New transit station at Investors Group Field touted as means of easing gridiron gridlock

A new transit station at Investors Group Field is being touted as a means of improving traffic flow at the University of Manitoba campus on days when the football stadium is in use.

On Monday, construction workers removed the safety barriers from Stadium Station, a bus loop, ramp and pedestrian bridge on the north side of the city's football stadium.

The station and a new Southwest Transitway spur line called Bohémier Trail wil be put to use on Friday, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play their first home game of the season against the Calgary Stampeders. 

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On stadium event days, the transit spur line and station remove most of the bus traffic from University Cresent and Chancellor Matheson Road, effectively freeing up more room for motor-vehicle traffic to use the streets.

"For game day, it's going to alleviate a lot of the traffic headaches that we've got and the congestion we have on Pembina [Highway], Chancellor Matheson and Bison Drive," said Coun. Janice Lukes, whose South Winnipeg-St. Norbert ward encompasses the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus.

The Winnipeg Transit station is the latest amenity to be completed at the stadium, which opened in 2013. Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO Wade Miller said earlier this spring the station should have a noticeable effect on game-day traffic flow.

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"I'm hoping getting out will be a lot easier," said Steve  Baria, a Bomber season-ticket holder since 1993, who used to take a bus to Investors Group Field but now drives and parks nearby. 

Baria said while driving to the stadium is not onerous, the congestion following games is frustrating.

"Right now, the way they have it planned, it's a big mess," he said. "I'm just hoping it'll be a lot easier to get out after the games. The area is just not meant for 30,000 people to leave in 20 minutes, so hopefully this makes it better."

The stadium and spur line are the first finished components of the second leg of the Southwest Transitway, a bus corridor that will connect downtown to the U of M's Fort Garry campus in 2020.

The first leg of the transitway, a 3.6-kilometre bus corridor running from Queen Elizabeth Way near The Forks to Jubilee Avenue, opened in 2012 at a cost of $137 million.

Construction on the seven-kilometre second phase is underway as part of a $467-million project that also includes the widening of Pembina Highway at the Jubilee Avenue overpass.

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Winnipeg Transit plans to show off Stadium Station to media on Tuesday morning.