It's already hit a few bumps, but the city's rapid transit plan must not be allowed to derail.

And after talking about this for years, it's time for Winnipeg to climb aboard and go with it — toward a more efficient, better developed and organized city that pays a lot more attention to its future.

The latest worries surrounding the ambitious development came recently when Mayor Sam Katz suggested the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system's first leg, costing about $50 million, might not be worth a launch without the actual vehicles that the price tag wouldn't cover.

Katz insists "nothing has changed" under the plan to complete the first section and its designated 3.4-kilometre dedicated bus roadway by early 2008 — nothing, that is, except for his nervousness at coughing up a million bucks for each of perhaps 20 hybrid fuel-electric vehicles.

And how taxpayers will ride him if it proves a waste because they're not riding the system.

"We still have to look at the big picture and see what our needs are. We certainly have priorities," Katz told The Sun.

"The question is will this be one of them or not? Is that feasible today? Yes — but no decision has been made whatsoever."

No official decision will be reached on whether to proceed until this fall's budget talks at the earliest, but the mayor's caution is more than enough reason for green-minded transit planners — and everyone who cares about this city's ability to drive into the future — to sound an alarm.

It's a good thing that Coun. Donald Benham, the BRT system's loudest advocate, is now in City Hall's River Heights-Fort Garry office to ring it loud and clear.

But BRT doubters don't need politicians to steer them on course. The confidence of Winnipeg Transit's planners should be reason enough to realize that rapid transit must surge ahead now that the three levels of government are finally cost-sharing its start-up.

"It all comes down to your vision of what kind of city you want," explained Bill Menzies, Transit's planning manager.

"The whole city should be disappointed if it's scuttled, because it's not just about transportation — it's about bigger issues of what kind of city we want to have. It's about the health of our downtown, it's about economic development. it's about putting people on sidewalks and providing good mobility as our demographics change."

If anything, we should be relieved that big dollars are on the table to begin a system that the 'Peg has done nothing but flap its gums about since Steve Juba was mayor. It may not be a monorail but it could be the next best thing. This is the time to build its first route and take a test run.

Even in this town that wants to resist all change, that can't be a bad idea.

The bus cost issue may become moot, anyway, as the city expects to receive federal eco-planning funding for its globally positioned coaches.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation sees plenty of green in the project — but only the kind that it warns we'll flush needlessly from more crucial projects by kick-starting rapid transit.

"The city needs to focus more on civil engineering by fixing our roads and less on social engineering by telling us how to live our lives," says Adrienne Batra, the federation's Manitoba director.

"And I don't think it's sustainable in a city like Winnipeg. They're doing this all because of the goofy Kyoto Protocol. We shouldn't waste potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on a transit system that may not be used. And we have low ridership already. Why are people going to suddenly jump on the bus because it may go a bit faster? I think that's why there's so much hesitation toward it."

The ongoing hesitation, Benham argues, is largely behind Winnipeg Transit's "precipitous and ugly decline" which has seen ridership fall frighteningly during the past three decades, while the city has fallen further behind every other major Canadian city in effective transportation and route planning.

Batra and many media pundits argue that Winnipeg's rapid transit is a car.

Benham insists that reasoning doesn't work and that $20 million for buses isn't out of line. "We spend that in an instant on cars," he pointed out. "Twenty million dollars doesn't buy you one kilometre of major bridge, not even close. But when we're talking about buying 3.5 kilometres of busway and new buses to roll on it, we couldn't possibly spend that much money? That's a very penny-wise and pound-foolish approach to our transportation."

Let's listen more to Benham and less to the critics, at least while this $50 million is on the table. The city's transit future is in rapid, fuel-friendly coaches on their own routes. Those slow to ride along are missing the point, and the bus.