Catching Transit Tom in Headingley

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This article was published 11/01/2019 (2645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Headingley residents looking to be more eco-friendly and save money on gas could be hopping on a City of Winnipeg bus in the future.

Charleswood-Tuxedo councillor Kevin Klein recently raised the idea of extending the City’s transit routes to include regular service to the Bell MTS Iceplex, Red River Exhibition Park and Assiniboia Downs on the city’s western edge. City bus service is now only offered during the annual Red River Ex each June.

“This is one of the items that resonated an awful lot at doorsteps during the campaign,” Klein said. “I see this as a really good opportunity to improve service as well as increase revenue.”
Headingley mayor John Mauseth said offering regular transit service to his municipality would benefit local residents and businesses. “I think it’s a fantastic move in the right direction,” he said.

Red River Exhibition chief executive officer Garth Rogerson said the idea of extending bus service, and possibly adding a Park and Ride site on the exhibition grounds to accommodate Headingley commuters and others entering the city from the west, isn’t new.

“I’ve been working with Transit for a couple of years to get this whole area serviced,” Rogerson said.

“It has to be a profitable route,” he said, adding that factors such as the ability of roads to handle bus traffic have to be considered.

“It really relies on the retail development at Westport Festival to get going,” he said.
He would also like to see an active transportation route for cyclists coming into the area from Winnipeg.

The road system and utility services went into what is planned as a development containing a hotel, retail and commercial businesses a few years ago. Since that time, the only regular use of the site has occurred during the Red River Ex when guests are directed to park in a large lot constructed on the west side of Exhibition Park.

Rogerson said he expects property owner and developer Shindico Realty to make an announcement about Westport Festival within the next few months.

He also said all the stakeholders involved in a future transit expansion, such as the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba Infrastructure, Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, Peguis First Nation and the Manitoba Jockey Club that co-own Assiniboia Downs, True North Sports and Entertainment that owns the Iceplex and others, met in December to discuss the concept.

Mauseth said that he’d like to see bus service pushed further into Headingley to help people reach land within the municipality owned by Rolling River and Swan Lake First Nations as well as local businesses and provincial correctional facilities.

The Winnipeg Metropolitan Region is undertaking a transportation feasibility study to identify the costs and benefits of a park and ride program on the western edge of the city. The preliminary findings are expected to be released in a few months and will likely set the tone for park and ride programs in other municipalities surrounding the city said WMR executive director Colleen Sklar.

“We’re hoping it becomes a model to begin to explore other routes and we’re hoping maybe that’s a north route, a south route and east route, but this will have to be developed as we move forward,” Sklar said. “We’re at the very early stages of this conversation.”

The City is also looking at the proposed service extension through the lens of its transit master plan, which will be a long-term investigation into improving transit in Winnipeg. With both studies currently underway, the timeline for year-round service beyond the Perimeter is yet to set.

“My hope is to consider this quicker, so we’ll keep the conversation going and keep asking them,” Klein said.