Call it Extreme Makeover: Thompson Transit Edition.
It's a complete overhaul for the city's bus system - new routes are coming into effect Dec. 13, while the two buses the city purchased earlier in the year from New Flyer Industries in Winnipeg have finally arrived in town.
"The goal here is to cover as much of the city as we can with two buses," explains city manager Randy Patrick.
The old system ran two half-hour routes around the city - both hitting all the main public and commercial areas, but one heading down more residential streets in the western half of the city and one traveling the residential areas of the eastern half. The new schedule retains the half-hour routes, but redistributes the stops between the two routes.
Route 1, for example, sets out from the Thompson Plaza at the top and bottom of every hour (Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.). From there, it heads over to City Centre Mall before making its way around Eastwood North, then down Princeton Drive, turning onto Thompson Drive past Heritage North Museum. The bus then proceeds by the hospital and squeaks by Juniper Elementary School, turning left on Cree Road and returning to Thompson Drive. The Goldeye Crescent-Arctic Drive-Westwood Drive corridor is as far as this route ventures into Westwood, after which it heads past R.D. Parker Collegiate, down Nickel Road with a loop onto Copper Road, and using Selkirk Avenue to return to the plaza, completing its route.
Route 2 also leaves the plaza on the hour and half-hour, but heads out in the opposite direction, breezing past the RCMP detachment, using Cree Road to get out to Thompson Drive, and passing R.D. Parker within five minutes of leaving the plaza. The route then travels up and down Westwood Drive, coming back out by the Westwood Mall, taking Goldeye Crescent to Arctic Drive, and passing Burntwood Elementary School. The bus takes Arctic until the very end, then uses Campbell Drive to get out to Weir Road and past the Norplex Pool, down Oak Street with a brief detour past the Maple Street bus shelter and out to Thompson Drive, past the hospital, then quickly down Princeton Drive to Waterloo Avenue, linking up with City Centre Mall and returning to the plaza.
Public consultations were held with transit riders to determine ideal routes, and Patrick notes that public feedback did influence the final decisions - for example, some feedback complained about Juniper School being left without bus access. "It used to go straight down past the hospital," Patrick says of Route 1. "Now there's a little jot there, and it comes back out on Cree - that was because of the comments from citizens."
Also important to the process, says Patrick, was input from the bus drivers themselves, as they see which parts of the route are being used and which are not, as well as a consultation with a transit administrator from Brandon, who went out on the route with city officials and offered feedback.
"Our biggest users are in Eastwood," explains Patrick. "They use it the most. We're over there four times an hour now. Other parts still get about the same service, but that part of the city gets much better service."
There are some parts of the city that have lost their bus service altogether, including the Wuskwatim Bay-Wekusko Street corridor, Deerwood Drive, Ospwagon Drive down to Elder Avenue, and the City Hall/Provincial Building area of Mystery Lake Road. City officials say that the new routes are flexible, and that a reassessment will be done in six months to see if further changes are warranted.
The new buses, which were purchased by the city in March from Winnipeg-based New Flyer Industries at a cost of $845,136, have also rolled into town. Coun. Brad Evenson - who chairs the city's public works committee, which oversees transit - says that the new buses provide a wide range of accessibility and service improvements.
These improvements include an automated wheelchair ramp at the front doors of the bus, LED signs on the front and side of the buses which can display customized messages, advertising space on the side of the buses which could be sold to earn the city revenue, and video cameras inside the buses. Evenson notes that the cameras are for the "protection of the drivers, and protection of our users as well."
Other features of the new buses include wheelchair accessibility, bicycle racks, pushable stop buttons, and a hand-wave door in the middle of the bus. The buses are expected to have a 20-year lifespan.
Operating the buses will be the responsibility of Greyhound Canada, who were accepted in September as the sole bidder on the city's transit business.
