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Transit History

Historical Photos of Transit in Winnipeg Event
Public Transit, in the form of horse car, first ran in Winnipeg on October 20,1882.

Fares were $0.10 cash or 15 tickets for $1.00. In the winter fares dropped to $0.05 cash per ride.

The Winnipeg Street Railway Company was founded by a young entrepreneur from Toronto named Albert William Austin.
On January 28, 1891 at 7:30pm on the Park line near Osborne and Jubilee, the first electric car was tested. They began running in regular service in the summer of 1892.

July 8, 1906 saw the introduction of Sunday service.
The last all wood electric car was built in August of 1914.
On May 1, 1918, the first gasoline powered bus operated in Winnipeg.
On June 21, 1919, forever known as Bloody Saturday, street car 596 was set on fire by strikers. The car was being run by Winnipeg Electric Railway Company staff members that were not part of the union.
On November 21, 1938, the first trolley bus ran down Sargent Ave.
From 1939 – 1945, female street car operators took over from the male operators, who had volunteered to fight in the Second World War. At the peak there were 53 women employed as drivers and maintenance workers.
In 1948, the City of Winnipeg celebrated its 75th anniversary.
From 1901 to 1950, the face of public transit changed many times, but one face that changed very little was that of Tom Flood (pictured right). For 50 years, Tom Flood worked as a motorman before finally retiring in 1950.
September 18th, 1955 was the last day street cars ran in Winnipeg.
Not to be outdone by Tom Flood, W. H. Carter worked as the Transit Commission Chairman until the tender age of 82.
In 1965, diesel buses began to replace electric coaches. When service was expanded into new areas, overhead lines were taken down and diesel buses ran those lines.
On Friday March 4, 1966, Winnipeg saw one of the worst snow storms in its history . It was the first time since 1905 that the entire transit system was completely shut down due to weather conditions.
The last Trolley coach in Winnipeg ran on October 30, 1970.
In 1971, the Transit Department of the Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg became the City owned Winnipeg Transit System.

Winnipeg Transit bought its first low floor accessible bus in 1994.
In 2005, Winnipeg Transit took possession of its 290th low floor easy access bus. The arrival of this bus means that over half of Winnipeg Transit’s fleet of buses are now easy access.