Winnipeg students return to school amid charter bus changes

Students in Winnipeg returned to school on Wednesday, marking the first day of the year without the support of charter buses. The changes follow Winnipeg Transit’s decision last spring to cancel school charter routes as part of a broader revamp of the city’s system.

Despite the shift, one school division said it managed to minimize the impact on families and is hopeful it can still work with the city.

“We would be taking them over for one year, to give transit time to be able to address this gap that we had identified in transportation,” said Troy Scott, assistant superintendent of personnel, equity and education services with the Pembina Trails School Division.

“We learned that there would be no special charters for the 25/26 school year and that in order to get from Linden Woods to Shaftesbury (High School) and (École Secondaire) Oak Park (High School), it was going to require three busses and two transfers,” added Scott.

Scott, said it was important for the school division to make sure kids could get to both high schools, but in particular, Oak Park.

“That’s accessibility to French immersion as well, because that’s our designated French immersion school for Charleswood,’ said Scott. “So it was very important to the board to be able to continue that service so that kids would continue to opt-in to French immersion.”

The division said they are running its own charter to both schools for this school year, with around 140 students taking the charter so far.

“Students will pay the same amount of money per month that they would pay for a bus pass, so $70 per month, so $700 for the year,” said Scott.

Scott is hopeful Winnipeg Transit can find a way to bring the charters back in some form, especially since they were in place for over 20 years.

“Riding transit is a great life skill, and it’s a great way, a low-cost way for young adults to experience Winnipeg and we want them to have that independence,” said Scott.

Winnipeg Transit said in a statement it’s waiting on a report of “An outline of a service plan, route, costs and resource requirements” for a route which connects Linden Woods to Charleswood. It’s expected before the standing policy committee in the coming months.