I appreciate Gerald Flood's Sept. 1 column Not-so-rapid-transit especially in regards to his suggestion that the construction of rapid transit would move Winnipeg into the modern era — an era that began 30 years ago everywhere but Winnipeg.

However, he seems to be caught in a dilema of supporting rapid transit as a means for New Flyer Industries to make a profit from taxpayers' money (as they would be building the buses) without realizing that there are those of us who support a rapid transit system — but an LRT (light railway transit), not a BRT (bus rapid transit), which is what is currently being proposed for Winnipeg.

While Mr. Flood is correct in stating that 30 years ago Ottawa came to the conclusion that the way to provide an efficient movement of people, and to avoid congestion and pollution, was to build a network of roadways dedicated to high-speed buses while Winnipeg invested in roadways for cars, cars, cars, instead of a public transportation system, the fact is that Ottawa's BRT system is not as successful as he thinks.

It is losing ridership and revenues and is now seriously lookiig at converting it into an LRT system. If we want to talk about success, let's talk about the Calgary LRT system, which is completely wind-powered and is so successful that they are thinking of expanding it significantly with a current ridership of 250,000 people a day.

I think that Mr. Flood needs to be aware that a BRT will do nothing to improve public transit in Winnipeg. At best, it will cut down the travel time between the downtown and the University of Manitoba by approximately 10 minutes.

But this is very important — it will not increase the frequency of buses running or the number of passengers it can carry per trip as compared to an LRT (rail instead of bus).

Yes, "real" rapid transit (rail not bus) is the answer for Winnipeg.