Mayoral candidate Loney pledges security on buses, electric vans as part of Winnipeg Transit improvements
Candidate also pledges to speed up implementation of $1.1B transportation master plan
Mayoral candidate Shaun Loney has promised to improve Winnipeg Transit by placing security officers on buses, speeding up the pace of building high-frequency transit routes and hiring a fleet of electric vans to service low-frequency areas.
Loney promised Thursday to rebrand Winnipeg Transit as "MetroMobility" and accelerate $1.1 billion worth of improvements envisioned in the city's transportation master plan.
That plan includes hundreds of millions of dollars to convert portions of the downtown CN Rail highline into a transit corridor that would connect the existing Southwest Transitway with a new high-frequency route running east from downtown to Transcona.
Loney said if he's elected mayor this fall, all the projects envisioned in the transportation plan would be completed in 10 years instead of 25 years.
He said the city could pay for this in part by selling carbon credits.
"That could be over $7 million a year at its peak, and that's another reason to move quickly," he said, adding he would also devote property tax revenue from new residential and commercial developments along high-frequency routes.
Loney also said he would accelerate the replacement of diesel buses with electric buses, even though transit buses are responsible for a small percentage of the city's greenhouse gas emissions compared to personal vehicles.
Getting people out of cars and onto buses is important, but so is electrification, he said.
"It's not just it's not an either-or. We need all of it," he said.
The candidate also pledged to purchase electric vans to increase the frequency of transit service to neighbourhoods where bus service is infrequent at the present.
He made his announcement at a bus stop in Wildwood Park, a neighbourhood in Fort Garry, where there is no transit service between the morning and afternoon rush hours.
Loney also promised to hire peace officers who would not just improve security on buses, but could also help connect people who live with addictions or mental health issues with social services.
Loney is one of 12 people registered to run for mayor in Winnipeg. The other 11 candidates are Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Scott Gillingham, Jenny Motkaluk, Glen Murray, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock.
The civic election is Oct. 26.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
