Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1518745
SPRING 2024 • THE ASSINIBOIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 11 1300 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg 204.786.6541 customerservice@advance.mb.ca www.advance.mb.ca • Automotive Advance is Winnipeg's custom installation specialist • Home Audio Sounds to make you smile! • Hi-Fi Sound for the sophisticated listener • TV & Video Advance brings the movie theatre experience to your home • Outdoor Living Winnipeg's premier Napoleon dealer • Advanced Residential Technology True home automation • Installation We ensure a system that you will be proud to have in your home Then came the pandemic. People began working from home, and social dis- tancing restrictions were implemented, significantly impacting bus ridership. "We didn't have the tools or the flex- ibility that we needed to adapt to that change very easily," says Sturgeon. Ridership is mostly back to pre-pan- demic levels, which means those original issues are cropping up again—but, says Sturgeon, there's now a plan to address them. "The plan revolves around redesigning the transit route network and recogniz- ing the need to create resiliency," he says. The primary components of the WTMP involve service and infrastructure, with an infrastructure plan based on an ex- panded rapid transit system and a service plan involving an entirely new transit network. As the rapid transit system is a billion-plus commitment stretched over a 25-year period, the service plan is the immediate focus. According to Sturgeon, the new route network and its feeder routes are expected to launch in June 2025. Following that, the network and its feeder routes will be expanded along with the changing communities they'll serve. While rapid transit comes later in the plan, the routes that will eventually become the rapid transit line will be launched earlier on. "That lets us see how they perform, and it lets people get used to them," Sturgeon says of the future rapid transit routes. "It also helps us build the case for upgrading the infrastruc- ture. And, when the infrastructure arrives, it makes the existing service better instead of a big, new change again." Though rapid transit's next phase involves the Downtown portions of all three rapid transit lines, its cost and performance will help Winnipeg Transit set the stage for expanding the system further. "Each primary transit line is intended to become a permanent feature of the city," says Sturgeon. "They'll get extend- ed over time, get better, and have more frequency, but stay where they are. That means people can rely on it for planning, investment, or choosing their business location. That's something that Winnipeg Transit and the City of Winnipeg have never been able to guarantee before."