Dallas Hansen to Brian Bowman: Get Aboard Subway Rapid Transit

Given WT's recent issues with bus troubles and that the 2nd phase of (Bus) "Rapid" Transit is in danger of making commuting take longer due to the "dogleg" route through the Parker Lands in Fort Garry...

I'm linking to Dallas Hansen's wonderfully-written open letter to then newly elected mayor of Winnipeg Brian Bowman.

Bill Menzies, who is/was (is he retired?) WT's Planner, would say that they wouldn't need to increase the size of the bus fleet with BRT (as compared to rail) because the buses would get to their destinations faster and could turn back the other direction sooner.

What Menzies failed to take into account was that the metro area's population is increasing, mainly from non-white 3rd world countries.

There is not enough transit capacity as it is, whether we had BRT, LRT, or a subway. Or just stayed the course and did nothing.

So it's up to the decision makers at City Hall to "grab the bull by the horns", show some leadership, get rid of (fire) the people who need to be fired and start to rebuild and grow our Transit system the way a big city is supposed to do.

That means putting aside BRT and installing subway rail instead, like Dallas so eloquently said in his piece, linked below.

http://dallashansen.com/wp/?p=532

Winnipeg Area Travel Survey (2007)

I've been looking for some data on the traffic volumes experienced between Winnipeg and Selkirk and I think I've found something relevant.

The Winnipeg Area Travel Survey of 2007 was conducted by iTrans Consulting (now HDR Inc.) of Ottawa.

The two areas of interest to me are labelled [1]:

External District #23 - East St. Paul & West St. Paul, and

External District #27 - 'North Northeast' and includes Selkirk, Winnipeg Beach, Grand Marais, and St. Andrews.

They surveyed over 366 households[2] in 'North Northeast' who regularly commute to/from this area.

For External District #23, the report has a combined population of 13,230, contains 4,390 households, and of that 8,760 active commuters using a total of 10,480 vehicles.[3]

For External District #27, the report has a combined population of 33,200, contains 12,650 households, and of that 12,700 active commuters using a total of 24,910 vehicles.[4]

When the figure for Active Commuters in External Districts #23 and #27 are combined, it totals 21,400 vehicles daily.

While installing commuter rail line between Winnipeg and Selkirk areas might encourage more people to live beyond the Perimeter Hwy., it is inevitable that growth in the Winnipeg Capital Region will create this anyways.

A diesel (DMU) commuter train can carry 50-300 passengers at once compared to one diesel bus of 50 passengers.

A Diesel Multiple Unit train provides a much smoother ride for passengers because the train glides along smooth track, rather than having to ride along poor quality asphalt roadway.

A DMU train can be kept outdoors and does not require any indoor heating, unlike a bus that needs to be kept warm in the Winter.

[1] "2007 Winnipeg Area Travel Survey Results - Final Report", iTrans Consulting Inc., pg. 7
[2] Ibid. pg. 6
[3] Ibid. pg. 80
[4] Ibid. pg. 88

Commuter Rail Needed Between Winnipeg and Selkirk

Other regions have 'em. They enable commuters to live further outside the central city and commute without taking their cars.

Commuter rail here existed 100 years ago in the form of the Winnipeg, Selkirk and Lake Winnipeg Railway (ca. 1908 - 1939) ... interurban trains. They were replaced by  Beaver Bus Lines in 1948 and haven't returned since.

Interurban train on Eveline St. (Selkirk, Manitoba)

While electric transit with its guy wires are cool looking, lots of bigger metropolitan areas use DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit). These were called Interurbans in the early part of the 20th century, and later Budd Rail Co. called them RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars). Either way, they enable a transit authority to provide expanded capacity to haul many more passengers at one time than a bus, and do it more comfortably.

The current bus line between Winnipeg and Selkirk could use improved options for passenger travel between both cities.

In fact, the Partnership for the Manitoba Capital Region ... stated in their Capital Region Transportation Master Plan (CRTMP) released in 2014:

The large majority of the survey respondents indicated the City of Winnipeg as their primary residence.
 
