Routes
As of April 2012, Winnipeg Transit operates 94 routes. Of these, 29 are labelled either as express routes or park-and-ride, 13 are RT (Rapid Transit) routes running on the Southwest Transitway, 28 are regular routes connecting the city centre with the suburbs, 20 are suburban routes, 5 are crosstown routes, 4 are Downtown Spirit/Osborne Village Connector routes, and 4 are dial-a-ride transit (DART) routes.
Most routes serving downtown have an official route name as well as number, and are usually named based upon their main streets they travel on. (The exceptions are the Routes 53 and 56, which connect downtown with the northern section of St. Boniface). Some routes travel in two directions from downtown, each direction carrying the same number but different signage. Some routes' ultimate destinations also vary from trip to trip, and carry secondary signage to designate the specific sub-route. For instance, the route 16 Osborne (southbound) may have one of five different ultimate destinations depending on the time of day, day of the week, and intended route: two of these destinations (St. Vital Centre and Kingston Row) are in St. Vital, two (Southdale Centre and Island Lakes) are in St. Boniface, and one (Plaza Drive) is in Fort Garry.
Rapid Transit routes are numbered in the 100 series, with the exception of routes 64,65,66 which do not operate on the entire busway. Most routes operate to Downtown at the Balmoral Station, while some operate to a terminal at York and Memorial or Osborne Village. Some RT routes are express routes after they exit the Southwest Transitway when travelling outbound, while others operate as regular routes.
Express routes also have official route names and connect downtown with either the suburbs or the industrial areas. Suburban express routes normally operate inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon, weekdays only, while routes connecting downtown with industrial areas operate as required.
Suburban routes do not enter the downtown core. They are scheduled according to customer demand; some only run during rush hour, while some run whenever transit is operating.
The three "Downtown Spirit" routes use smaller accessible buses and serve the city centre. Two connect Main Street, Broadway, the Exchange District, and The Forks, one running clockwise, the other counter-clockwise; the other connects the University of Winnipeg with the Graham Transit Mall and City Hall.
Many routes that do not have official names still may display signage. The Route 53 bus has no official name but buses on the route use the signage "Norwood".
The DART routes serve communities in south Winnipeg. Three DART routes replace regular transit service to neighbourhoods (Riel/Plaza Drive, St. Norbert, and Southdale/Island Lakes) during times when demand for transit service is insufficient to justify running a regular bus route, while one DART route provides daytime service to residents of the northern section of St. Boniface.
Winnipeg Transit operates accessible buses on most routes. Non-accessible buses are commonly used only during peak hours or on major routes that end at the University of Manitoba (Routes 60 and 75, especially).
Read more about this topic: Winnipeg Transit
Famous quotes containing the word routes:
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)