I solved Rapid Transit

Let's build a subway.

snicker.


There is a website devoted to that already

that sucks... it's hanging on to a really old plan.

i mean a new study for today's winnipeg.

wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run?

underground tunnelling costs a fair bit and as we seen with the new MB Hydro building there are natural obstacles to digging to deep.

While I would love to have a subway in Winnipeg, its just not that feasible

For the original Bloor line in Toronto in the 1950s, they had to expropriate more than 80 properties. Imagine doing that at today's costs in downtown Winnipeg.

And that's with the Bloor line being in a nice straight line. A line through downtown Winnipeg would likely have a few turns, say from Main Street to Portage Avenue. Trains don't turn on a dime, so you'll be expropriating a bunch of properties at the turn. And some of the older buildings downtown have basements and sub-basements that extend out under the street.

Underground tunnelling is a supreme pain in the ass, and costs more than at-grade or elevated guideways. Ask Vancouver, who spent several years prior to the Olympics, tunnelling between D/T core and Cambie Street. Was also a death knell for businesses located on the route, who lost patronage during the construction process.

stop raining on my subway parade.

either rapid transit system is a pain and expensive.

a subway that takes a long time to build is still better then an at grade system that is built faster.

dont build at grade. build on the median lanes above grade

Look what the floodway expansion, HRM and the airport contruction is doing for our economy? We could employ 1000's of skilled workers for a decade! And get a subway too.

I like this idea. Becuase it would inginte our economy HUGE. And the rest of Canada can pay for it.

that's extremely dangerous.... lrt and cars don't mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2rdGX4JYc

freepressreader wrote:that's extremely dangerous.... lrt and cars don't mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2rdGX4JYc

above grade....not at grade... ie... monorail type thing

Any historical/decommissioned rail lines through the city that could be reclaimed for LRT?

hehehehehe....

WELLLLLLLL

the CITY got first crack at them in 2006... said no to some of them... yes to others.

Was going to go after all of them, but a certain mayor killed that idea when he came into power.

We've even lost some of the old railway right-of-ways... Apparently there are no lots available for new condos in River Heights.

What a pain...
Use the railway lines for LRT.
Why do you think it's called LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT?
You don't need the heavy infrastructure to build LRT lines, just common sense doing the project and getting the population ready to use it by adapting the bus lines to coincide with the LRT routes.
Have some express bus routes become permanent during the daytime, not only during rush hour.
Start the first route in East Kildonan, where there's plenty of room for construction.
Make a survey asking people where they'd travel most, for work, leisure, school, whatever.
Study the entire railway grid in Winnipeg.
Check for the possibility to build a inner perimeter LRT. I know there's already a few stupid bus routes that go in and out of backlanes on the outskirts, and they take forever to do just one trip...

Look...it's IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of all bus lines...it's just not reasonable, cost effective, or even possible physically.

But...MAJOR routes, and MAJOR lines...which can be determined pretty easily based upon current bus & traffic volumes entering the city, can be converted to an elevated LRT which will alleviate traffic, reduce bus demands (or allow those buses to move to other routes), and NOT require major demands of expropriation or even land claims.

The beauty of elevated rail, is that it can run basically anywhere, and only requires major land area at stations...which should be located at high-volume and convenient stops around Winnipeg. Some of these could be a few downtown locations, a few perimeter stations, one at each University, one at RRC, one at the Airport, maybe a few others strategically located...but they DON'T have to be every few blocks like the buses run.

The idea is to get people OUT of their vehicles, and willing to take a transit option to get IN the city quickly, and then get them close enough to work/downtown so they can either walk the rest of the way, or take another transit option to their destination.

Heck...designed correctly, the rail cars could even have bicycle locks on the floors so when someone gets off they could ride their bike the rest of the way. Or have bicycle locking stations at each platform, they can store their bike there overnight.

And it doesn't have to ALL be built overnight. We're talking a 20-year plan here...not a "bid and build" for next year. Look at "Duff's Ditch"...how long did that take to build? How many people argue that it was bad for the city?

duffs ditch to 6 years to complete once started.

OK, so here's the plan. It solves our transit woes. It gives us more parkland. It generates more revenue for the city, without raising taxes. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Step 1: Expand the Winnipeg Floodway. Done.

Step 2: Redirect the entire Red River through the Winnipeg floodway. Do the same with the Seine. Redirect the Assiniboine River up the Portage Diversion. This will leave the city with lots of valuable new land, with a scenic little creek - from any creeks that emptied into the Assiniboine River east of the Portage Diversion.

Step 3: Create rapid mass transit routes north, south, west, and southeast from downtown, along the newly reclaimed land. Bicycle paths too. The routes will meander a bit, but that'll allow them to cover more of the city. The main roads will already have bridges over the new routes, so a BRT or LRT - and bicycle paths - are kept separate from automobile traffic.

Step 4: Create parks along residential areas. Where needed, create water retention ponds to prevent flooding in rainstorms. Homes that had high taxes for being riverfront property will instead have high taxes for being beside parks, ponds and decent transit routes.

Step 5: Create a green space at The Forks. There *was* a green space at The Forks for a few years - it's been paved over in recent years. Maybe this one will stay.

Step 6: Sell the remaining land for commercial use. We'll get a lot of money for it when we sell it, especially downtown. We'll get continuing revenue when we tax it.

Step 7: Allow development along the floodway/river diversion. Plant lots of trees. It's now river-front property; it's valuable. Again, we'll get a lot of money for it when we sell it and continuing revenue when we tax it.

