Bus loop gets rerouted

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This article was published 16/04/2013 (4762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Officials have changed a controversial plan that would have had 130 buses a day driving past a daycare.

The University of Winnipeg released a statement Monday afternoon that Winnipeg Transit will conduct a year-long assessment to see if Sherbrook Street will be a sufficient place for the Spence terminal.

Last fall, the U of W proposed to reroute 130 buses a day from Portage Avenue to Furby Place because the construction of the United Health & RecPlex interfered with the route.

However, the proposed bus route would have operated in front of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association Day Care Centre, upsetting many parents who feared for the children’s safety. After some discussion, U of W agreed to leave the Furby Place bus loop alone.

University representatives returned to the daycare last month, announcing they were revisiting the Furby Place bus loop. They presented two options: a route on Furby Place/Furby Street and Langside Street, or a Young Street/Langside Street loop.

During these discussions, buses had been operating out of a temporary terminal in front of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, but it did more bad than good.

“It was causing backups behind the block of Portage between Memorial and Vaughan,” Jeremy Read, U of W’s senior executive officer and adviser to the president, said.

The loop was then moved to Sherbrook Street between Broadway and Portage Avenue in mid-March. Now the university and Winnipeg Transit are considering making this placement permanent.

“Basically they found that their route had worked better than they anticipated,” Read said.

But Read and Winnipeg Transit also anticipate some issues with this route.

“In order to operate on that loop, they have to add time which brings down the frequency of buses per hour,” Read revealed. “If you start eliminating the number of buses per hour, you might have difficulty later down the line.”

Diana Rozos, director at the UWSA Day Care Centre, said she feels relieved the buses are far from the daycare and children.

“We think it’s the best-case scenario for this immediate community, not just for the daycare,” Rozos said.

Rozos said Winnipeg Transit asked her to come down to the university to talk. While Transit couldn’t reveal any of its processes, they did tell her the Sherbrook terminal is likely to replace the Furby Place loop.

Seann Vinyasa-Billson, a board member at the daycare, said almost everyone is in positive spirits over this decision.

“We’re feeling good that at least we’ve postponed it for another year, keeping it away from our children,” Vinyasa-Billson said.

The meeting to gather community feedback on April 17 at the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre has been cancelled.

Once the pilot is complete, based on the results, Winnipeg Transit and the U of W may reconsider the previous bus loop options.

Until then, “we wait anxiously a year from now for a decision from Transit to see if this works,” Read said.

cindy.chan@freepress.mb.ca