Winnipeg Transit
Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency, and the bus-service provider, of the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Established years ago, it is owned by the city government and currently employs nearly 1,600 people—including approximately 1,100 bus drivers.
Operating 640 low-floor easy-access buses to more than 5,000 bus stops within the city limits, Winnipeg Transit carries almost 170,000 passengers on an average weekday. Moreover, according to the 2016 Census, public transit was the main mode of commuting for 13.6% of the Winnipeg census metropolitan area.
History (1882–1971)
1882–1894: Winnipeg Street Railway Company
The first attempt to provide public transportation in Winnipeg would, evidently, be premature. On 19 July 1877, a horse-drawn omnibus operated between the Old Customs Building at Main Street & McDermot and Point Douglas. This was only a single-day attempt and turned out to be a failure.Four years later, Toronto businessman Albert William Austin recognized the need for public transit in the rapidly growing city of Winnipeg, and incorporated the Winnipeg Street Railway Company. Soon after, upon prodding the begrudged City Council, Austin was able to establish the WSR on 27 May 1882, under an agreement that required one mile of track to be laid within 6 months.
The first horsecar made a trial run on October 20, 1882, and regular public service began the next day with four cars. The first route ran along Main Street, from City Hall to Fort Garry. The next year, the service was extended to run a track along Portage Avenue, and the first car ran along the new tracks to Kennedy Street on November 11.
Located on Assiniboine Avenue between Main Street and Fort Street, the company's stable had shelter for the horses, though the cars had to stay out on the rails. Fares were CA$0.10 cash per ride—or 15 tickets for $1.00.
The WSR experimented with electric cars in 1891. On January 28 that year, at 7:30 pm, the city's first electric car was tested. Although no official announcement was made, a crowd gathered to watch the car depart from the end of the Main Street Bridge, round the corner of River Avenue, turn onto Osborne Street, loop back near the Jubilee Avenue intersection, and return to the Bridge. The car began regular service on River Avenue the next morning.
The electric experiment was a clear success. During summer of 1891 the WSR applied for permission to electrify the horsecar railway and run cars over the Main Street Bridge. Winnipeg City Council denied this request, proposing the WSR to rebuild the Bridge which Austin refused.
1892-1904: Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company
Negotiations between WSR and City Council continued over summer until a competing bid by George H. Campbell was proposed to council in September 1891. City Council issued notice it would hear bids for the construction and operation of an electric railway on November 12. Austin, believing the council would consider the numerous previous proposals put forth by the WSR, did not appear to make a bid; thus the City accepted Campbell's proposal as it was the only formal bid made. On 1 February 1892, Austin's competitors and well-known railway contractors, William Mackenzie and James Ross of Montreal, received the exclusive right to operate electric street car service in Winnipeg. That year, on July 26, Mackenzie and Ross ran the city's first electric street car on Main Street, thereby establishing the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company. Passengers on that first trip included Mayor Hugh John Macdonald and the City Council, among others.The width of Winnipeg's main streets allowed both companies to operate simultaneously.
Hurting WSR even more was a disastrous fire in 1893, in which the Company lost 68 horses. In court, Austin tried to fight for exclusive rights for street railways, going all the way to the Privy Council in London. In 1894, after losing his case, he sold almost all of the company's assets to the WESR for $175,000, and the two companies agreed to amalgamate on April 28.
Horsecar operations ended the next day, except for the Kennedy Street line, which City Council required to operate for another 6 weeks. Austin additionally kept the Elm Park horsecar line to operate as a private venture; his company had opened the Park in the 1890s to drum up business on the line during off-peak times. With the ending of a price war between the two companies, fares doubled, from 50 up to 25 tickets for $1.00, or $0.05 cash.
The WESR continued to expand its lines, its inventory of rolling stock, and its car barns. It bought the Manitoba Electric & Gas Light Company for $400,000 in 1898, and changed line voltage from 250 to the standard 550 volts the following year.
1904–24: Winnipeg Electric Railway Company
The Winnipeg General Power Company was incorporated by officers of the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company in 1902. The two companies amalgamated in 1904, adopting a new name for the combined organization: Winnipeg Electric Railway Company, and now controlled all street railway, electric power, and gas utilities in the city.Incorporated on 1 March 1902, the Suburban Rapid Transit Company operated west of Winnipeg along Portage Avenue, inaugurating a line as far as Charleswood in 1903, and extending to 'Lot 112 St. Charles' in October 1904. Initially leasing cars and buying power from the WESR, the company was bought up by the amalgamated WER in 1905, which finished expansion of its line to the village of Headingley by the end of the year.
The Winnipeg, Selkirk & Lake Winnipeg Railway, an interurban electric transit company incorporated in 1900, operated cars from the WESR's Main Street terminal to the Town of Selkirk, with a later spur line from West St Paul to Stonewall. In 1906, its stock was bought by the WESR, although it continued to operate as an independent company.
Also in 1906, a hydroelectric plant was completed in Pinawa, Manitoba, and streetcars started operating on Sundays, following a June 28 plebiscite with 2,891 for and 1,647 against the 'Sunday streetcar' bylaw.
The Company did well during the economic boom of the early 1900s, and built a new headquarters in the eleven-storey Electric Railway Chambers building at Notre Dame Avenue and Albert Street in 1911–1913. The Company occupied the basement and the first two floors and leased out the remaining space to other tenants.
In 1914, the Public Utilities Commission ordered the WER to start collecting fares on a pay-as-you-enter system, which required some rebuilding of cars. PAYE was implemented beginning on 27 May 1914. From 1914 to 1915, the WER would start to experience competition from jitneys, privately owned taxi cabs. The financial pressures of this competition, tensions with the Public Utilities Commission about route planning, complaints regarding the poor state of rolling stock all led to a crisis in 1918. Negotiations with the city led to a repealing of the jitney bylaw, some route changes, a program of rebuilding old trolley cars, and the first appearance of motor buses in Winnipeg.
On 1 May 1918, Winnipeg saw its first gasoline-powered bus in operation.
The company was also affected by the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. On June 21, or "Bloody Saturday," strikers set on-fire Streetcar 596, which was run by non-union WER staff members.
A terrible explosion and fire at the Main Street car barn on April 7, 1920, after which some replacement rolling stock was bought from the Twin City Rapid Transit Company of Minneapolis.
The Winnipeg Electric Railway Co. took out a full-page ad in September 1920, titled "That The Public May Know The Facts", to state the company's side of being forced by the Public Utilities Commission and the City of Winnipeg to remove their tracks in the north city-limits area.
In 1921 it also bought some Birney Safety Cars from Preston Car & Coach, which would start service in 1923 after delays caused by controversy over the safety of the one-man cars. Increasing competition with the automobile and the post-war economic slump led to the company rebuilding the rest of its own fleet as one-man cars.
1924–53: Winnipeg Electric Company
On March 13, 1924, the Manitoba Legislature passed a Bill changing the company's name to the Winnipeg Electric Company, enlarging the company's power, and increasing its number of board members from 9 to 12. The new title came into effect on April 5, 1924, followed an industry trend of removing the word "railroad" to emphasize other profitable aspects of a company in the face of declining rail traffic and reduced returns on investments.On 21 November 1938, WECo started the first modern trolleybus service in Western Canada, on Winnipeg's Sargent Avenue, using 6 vehicles on a route. The trolleybus fleet and system were expanded during and after World War II, reaching a peak of 162 vehicles and 70 route miles from 1956 to 1959.
Between 1939 and 1945, as many male transit employees had volunteered to fight in the Second World War, WECo trained and hired female streetcar operators and mechanics. At the peak, there were 53 women employed as drivers and maintenance workers for public transit. They worked under the same union agreement, conditions, and wages as their male counterparts.
In January 1940, William Carter was named the new President of WECo.
During the summer of 1948, a Public Utility Board inquiry took place questioning the depreciation costs claimed by WECo. and its predecessors on streetcar equipment. This led to a difference of $495,000, part of which WECo. overclaimed $363,504, overestimated $30,000 for snow removal costs, and didn't include a $99,000 "saving" on conversion to trolleybuses.
The River Avenue bus route was extended and its name changed to Crescent in October 1949 after a six-month battle over the routing.