Winnipeg, MB – The City of Winnipeg remains committed to maintaining essential services while balancing the health, safety, and well-being of our employees and residents; however, the City also needs to be a responsible trustee of public funds and ensure prudent spending of taxpayers’ money. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winnipeg Transit has experienced a 72% reduction in ridership, over this same time in 2019. This has resulted in an estimated 74% reduction in revenue over the same timeframe which equals an average of approximately $6 million monthly.
To help offset these losses, Winnipeg Transit will be reducing Transit service across Winnipeg, in a phased in approach, over the next two weeks.
Effective immediately, Winnipeg Transit will no longer be offering overtime to bus operators, which means that daily service may be impacted. To date, Winnipeg Transit has been using overtime to ensure service was maintained as close to schedule as possible; however, with continual declining ridership numbers and a corresponding decline in revenue, this practice will no longer continue.
Effective Monday, May 4, 2020, Winnipeg Transit will be adjusting their weekday schedule to an “enhanced Saturday schedule.” The bus schedule for Saturdays and Sundays will not change.
The adjusted weekday schedule will include all bus routes that operate on Saturdays, plus a number of additional bus routes that do not normally run on weekends, such as express buses, and buses that serve industrial parks. In addition, Winnipeg Transit made certain that service around health care facilities was a factor during the service review, and we will continue to monitor service to hospitals for healthcare workers. Due to their location along major roadways, all hospitals are served by transit seven days a week, and in order to ensure better service for our healthcare workers, any hospital normally served by an express route on weekdays will have that additional service added to it over and above what would regularly be provided on a Saturday.
It is important to note that these additional buses will operate with less frequency than the regular weekday service. Transit passengers are encouraged to check the Winnipeg Transit website daily for schedule changes. A full-schedule of the adjusted weekday service will be displayed on the Winnipeg Transit website beginning Thursday, April 23.
This adjusted schedule requires 221 fewer buses than the regular weekday schedule.
While maintaining the regular weekday schedule to date has allowed passengers the ability to practice social distancing on buses, Winnipeg Transit expects the reduced schedule, combined with current ridership levels, will continue to allow for proper social distancing on the buses; however, this is something that will be monitored closely.
As a result of this service reduction, 229 permanent bus operators and 24 non-permanent bus operators will be temporarily laid off. Permanent bus operators will be laid off effective May 3, 2020, and non-permanent operators in training will be laid off as training programs finish on May 1 and May 22, 2020. Employees who are temporarily laid off will have access to mental health supports, and will continue to be included in communications from the City of Winnipeg. For those employees who are in receipt of regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, the City has registered a Supplementary Unemployment Benefit Plan (SUBP) with the Government of Canada. The SUBP will provide a top-up to 75% of their regular gross weekly salary, for a period of eight weeks for permanent staff and four weeks for non-permanent staff, while they are on temporary lay-off.
Winnipeg Transit will continue to monitor ridership levels, and will resume regular bus service throughout the City once it makes sense to do so. Once regular service resumes, the City will welcome all Winnipeg Transit employees back to work.
At this time, passengers are reminded to only use Winnipeg Transit for essential trips and to continue practicing social and physical distancing on the bus and at bus stops. Passengers are also encouraged to ride in off-peak hours whenever possible, keep two metres of distance between themselves and other passengers, use the rear door when exiting if they are able, and avoid using Winnipeg Transit if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms.