Rail relocation Winnipeg
 

Kinew has come out in favor of possibly relocating the McPhillips rail yards if it can be done over several decades due to the province's fiscal restraints. I am not sure if it means they would be relocated to Saint Norbert? As I believe that was what was proposed in Jean Charest's report back in 2016. My memory is fuzzy on that though I could be wrong.

If that ever happened, could the old rail infrastructure be used for an RT line?

Absolutely. I have read people on here and elsewhere in the past be against this but using already existing rail lines for RT has been done in other places. It could be done here also.

The Pacific Railway building would be one hell of a stop!

I think that insofar as the routing makes sense, we could use it. If not, we can supplement in areas that don't already have ROWs.

In my mind, the existing ROWs make more sense for commuter rail to get from outer areas into downtown. Actual transit to the areas that are already built up would require fresh infrastructure in established neighbourhoods.

I think there is a spur which almost reaches the airport. So, theoretically there could be a light rail line from the airport to the Exchange District.

Absolutely, could easily do that one. If motivated enough could even get it to union with a bit of creativity.

Obviously a very crude overview, but why couldn't we make something like this work. We need to relocate the old rail, we need TOD, and we need LRT. Get some federal money and kill three birds with one stone.

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Convert the SW rapid transit corridor into LRT with the above and we have a functioning rail system. One could only dream.

LRT will be much better for sleeping for the deadbeats, smoother ride and less jarring stops! LRT stations also make good injection and dealing sites!

What could go wrong

Complaint 1. Transit cops
Complaint 2. Turnstiles

You will literally anything to bitch about eh? Good or ill.

I mean those don’t fix the issue, just spend 5 minutes looking up wild videos from the New York subway and from the Toronto subway. That said, does it make any of those issues worse? No

Man if that's the defeatist attitude that prevails, why do anything? Any infrastructure developments will just be claimed by vagrants, why bother trying to do anything for this city? This is the attitude that's led to Winnipeg's stagnation for the past...forever.

Do not mistake my comment for defeatism. I’m simply pointing out that turnstiles and transit cops aren’t some magic solve all.

They serve a purpose but we shouldn’t pretend that they will solve the problem.

But if we wanna be defeatist, I’m getting real sick and tired of the inability of this city to get basics done. I would love to see some pride and motivation in the people to make this place better. I am maybe the least defeatist person about this city, but most defeatist about people’s shitty attitudes and the complete lack of political will and leadership here. Absolute dog shit.

Anyways, I don’t mind turnstiles at all. I would love to have a proper fare-controlled system like a real city. Probably too much to ask

Could you translate this into English!

Those would be common sense solutions. Sadly things like transit cops and turnstiles are considered as targeting certain minorities. I posted a video a while back from Edmonton about this very issue. Turnstiles are viewed as trying to keep certain racial minorities out according to certain politicans and activists.

I also posted a link where local politican here in WInnipeg also called putting cops on transit as racist or racially insensitive as it could trigger certain "traumatized minorities".....This is what we're dealing with. rrskylar has a very real and legitimate point.

Not necessarily. Relocating the rail yard wouldn't mean that every rail line that serves it would relocate too. Keep in mind that a number of businesses inside the city rely on direct rail connections to bring in or ship out goods.

Tu te plaints sans arrête. C'est extrêmement ennuyant, particulièrement quand tu trouves puis utilises comme une insulte de petites erreurs typographiques comme un enfant.

:)

I don't think anyone is against using old rail lines as LRT. It's using existing rail lines that currently have freight running as LRT lines. That does not work. Using existing freight lines is more suited for commuter rail, which we don't have here.

Overall, the phased approach mentioned by the Premier is what would be the most likely to happen. This will not be a wave of the magic wand and POOF all rail lines are gone. It will take decades to get done.

But let's temper our expectations here. The Premier is talking about potentially studying rail relocation. It will be a decade before anything would actually happen. This is very complicated, involved all levels of government, private industry and the public.

I am all for it as this is my job and will give me work for the rest of my career lol I'm currently working on rail relocation in another jurisdiction, which is much simpler and way smaller scope than what Winnipeg would be. And let's just say, it's very challenging to get all stakeholders together to even discuss the topic.

And to get on specifics, the main track would be the last thing to go. So we would still be seeing all the heavy freight traffic run through the City for numerous decades. Referring to New Irelands sketches with the red lines all being on the main tracks. If Winnipeg wanted to pursue LRT, it would be much easier/quicker to use new corridors or rail adjacent corridors. As opposed to using the actual "old" rail corridors at this stage. I say easier/quicker with tongue in cheek, as we know that is not quick at all haha

If, IF, the railways ever agreed to move, the yards would need to be built first. There would still need to be industrial spurs going to the various industries in the City that have rail service. There are regulatory requirements for rail service. Etc, Etc. It's very complex. Not just build track and move, done.