Better hold on for the ride after Transit overhaul

Opinion

Think of it as Winnipeg Transit, three ways.

I’ve been riding the bus pretty much every workday since I moved here in April 2023, almost always the same bus, the old 71, from its start at Portage and Burnell to Mountain and McPhillips. It was a bus with its regular passengers, and often, long stretches of days with the same driver, too.

It was a comfortable, familiar trip: it was also like a huge time-lapse photography project, one that let you watch buildings being built, street repair projects start, meander and then finish. 7-Elevens close. I watched when one property between Ellice and Sargent burned — then burned again — the remains torn down, a huge hole dug and a new foundation poured. And I remember the morning when someone moved in, and curtains were finally hung.

A mom and toddler used to get on most mornings at Logan and McPhillips: that small human grew and stretched into a thoughtful three-year-old who would inspect you carefully from the surround of his stroller.

Needless to say, most days, the 71 was as comfortable as an old shoe.

But, like every other Winnipeg bus trip, that changed on June 29. And let me point out, I’m among the lucky ones: I head to work at around 6:30 a.m., so I don’t have to deal with bus routes that end at 11 p.m., a problem many shift workers are dealing with.

I’ve sampled my way through a trio of different options, trying to find something that matches what I already had.

The 884 Keewatin only runs for part of the day — five runs in the morning, five in the afternoon, with the last run at around 6 p.m. — and there’s a five-hour gap with no buses from around 9 a.m. to around 2 p.m.

When it does run, buses make their way to each stop about once every hour. It’s very much a bespoke bus: the three times I took it to work, I was 50 per cent of the passengers for the entire trip from Portage to Burrows. The trip was short — because the bus hardly ever stopped at a bus stop — but the walk to work was another 25 minutes, and in winter, with little in the way of tree cover in the Inkster Industrial Park wasteland and the near-total absence of sidewalks, it promises to be cold and dangerous, especially in the early morning dark.

Then I tried the Navigo trip planner’s first — and really, only — choice for me, a combination of the Blue Line down Portage to Donald, and a quick walk over to Smith to catch the F5.

The buses were regular, though stuffed full as soon as one bus was delayed, the waits at the bus stop generally short and the passengers always changing. The only unity of the transit proletariat? When you’d be heading for the second bus, and see it nose up to the traffic light at Smith, you’d break into a trot, only to have all the people around you break into the same urgent little sprint, a bikeless peloton.

Plenty to see: new streets, new people and both routes had the feel of big-city transit — stay in your own bubble to the best of your ability, thread your way to exit door, eye contact at a minimum.

At the same time, it was like travelling the length of two sides of a big triangle, because the single, straight-line side wasn’t available. And it transformed what had been a 30-minute commute, walking included, to about 45 minutes — even longer if traffic is heavy. I couldn’t help but notice the amount of time I spent on a bus riding away from where I was going, so I could then catch another bus to turn around and go back.

The last bus I tried? The 28 Arlington, which wasn’t recommended.

What I mean by that is, given Navigo’s proclivity for picking routes that start as close to your starting point as possible, and the way it believes you’re not interested in a slightly longer walk to get a more direct bus ride, it was never going to offer the 28.

Not even as an option. (The 28 actually cuts away from McPhillips well short of Mountain, but if I don’t feel like walking or the weather’s foul, I can always wait at a stop near McPhillips Station Casino for a transfer onto the F5.)

And the fact is, the 28 just feels a little closer to transit home.

In just a few days, it’s delivered.

A tall man, wearing black shorts with a silver stripe, black raincoat with the hood up, his hands holding onto the seatback in front of him, looks up from his phone and says, loudly, “Where the hell are we?” to the rest of the bus. No one answers.

A young man, rust-orange corduroy trousers, his legs pulled up to his chest, mutters, “Stick to the mission” when I sit in the seat in front of him. He unfolds himself and leaves at Ellice.

At least three of the other regulars from the 71 are either already on the bus or board shortly after Portage: Last-Minute Smoke, Big Lunchbag and the Train Man.

Also, Tiny Lady. I remember her from the old times on the 71 as well. She’d run right into traffic to catch the bus if she was late. I saw her charge out of the laneway behind what was once the 7-Eleven at Ellice and Arlington, eyes on the bus and nothing else, no way she was going to miss it.

My first day on the 28, the Tiny Lady’s shirt tag was sticking up at the back of her neck.

I have to hold back the urge to reach out and tuck it in.

“She’s getting off at Notre Dame,” I remind myself. “Just hold on.”

And maybe that’s the message in transit change — look around, try new options and just hold on.

Russell Wangersky is the Comment Editor at the Free Press, and a regular Transit rider. He can be reached at russell.wangersky@freepress.mb.ca