Step 8: Allow the riverboats to cruise the floodway/river diversion. Or, they can be kept in place downtown when the river is drained, and turned in semi-classy restaurants.

Step 9: Stop spending a fortune on new bridges.

Step 10: Have the person who wrote this locked up for his own good.

Deank wrote:duffs ditch to 6 years to complete once started.

Thanks for that info (didn't feel like looking it up)

But in 6-years there could EASILY be 1/2 a dozen stations and say 50km of rail erected. And it can be expanded over the next 10-15 years as required/demand comes forward.

Instead of people searching for things about Winnipeg and finding information about crime, potholes and mosquitoes, they should be hearing about the expansion and growth, and FORWARD-thinking of the legislation at trying to make Winnipeg a GO-TO place.

But it could also offset costs for building/expansion by making new business which may want a station nearby, to help pay for the building of that station...like IKEA coming...is helping with costs of infrastructure...they could pay to have a station in that area, or the business park nearby could do the same.

AGEsAces wrote:
Instead of people searching for things about Winnipeg and finding information about crime, potholes and mosquitoes, they should be hearing about the expansion and growth, and FORWARD-thinking of the legislation at trying to make Winnipeg a GO-TO place.

Fully agreed. However, if you want out-of-towners to start thinking differently of the city, the change must come from within Winnipeggers first and foremost, because if they don't believe in their city and see it in a progressive light, then no one will.

There is still very strong mentality with Winnipeggers of the lines of "we are too small, too poor, not good/strong enough, blah blah blah, etc." that really holds the city back from developing into a true, larger city. For years, IMO, civic and provincial politicians have been brainwashing Winnipeggers with this nonsense, and somehow too many of them fell for it. So several generations grew up with this notion and had relatively low expectations for the city, which is why you have the city you have today and have so many people with such a cynical and self-loathing humorous attitude towards the city (this thread is an example of that attitude). I know of no other city that has such low expectations of itself, and it's quite frustrating to deal with. When people start to see the true potential the city has, then things with change. Otherwise, the below-par status quo will continue to dominate.

EdWin wrote:

AGEsAces wrote:
Instead of people searching for things about Winnipeg and finding information about crime, potholes and mosquitoes, they should be hearing about the expansion and growth, and FORWARD-thinking of the legislation at trying to make Winnipeg a GO-TO place.

Fully agreed. However, if you want out-of-towners to start thinking differently of the city, the change must come from within Winnipeggers first and foremost, because if they don't believe in their city and see it in a progressive light, then no one will.

There is still very strong mentality with Winnipeggers of the lines of "we are too small, too poor, not good/strong enough, blah blah blah, etc." that really holds the city back from developing into a true, larger city. For years, IMO, civic and provincial politicians have been brainwashing Winnipeggers with this nonsense, and somehow too many of them fell for it. So several generations grew up with this notion and had relatively low expectations for the city, which is why you have the city you have today and have so many people with such a cynical and self-loathing humorous attitude towards the city (this thread is an example of that attitude). I know of no other city that has such low expectations of itself, and it's quite frustrating to deal with. When people start to see the true potential the city has, then things with change. Otherwise, the below-par status quo will continue to dominate.

Amen.

You're bang on. After we agreed to move to Winnipeg in the spring, a large amount of the negativity we faced about the move to Winnipeg was from Winnipeggers themselves. Idiots from BC/ON come up with the same crap over and over again "Winnipeg? Who moves there? It's freezing cold and has giant mosquitos." They don't have any other information, input or information. That's all they cough up. Winnipegers, however come up with the most self defeating, brow beating, horrible reasons why Winnipeg sucks.

but its only ever other year that its freezing cold and giant skeeters at the same time so its all good

Deank wrote:but its only ever other year that its freezing cold and giant skeeters at the same time so its all good

But do you think that if this is what Winnipeg is mostly known for, and nothing more, that this is a good thing and are the only things that the city has to offer? Is that what you want to have this city mostly known for? I'm asking people like YOU because you are a citizen of that city, and I'm wondering what you want YOUR city to be known for. Is this YOUR highest expectation of the city?

I have absolutely no problem having people know that we are the MOST awesome winter city on the planet and that our summers make us the most awesome festival city on the planet

But we need more. The HRM aint gonna cut it. We need to capitalize on our artists, we have some of the worlds best here. We need to make our exchange/ downtown into an entertainment disctrict. Not just meaning the stuff like bars open longer hours, but gallery after gallery of painting, sculpting, solo singers, bands, poetry areas, ALL connected in someway so that you could spend hours or DAYS wandering around and not see everything. We have the people, we have the area, we just need to make it happen.

While I realize that not everything in Winnipeg is going to be sunshine, sparkles and unicorn farts, I'm enchanted with so many great things that the city has to offer.
It is overflowing with culture, a thriving arts community, great cuisine, history every way you turn and friendly people. Vancouver might be a pretty city with a decent climate, but the people are a$$holes, the culture is nil, it's boring if you're not rich, and it doesn't cherish history at all. I'm looking forward to being a cheerleader for Winnipeg, not a detractor. If more of the home-grown folks were, the reputation would be a little bit more positive.

That said, I know a good many arts/t.v/journalism people here in BC that are starting to migrate to Winnipeg because the secret is out: Winnipeg fosters incredible talent, has a decent cost of living, and is a very scalable place. There are three other families that I'm knit in with out here that are considering making the mecca in the next year or so.