A possible plan for public transportation in Winkler is starting to take shape.
An open house last Tuesday at Central Station Community Centre offered an update on the Winkler transportation feasibility study.
It’s looking at the means of transportation in the city and what steps could to be taken to improve and add to the ways people are able to get around town. Public feedback has provided some valuable direction, shared Scott Toews, director of planning and infrastructure for the City of Winkler.
“We’ve received quite a bit of feedback,” said Toews, who noted the bottom line was 70 per cent of respondents indicated they would be interested in using a transportation service of some kind.
“We investigated everything from a door-to-door service or a home to hub or what people would traditionally think of would be a fixed route public transit system,” he explained.
The first round of public engagement made it clear there are many in the community who struggle to get around for work and recreation.
An on-demand transit service and a flex route service ranked high as possibilities people would like to see, while other options could include ride sharing services such as Uber or car share programs.
“We’re looking at a transportation progression strategy, so it’s helping us to develop the data a little bit further,” said Toews, who added a potential direction was starting to emerge as the best option.
“Starting with a scaled down door-to-door service would be what is recommended, and once we have an idea of ridership and the number of people and where they’re going, we can look at then progressing the public transportation system to a home to hub or eventually, if demand warrants it, looking at a fixed route service at some point in the future as well.
“Council still has to decide on what level of service they would like to provide for the city of Winkler,” Toews continued. “But what really stood out was the high percentage of people who would be interested in using a service.”
Affordability of course will also be a key issue for the city to consider, he added.
“There’s not just operating cost, but there’s also the capital cost up front, so we want to make sure we are able to have that flexible strategy that allows us to adapt what that public service ends up looking like … making sure we are able to meet the needs of the community.”
Toews anticipated their recommendations will go to council over the next few months to set their way to move forward with it.
“If the provincial and federal governments come to the table with additional funds, that can certainly help accelerate the timeline and what is implemented in Winkler.”
