‘Loud and clear’: Transit tweaks some routes after rider complaints City says it is listening to improve service after June’s bus overhaul By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 2:08 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 11, 2025 Last Modified: 5:35 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 11, 2025 Updates

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Following ample complaints about its new network, Winnipeg Transit has made some early changes and says more will follow.

After a new primary transit network took effect June 29, overhauling virtually every local bus route, city councillors and Transit reported getting extensive feedback.

While Transit previously warned the public not to expect major changes to the network for about a year, officials said Thursday that some smaller ones have already been put in place.

“We are listening to what people are saying and we’re taking into account all the feedback … People are under the impression where we’re making no changes at all for a year and that’s not the case,” Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit’s manager of service development, told city council’s public works committee Thursday.

Transit listed some changes that took effect in its fall schedule, which were largely linked to the feedback. These included:

•  Relocating bus stops at six locations for easier access, including
  – restoring the St. Anne’s at Worthington stop,
  – moving a northbound Israel Asper Way at Canadian Museum for Human Rights stop north of a crosswalk and cancelling a southbound one,
  – removing the southbound Georgina at the Southwest Transitway stop,
  – relocating two stops from William at Furby to William at Sherbrook,
  – adding a new stop for Meadowood at the St. Vital bus terminal and
  – moving a southbound Tache stop closer to Dollard.
•  Adding articulated buses to reduce crowding on Route F8 (Pembina-Henderson Highway), with four more buses in peak hours.
•  Expanding on-request service with four more buses to serve zones 101 (South St. Vital), 102 (Sage Creek/Windsor Park), 103 (North West), 106 (North East), 111 (Waverley West) and 112 (Whyte Ridge/West Fort Garry).
• Adjusting schedules to address “poor on-time performance” on the D12 Ellice, D13 Sargent, and D16 Academy-Notre Dame routes. Transit says schedules for these routes will be “rewritten entirely” for winter.

Those details were shared just before multiple councillors raised rider complaints during the public works meeting.

“I’ve had hundreds of emails in regard to timing at stops, especially around our schools,” said Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood).

Duncan said Oak Park High School students finish classes around 3:30 p.m. and need to wait 40 minutes for a bus to arrive. He urged for quick action to address that issue before the temperature plummets.

“We can’t have people standing outside for 25-plus minutes in the middle of winter and say that this system is more efficient and effective,” he said.

While Duncan said the city needs to make the best of its transit changes to get value for taxpayers, another councillor demanded the whole network be abandoned.

“What I’m hearing from my constituents (is) the system that we rolled out is an absolute disaster … People are having to change jobs because they can’t get back home after work. The whole system was not well thought out,” said Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona).

Wyatt urged the committee to “blow up” the new network.

Radstrom said more scheduling changes could be added when the service switches to its winter schedule on Dec. 14.

While aligning bus and school schedules is a key priority, school-related issues likely won’t be addressed before that winter schedule change, with some possibly waiting to be considered next year, since that would have a major impact on driver schedules, Radstrom said.

“I wish we could do it quicker, but … (with) the lead time it takes to develop the schedules … there’s no way,” he said.

Radstrom noted a surge in demand, as well as the number of times full buses pass by waiting riders, typically does happen each September and decline later in the year.

The public works committee also ordered Transit to explore additional changes on Thursday. It directed the service to provide a list of areas where Transit service ends too early and options to extend it later into the evening or night, including what doing so would cost. That report is expected in November.

“What I’m hearing from my constituents (is) the system that we rolled out is an absolute disaster.”

Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works, said extending bus service into later hours is a top priority.

“People need to get to work and they need to get home from work. And we have heard loud and clear from a lot of people on that,” said Lukes (Waverley West).

The councillor said the 2026 budget process will determine if funding for that measure is approved, though she believes it is needed.

“We tried to launch the (new) network within the (budget) that was already existing … but we can see that that’s not working. So, it will be interesting to see, now, how these other requests for service, how they will be prioritized. This, I believe … is the number one priority,” said Lukes.

She urged transit riders to continue providing feedback, while warning the overall network will remain in place.

“This system will, ultimately, provide better, higher frequency,” she said.

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Meanwhile, the public works committee called for a report next month on extending the timeline allowed for Winnipeg Transit transfers (before a second ticket is required) to 90 minutes from 75, pending council approval.

It also referred three separate proposals to extend Winnipeg Transit service for consideration to next year’s budget process.

If city council approves the funding, the proposals would expand bus service from Linden Woods to the Oak Park and Shaftesbury high schools, while adding service to Highland Pointe, off McPhillips Street, and Festival Drive in Westport.

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.