$138 M for busway's first phase

Winnipeg plans to spend $138 million on the first phase of a $327-million southwest bus corridor that will connect downtown with the University of Manitoba, Premier Gary Doer and Mayor Sam Katz announced Monday.

In spring 2009, the city plans to begin building a busway that will extend 3.6 kilometres from Queen Elizabeth Way to the corner of Jubilee Avenue and Pembina Highway, forming the first leg of a bus corridor that will eventually extend as far south as Bison Drive.

The busway will be designed to allow future conversion into a light-rail transit route and will also feature a bicycle path for commuters. Busway stations are planned for Harkness Street, Osborne Street, Morley Avenue and possibly Jubilee Avenue on the first leg of the route, which also requires the construction of a bridge over Osborne Street and a tunnel underneath CN Rail's Fort Rouge Yards.

The corridor is intended to stimulate the construction of high-rise apartments or condos around the busway stations and use property taxes from these new developments to help pay back the cost of the project.

The city and province each plan to spend $55 million on the first phase of the busway, with the federal government kicking in $28 million, including $17.5 million set aside for transit in Manitoba back in March.

Another $10 million in federal money will be redirected from bus purchases to the busway project, Katz said.

He said he hopes the federal government will contribute to the second phase, which could be constructed more cheaply if the city is able to negotiate the use or acquisition of CN's Letellier Line, which runs roughly parallel to Pembina Highway.

The new busway plan differs from the plan proposed by former Mayor Glen Murray in that buses will not share space with motor vehicles along most of the route, Doer said.

The premier also said the new plan features far more detail in terms of engineering and design work.

Katz, who cancelled Murray's project in 2004, said that move was necessary in order for the city to focus on recreation improvements.

The mayor promised the busway would form a precursor for a future light-rail transit system but would not predict when such a system would be built.