cross-town routes like the Maples super express. What was once a single, fast bus from one end of the city to another, is now a multiple transfer ride that takes 1.5 to two hours.

“This does not sound like an attempt to reduce traffic on our streets and encourage people to take the bus.”

Singh echoed the belief the switch to a new route system has lengthened the commute for thousands of riders.

“Another student said the buses are basically full by the time they get to their stop and they have to wait for about 40 minutes until the next not full bus comes by and by then the class they were going to has already ended.”

Singh said he is on a bus or waiting for a transfer for more than four hours daily instead of two hours daily last year.

Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of the civic public works committee, acknowledged riders’ frustration and said transit officials will be grilled by councillors at Thursday’s meeting.

“We want an update on everything including scheduling, bus stops, expansion, GPS, ridership, and good news stories,” Lukes said.

“I fully expect any schedule changes in December that they will make adjustments… Again, when we do a massive change, we get feedback and we make adjustments, but not on the second day.”

A Winnipeg Transit spokesperson said while some minor changes have been made, including to some bus stop locations and schedules, major changes won’t be made for a year.

In addition, students and parents in the Louis Riel School Division are upset about the changes and have vented their frustration in a survey sent out by the division.

Jeff Anderson, the division’s assistant superintendent, said very few are happy with the changes to bus routes in the area.

“Out of 333 surveys we’ve received so far, about 92 per cent say they are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied,” Anderson said.

“The most common complaint is my kid used to take one bus to get to school and now it takes two buses or more to get there. And the times the buses come don’t always compare to the bell time of schools.”

Anderson said they had great hope for one of the routes they looked at, which goes past schools that include J.H. Bruns and College Beliveau, but when they received the fall Winnipeg Transit schedule, they found “only one bus aligns with the (school) schedule when there used to be three.”

He said the data will be shared with Winnipeg Transit, but unless changes are made, the division may have to adjust opening and closing times at some schools.

“I remain optimistic, based on feedback we and others will share, maybe there are tweaks they can do, including additional capacity.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca