Winnipeg Transit driver shortage hampering plans to expand service

People living in neighbourhoods on Winnipeg's outskirts could have a long wait for a bus as an ongoing shortage of drivers hampers efforts to expand the service.

Three reports heading to the public works committee next week outline proposed new bus routes in four areas: the Castlebury Meadows and Waterford Green neighbourhoods in northwest Winnipeg, Aurora neighbourhood in the north, and Prairie Pointe neighbourhood Waverley West.

"Due to current challenges with the recruitment of bus operators, the public service advises that this service not be introduced until at least September of 2024," Bjorn Radstrom, manager of transit service development, wrote in one of the reports.

He advised that "Winnipeg Transit undertake a reassessment in the spring of 2024 as to whether it is feasible to introduce the service that year based on bus operator recruitment."

One report proposes a new route connecting the Castlebury Meadows and Waterford Green neigbhourhoods to the Garden City Shopping Centre.

The report notes when the Castlebury Meadows neighbourhood was built, the developer chose not to include an internal network of collector streets, which limits transit service to adjacent streets on the periphery of the community until a new north-south connection from Hillbrook Drive to Jefferson Avenue is constructed.

The proposed route would run down King Edward Street, which divides Castlebury Meadows from Waterford Green. 

Buses require collector streets, which are built wider, with thicker pavement than local residential streets, Radstrom said in an interview.

"It's not that common that a neighborhood would have no collectors at all. [Castlebury Meadows] might be unique," he said.

In the developing Aurora neighbourhood, the nearest transit service would require a two-kilometre walk, one report notes. This area would need a new feeder route connecting to Main Street, McPhillips Street and Garden City Shopping Centre.

Prairie Pointe currently has service from two routes, 671 Dalhousie and 672 Killarney, but they don't extend fully within the neighbourhood.

One report proposes cancelling Route 693 Waverley Heights and replacing it with Route 678 Markham Station, which would cover new areas that don't have service and cover most of the areas serviced by Route 693.

All of these are areas that have been developed for quite some time, and councillors representing them had asked that transit extend service ahead of the implementation of the city's Transit Master Plan, expected to begin late next year, Radstrom said.

Councillor 'optimistic' about expansion

Old Kildonan Coun. Devi Sharma is one of the councillors who asked for the reports. 

"These neighborhoods have grown tremendously. They're fully built out and the folks living there … they desire transit," she said in an interview.

Despite the lack of drivers, Sharma is "optimistic" service can be implemented by next fall.

In May, Winnipeg Transit director Greg Ewankiw told the public works committee that the service was short about 50 drivers, out of a full compliment of 1,100. 

That is with the service running at six per cent below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. If service were increased to three per cent below pre-pandemic levels, that shortage would increase to about 80 drivers.

"So to expand service when we already have a shortage would be, obviously, not a great idea," Radstrom said.

Transit has streamlined parts of its hiring process, taking in applications, doing interviews and testing in a single day.

The expanded service would require transit to hire 16.75 full-time equivalent staff, including bus operators, maintenance workers and supervisors. 

"Even now, we're not saying for sure that fall of 2024 we could actually implement [the new routes]," Radstrom said.

"We have to reassess and if our recruitment is going well and we've been able to hire enough drivers and retain enough existing drivers, then we could."