Post by Ducky on Jan 24, 2005 7:48:34 GMT -5
Transit plan given nod
WinSmart project a laboratory for future
By Staff
City hall gave a green light last week to the WinSmart plan -- eighteen projects designed to improve transportation in Winnipeg while being friendly to the environment. Among the projects will be two diesel-electric hybrid buses, park-and-ride sites and electronic displays with real-time updates for Winnipeg Transit arrivals and departures on a route part-way down Pembina Highway from downtown.
'SHOWCASE INNOVATIVE IDEAS'
"The best news is that we're getting almost $4 million in new federal money into our system for this," Coun. Gord Steeves (St. Vital) said after Mayor Sam Katz's executive policy committee approved the plan.
The total cost will be about $11 million and be shared equally by the city, the province and Ottawa. It is expected to get underway by 2007.
Barry Prentice, director of the University of Manitoba Transport Institute, said it might become a model of innovative urban transit.
"Here's a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set up not a program that will solve all the transportation problems of Winnipeg, but to showcase innovative ideas," said Prentice. "And if they work, they could be expanded here and elsewhere."
The projects, which will be run under Transport Canada's Urban Transportation Showcase Program, will see the Pembina corridor become a "laboratory" to determine what works and what doesn't, Prentice said.
More than $3.5 million will be spent to launch real-time bus tracking, and $2.5 million will go into a new eco-fuelling station that offers biodiesel and ethanol. A million bucks will upgrade a riverbank path from Churchill Drive to the Norwood Bridge.
WinSmart project a laboratory for future
By Staff
City hall gave a green light last week to the WinSmart plan -- eighteen projects designed to improve transportation in Winnipeg while being friendly to the environment. Among the projects will be two diesel-electric hybrid buses, park-and-ride sites and electronic displays with real-time updates for Winnipeg Transit arrivals and departures on a route part-way down Pembina Highway from downtown.
'SHOWCASE INNOVATIVE IDEAS'
"The best news is that we're getting almost $4 million in new federal money into our system for this," Coun. Gord Steeves (St. Vital) said after Mayor Sam Katz's executive policy committee approved the plan.
The total cost will be about $11 million and be shared equally by the city, the province and Ottawa. It is expected to get underway by 2007.
Barry Prentice, director of the University of Manitoba Transport Institute, said it might become a model of innovative urban transit.
"Here's a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set up not a program that will solve all the transportation problems of Winnipeg, but to showcase innovative ideas," said Prentice. "And if they work, they could be expanded here and elsewhere."
The projects, which will be run under Transport Canada's Urban Transportation Showcase Program, will see the Pembina corridor become a "laboratory" to determine what works and what doesn't, Prentice said.
More than $3.5 million will be spent to launch real-time bus tracking, and $2.5 million will go into a new eco-fuelling station that offers biodiesel and ethanol. A million bucks will upgrade a riverbank path from Churchill Drive to the Norwood Bridge.