{"id":724460,"date":"2026-06-09T04:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724460\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T04:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:38:41","slug":"winnipeg-transit-fare-revenue-lower-than-expected-contributing-to-citys-14m-deficit-forecast-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724460\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Transit fare revenue lower than expected, contributing to city’s $14M deficit forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lower than expected Winnipeg Transit ridership has led to a revenue shortfall, contributing to a projected $14-million deficit in the city’s overall budget.<\/p>\n

A new first-quarter financial update<\/a> forecasts Transit will end 2026 with a $17.8-million deficit, driven by higher fuel costs, workers’ compensation claims and low ridership numbers.<\/p>\n

When council approved the city’s 2026 budget<\/a> late last year, officials were already warning there was a risk fare revenues would fall short of expectations by just over $11 million. The latest report now projects Transit revenues could come in $18.4 million below budget, offset partially by salary savings due to vacancies, the update says.<\/p>\n

Finance committee chair Coun. Jeff Browaty said the city expected the launch of Winnipeg’s new primary transit network<\/a> last summer would take time to gain traction.<\/p>\n

“Will the ridership come back overnight? Will new people start adopting Transit overnight? I don’t think so,” Browaty said in an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n

“But once people realize that they can get more places more easily, I think the network is legitimately better.”<\/p>\n

\"Counc.<\/p>\n

Finance committee chair Jeff Browaty, shown in a file photo, says the city is making adjustments to Winnipeg Transit’s network and is launching an advertising campaign to try to boost ridership numbers. (Gary Solilak\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The city has already made adjustments to the network since its launch and is running an advertising campaign aimed at encouraging more people to give transit a try, Browaty said.<\/p>\n

He also said a new fare payment system<\/a> will make it easier for riders to pay, which he hopes will encourage more ridership. The city will have more to announce about the new payment system soon, the North Kildonan councillor said.<\/p>\n

But Derek Hanley, executive vice-president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, said safety concerns are also keeping people from riding the bus.<\/p>\n

Some Transit users “get on there and they see \u2026 [other riders] abuse our operators, and they see them abuse the general public. And they just decide, ‘You know, I’m going to take a different mode of transportation,'” Hanley said.<\/p>\n

Transit advocacy group Functional Transit Winnipeg argues the ridership decline is tied to the network redesign.<\/p>\n

President Kyle Owens says ridership had nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels before the network overhaul. The city needs to invest more heavily in service frequency and reliability, he said.<\/p>\n

“The primary transit network lays the groundwork for the future, but we need to invest in service and getting people back on the bus,” said Owens.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Winnipeg Transit spokesperson Brandon Logan said the decline in ridership began before the June 2025 launch of the new network, starting in late 2024 due to changes in federal immigration policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That led to a drop in international students and temporary foreign workers, demographics who typically rely heavily on public transit, said Logan.<\/p>\n

He also said the problem of declining ridership is common to transit systems across Canada, “so this is not unique to Winnipeg.”<\/p>\n

Broader budget pressures<\/p>\n

Transit’s revenue drop is the largest pressure contributing to the projected deficit in the City of Winnipeg’s budget this year.<\/p>\n

The city predicts it will end the year with a $20.4-million deficit in its general revenue fund, which works out to $14 million after accounting for surpluses in utilities.<\/p>\n

However, first-quarter deficit projections often turn into surpluses in the city budget by the end of the year. The city expects it will have enough in its fiscal stabilization reserve, or “rainy day fund,” to cover the projected shortfall.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is projecting a $7.2-million shortfall, largely because vacancies are forcing the department to rely on overtime to maintain staffing levels.<\/p>\n

Public works is forecasting a $6.8-million deficit after heavy snowfall at the start of the year drove up snow clearing and ice control costs.<\/p>\n

The report also warns volatility in global fuel prices linked to the conflict in Iran could further increase costs. Transit is expected to overspend its fuel budget by about $3.4 million this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lower than expected Winnipeg Transit ridership has led to a revenue shortfall, contributing to a projected $14-million deficit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[261639,49,48,261637,261638,22073,198016],"class_list":["post-724460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-amalgamated-transit-union","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jeff-browaty","tag-revenue-shortfall","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}