Saturday night, hours after reading a front-page story about the 2006 Winnipeg Transit fare increases, I'm attending a 13th floor birthday party at a downtown hi-rise. As I chat with Stacy, the birthday boy's 27 year old sister-in-law, we look beyond the balcony at the skyline vew and she's moved to comment, "I hate downtown."
Aghast at her rudeness, I ask her to explain.
"There's nothing for me here," she says. "I go to the Convention Centre a couple times a year."
"The Exchange District?"
She shakes her head.
"Guess you have a car," I say.
"Yep -- wold never go back to taking the bus. Took me three times as long to get to work and it stank."
Offended, I reach out for her for "And if gas ever hits two dollars per litre?"
"I would still drive. I have a small."
The party migrates to Vibe nightclub at York and Hargrave. I speak to Jen, a hip-looking, bespectacled woman, also aged 27, who lives at Donald at River -- one bridge-crossing and five blocks away. Finishing another rum and coke, she admits that yes, this evening she did indeed drive to the party.
Next afternoon, waiting in a shelter along the multi-million-dollar Graham Transit Mall, I understand why employed adults in Winnipeg avoid the bus. Despite the electric heaters, there are two-inch gaps between the shelter's glass walls and the floor -- actually, the filthy sidewalk, festooned with bits of trash and unmelted ice. Decorating the shelter's inner walls are the frozen remnants of spit and what appears to be nose-blowings. Defying the No Smoking sign are a pair of individual puffers, both septuagenarian women.
Suddenly I realize only a die-hard transit fanatic like me could feel good about taking the bus i Wnnipeg.
When the city sought a successor to long-time Transit boss Rick Borland, it is perhaps telling that they chose David Wardrop, an engineer from the city's department of Wastewater Services. Sewage? Transit users? Close enough.
Civic officials say they want to increase ridership. Do they really? Fare increases repel riders, even lead to a loss of population. Students, for example, of Concordia's University of Montréal enjoy round-the-clock bus servide and access to a widespread underground metro system with colourful modernist stations for a mere $32.50 per month, $61 after graduation. As of 2006, the Winnipeg experience will cost students $57, adults $71.25, but if, however, you're over 65, Mayor Katz must really prefer you don't bother driving, because, thanks to him, you can get a monthly pass for just $35.65.
A single fare, now $1.85, will soon cost $2. What's 15 cents, right? Defenders of the increase claim Winnipeg's fare prices are competitive compared to other cities -- Vancouverites pay $2.25, Montréalers and Torontoians $2.50. But to put this in terms motorists can understand, in Toronto you can enjoy the public transit equivalent of a Rolls Royce for just 25 per cent more than you would pay in Winnipeg to endure the equivalent of an old Ford Tempo.
Were they economically able, most of Winnipeg's non-motorists would prefer having a private car. The fare hike, therefore, is a tax icrease aimed at the poor -- and a greater incentive to drive for everyone else. As for motorists, many are struggling to pay endless vehicle expenses: installments, insurance, repairs. Why, when the service is lousy, should they bother spending $4 for a round-trip bus ride when they can drive and use maybe $3 worth of gasoline?
Today, Winnipeg Transit carries barely more than half of the passengers it did in 1946. How come? Public transit in Winnipeg -- one based upon on-street light-rail vehicles and offering properly heated shelters -- was better 60 years ago.
Plans to improve Winnipeg Transit do not include the thrifty, common-sense measures to improve frequency of service or extending service hours (buses currently quit 22 minutes before the nightclubs close), but rather involve the exorbitant construction of a lengthy busway connecting downtown to the University of Manitoba. A third option for transit -- a city-wide underground heavy-rail system -- is is today not even acknowledged as a possibility, despite two previous plans (1959 and 1968) for a subway.
As is, Winnipeg's transit system isn't worth a dollar a ride, never mind two.
An anecdote about my girlfriend Denise, a university undergraduate, explains it perfectly. After she boarded with her post-secondary bus pass, a bus driver asked for student ID. The post-secondary pass can be bought only on campus and requires not only a student ID card but waiting in queue, often for more than an hour, on the first of each month -- all for an unimpressive savings of $13.85. This she complained about as she searched her purse until the driver interrupted with, "Taking the bus is a bitch." She then enjoyed the privilege of standing on a heaving, packed bus for 15 minutes -- to avoid a 25 minute walk.
Even die-hard fans known when to quit. This January I won't bother about going tooget a bus pass fr $71.25; I've already spent $200 to get around in a pair of waterproof, insulated boots.