ManitobaAfter Winnipeg Transit’s route overhaul led it to cancel its charter services to school divisions, some divisions have hired private charters to replace the routes, while students in others must find alternative means of transportation. Motion to extend Winnipeg Transit transfer times passes 1st hurdle at city hallCameron MacLean · CBC News · Posted: Sep 04, 2025 6:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoStudents at Pembina Trails Collegiate waited for the bus after the end of classes on Wednesday. Winnipeg Transit previously provided a charter service to the school, but that ended with the switch to the new network earlier this summer. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)For some Winnipeg students, this school year includes a crash course on riding the bus.The recent overhaul of Winnipeg Transit’s network led to it cancelling its charter services to school divisions. Some divisions have hired private charters to replace the routes, while in others, students must find alternative means of transportation. At the end of Wednesday, the first day of classes at most Manitoba schools, Grade 10 Pembina Trails Collegiate student Meira Lais was among the students waiting to catch the bus.Last year, Lais took a charter to school. This year, she’s riding on the regular routes. “Taking the regular bus, it’s more unpredictable,” she told CBC.Winnipeg Transit previously provided 28 charters to school divisions, meant to fill in gaps where schools did not have a nearby bus route.One of the goals of the new primary network Winnipeg Transit launched on June 29 is increasing frequency on routes, which meant it needed the charter buses back, Transit says.The charter bus that brought Lais to school “always came at the same time, to the same place,” she said.Grade 10 Pembina Trails Collegiate student Meira Lais was among the students waiting to catch the bus on Wednesday, after an overhaul of Winnipeg Transit routes meant some school charter buses were cancelled. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)That charter also came to a stop near her house. Lais now has a longer walk to get to the bus, and her trip involves two buses. She sometimes misses her transfer, she said.Meanwhile, Uliana Kupriianova, a Grade 10 Pembina Trails Collegiate who has taken the regular bus for two years, says the new network makes her journey easier.”The stops are closer to the school, they’re closer to my house, and it takes less time to get from one point to another,” she said.Some divisions hiring private chartersA spokesperson for Winnipeg Transit said its new network was designed to serve everyone and provides service to schools without the need for charters.Previously, Transit worked with divisions to ensure service where regular routes “did not serve schools sufficiently,” communications officer Megan Benedictson wrote in an email.That meant “multiple different forms of school charters (or in the case of many schools, no school charters at all),” she said.Pembina Trails School Division previously had four charter buses, including two shuttling students from Linden Woods to Shaftesbury High School.It also had a charter for students travelling from Linden Woods to Oak Park High School, and from Prairie Pointe and Waverley West to Pembina Trails Collegiate.Winnipeg Transit says its new network is designed to serve everyone and provides service to schools without the need for charters. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)Assistant superintendent Troy Scott says the new network added a route that closely matched the charter for Pembina Trails Collegiate, but it hired private charters to continue the service for Shaftesbury and Oak Park.”With the new Transit network, if you wanted to take a bus from Linden Woods to Shaftesbury or Oak Park, it required three buses — two transfers,” he said.Students will be able to ride the charter bus by purchasing a regular monthly bus pass from Winnipeg Transit.Seven Oaks School Division had five charter routes under the old Transit network. It’s replaced those with eight private charters, expected to carry about 400 students to class from the Maples, Garden City and West Kildonan neighbourhoods. Students will pay a subsidized fee of $846, which superintendent Tony Kreml said is a slight increase from the previous cost.The decision came after consultations with parents, Kreml said.”Safety, and their children getting on a Transit bus, was something that they were having a difficult time with,” he said.Louis Riel School Division began assessing potential service gaps that could affect student access to public transportation after the release of the fall schedule in August, assistant superintendent Jeff Anderson wrote in an email to parents.The division found that students living in the Bonavista and Island Lakes neighbourhoods, particularly those attending J.H. Bruns Collegiate and College Beliveau, could face challenges. Other gaps are expected to become apparent later in the school year, the division said.It’s asking parents to fill out a survey, which will be shared with Transit officials in hopes of making changes to the system over the long term.In the meantime, start times may be adjusted at some schools, and some neighbourhoods may get added bus school bus service on a paid basis.Winnipeg School Division and River East Transcona School Division are not providing private charters to any schools at this time.CBC News has also reached out to St. James-Assiniboia School Division for comment. Transfer ticket extension motion passesMeanwhile, after complaints about bus transfers expiring under the new system, a motion to extend the length of transfers passed its first hurdle at city hall Thursday.The Riel Community Committee unanimously approved the motion from St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes, which he said came after a constituent reached out to say he regularly ran out of time on his bus transfer when taking trips to some outlying areas of the city.Transfers are valid for up to 75 minutes after the time of purchase. Mayes’s motion calls for Winnipeg Transit to consider extending the time of transfer tickets to 90 minutes.The motion still needs to be approved by city council.ABOUT THE AUTHORCameron MacLean is a journalist for CBC Manitoba living in Winnipeg, where he was born and raised. He has more than a decade of experience reporting in the city and across Manitoba, covering a wide range of topics, including courts, politics, housing, arts, health and breaking news. Email story tips to cameron.maclean@cbc.ca.
Winnipeg students finding alternative routes to school after end of charter services
