Wi-Fi ‘frill’ on buses passes hurdle

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This article was published 01/12/2017 (2878 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Coun. Jeff Browaty came up short in a bid to quash a $300,000 pilot project to test the effectiveness of Wi-Fi on Winnipeg Transit buses and instead use the money to improve service.

The political manoeuvring played out Thursday at the meeting of the innovation committee, where city councillors voted 3-1 to endorse portions of the $1-billion preliminary budget for 2018.

Browaty said the Wi-Fi initiative is a “frill” that’s not needed and the money — even though it is a small amount — would be better spent to improve existing transit service.

“We’re in such a desperate position right now where we’re talking about both dramatic increases to transit fares, as well as reduction in service on traditional routes,” the North Kildonan councillor told the committee.

“The public I’ve been hearing about has overwhelmingly been saying we want basic transit before we have frills like Wi-Fi on buses.”

The pilot project is being funded by the committee’s $1-million capital innovation fund, a pool of money set aside annually to finance department projects that have a low priority, but demonstrate the potential to reduce costs and improve service.

Transit will install Wi-Fi on 12 buses on various routes and times across the city over a 12-month period. But the initiative is facing strong public backlash after it was revealed the preliminary budget proposes a 25-cent fare increase effective Jan. 1 and a reduction of service on 23 low-ridership routes in June, to offset a $10-million shortfall in provincial funding to transit.

Michael Legary, the city’s chief innovation officer, defended the initiative, explaining it will demonstrate the viability of a Wi-Fi network to improve bus operations in a variety of areas and offer riders a service they don’t currently have.

“It’s not about Netflix on buses, it about providing that real-time access and the infrastructure on the buses and providing a minimum of life-safety support,” Legary said, adding the pilot project will determine if Wi-Fi can be used to improve the problematic Peggo card fare system and establish infrastructure for security systems.

“It’s about creating a real-time, high-speed infrastructure that allows the buses to become more useful in a number of different ways.”

Councillors on the innovation committee also approved the budgets of the city’s four special operating agencies — animal services, golf services, Winnipeg Parking Authority, and fleet management.

Browaty’s proposal to kill the Wi-Fi pilot was defeated 3-1 and he was the only councillor on the committee to vote against the special operating agencies’ budgets.

Innovation is the third council committee this week to approve portions of the 2018 budget without any changes, reinforcing the perception the budget tabled Nov. 22 by Mayor Brian Bowman will be adopted without changes by council at its special meeting Dec. 12.

The public works committee will be looking at the Transit budget in detail Friday.

At the same time, in a different committee room, the police board will be reviewing the Winnipeg Police Services budget, which sees the lowest one-year increase — 1.2 per cent in its history.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca