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EDITORIAL

Fixing Winnipeg Transit’s core problems

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2026/01/20/fixing-winni...

WINNIPEG Transit’s latest ridership numbers are sobering, but they should not be surprising. Between September and December 2025, average daily ridership fell by 14 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, dropping to about 178,500 from 207,224.

City officials have pointed to reduced immigration and the upheaval of a once-in-a-generation network overhaul as explanations. Both matter. But focusing too heavily on either risks missing the deeper, longer-standing problems that continue to push people off the bus in Winnipeg.

There is truth to the immigration argument. Winnipeg Transit manager of service development, Bjorn Radstrom, is right to note that international students and temporary foreign workers tend to rely on transit at higher rates than the general population.

Federal caps on international students have cut Manitoba’s allocation dramatically, and national immigration targets are lower than they were just a few years ago. Fewer newcomers inevitably means fewer transit riders, and Winnipeg is not alone in seeing ridership soften as a result. Mayor Scott Gillingham is correct that this is a national trend.

But immigration numbers do not tell the whole story, and they do not absolve the city of responsibility. Ridership was already fragile before Ottawa changed course.

Winnipeg Transit has struggled for years with problems riders know all too well: buses that do not show up on time, routes so overcrowded that drivers pass people by and schedules that cannot be relied on for something as basic as getting to work or school.

These are not abstract complaints. They are daily experiences that teach people, over and over again, that the bus is a risk.

The new primary network, launched in June 2025, was supposed to address some of those weaknesses by simplifying routes and focusing service where demand is highest. In principle, it made sense.

In practice, however, the rollout has been painful for many riders. Some trips now take significantly longer, while others require transfers that add uncertainty and inconvenience.

Evening service has been cut on certain routes, leaving students and shift workers scrambling for alternatives. City council and transit officials insist adjustments are being made each season, and that the full picture will only be clear by mid-2026. That may be true. But for riders who lost service that worked for them, patience is hard to summon.

The uncomfortable reality is that Winnipeg attempted a major transit redesign without first fixing the underlying issue that undermines everything else: chronic underfunding.

High-level routes are only attractive if buses come often enough that riders do not have to consult a timetable or worry about missing a connection. Reliability improves when spare capacity exists to absorb disruptions. None of that is possible on the cheap.

If Winnipeg truly wants to reverse the decline, it needs to make the bus a default choice again — not a last resort. That means more buses on the road, higher frequency across the network and continued investments in transit priority measures that make trips faster and more predictable.

It means acknowledging that complaints about pass-ups and unreliable schedules are not growing pains, but warning signs.

Ridership will not magically rebound with warmer weather or better marketing. It will improve when people can trust that the bus will be there, on time, and often enough to fit real lives.

Until the city and the province commit the funding required to make that happen, Winnipeg Transit’s struggles will continue — regardless of how many newcomers arrive or how elegant the network map looks on paper.