Major themes generated by the survey questions and respondent feedback included:
 ...
A need for alternative modes of transportation including active transportation and regional transit.

 Current populations of metro Winnipeg and points north:

There is currently ample population that could handle a DMU-type transit, as a replacement for the Beaver Bus. It's time to switch back to rail, which helped this region grow.

Service could also be extended somehow to the communities on the east side of the Red River, such as East St. Paul, which currently lacks any form of public transit.

The current Beaver Bus schedule provides 11 runs from Selkirk and 11 runs from Winnipeg, daily. The trip one-way takes about 55 mins.:

 No bicycles are allowed on Beaver buses. So, for example, if a person in Winnipeg wanted to do a day trip to Selkirk and ride around, they could not do it. However, if the Beaver bus was replaced by a Beaver train you could accomplish this.

The whole Beaver Bus fleet consists of several Orion V buses, each with a passenger capacity of about 50 each. A rail-based DMU could handle about 70 seated passengers at once per rail car, 140 if two cars were joined.

One of the benefits to using DMUs is that each rail car is self-powered, so adding extra rail cars for capacity doesn't burden the lead car.

See also:

IRFCA - DMU FAQ
RM of St. Andrews - Winnipeg, Selkirk, and Lake Winnipeg Railway Co. 
Bombardier VLocity DMU in Australia 

Fort Garry Detailed Area Plan

Author: Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg
Publ.: September 1970
Size: 895.2 K (PDF)

Fort Garry Detailed Area Plan

Map 1 - Location and Extent of Development
Map 2 - Urban Growth Pattern
Map 3 - Existing Land Use
Map 4 - Existing Zoning
Map 5 - Fort Garry Future Land Use
Map 6 - Local Planning Areas Index Map
Map 7 - Beaumont Future Land Use
Map 8 - Wildwood Future Land Use
Map 9 - McGillivray Future Land Use
Map 10 - University Future Land Use
Map 11 - Fort Richmond Future Land Use
Map 12 - Waverley Future Land Use
Map 13 - St. Norbert Future Land Use
Map 14 - Existing Services
Map 15 - Proposed Linear Riverbank Open Space System

Tuxedo Detailed Area Plan

Tuxedo Detailed Area Plan [601.8 K]

Author: Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg
Publ.: November 1970

Homelessness: Assigning Blame Isn't A Solution

Floyd Perras, a columnist with the Winnipeg Sun, and works at Siloam Mission, cautions us not to blame homeless people for being ("choosing") to be homeless.

For me, it's not a choice. For me, what I really want would be to live in a home with others, somewhere where my "baby self" can be respected and acknowledged. I've been told though, that "no one is going to baby a 48 yr. old"... So absent of that, I choose homelessness. And with that is going about stuff in my 'adult self' like volunteering, spending time with friends.

A voice cries out in the wilderness...

Here's the link to the column:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/07/24/assigning-blame-isnt-a-solution

Those citizens who are homeless, are not always to blame for their predicament.

In my case it, it has just been decade upon decade of abuse and even more so, _neglect_ of MY needs.

And actually, when you look at my life, as an autistic gay man, I've been lucky enough to have worked as much as I have in the past 40 years in the various jobs I've had - newspaper carrier, flyer distribtion, fast food crew member, data entry clerk, public speaker, webmaster...

Sure, I didn't have a VCR in the early 1980s when tv was better. Sure I didn't have other stuff, like a 'real' (long) train ride on CN or VIA Rail when I was growing up.
Sure, the only compliments *I* got were from my Trib and Sun customers.

But I guess it's all for something, isn't it? It's all for soul progress/soul growth in the end...

So, 10,000 years or 100,000 years from now I will be stronger as a soul, more resilient, just like my Guardian Angel...not moving from his values.

Irritating Daily Fire/Ambulace Drills

Hi again,

I am writing this blog post that is somewhat off of my usual ramblings around here that has to do with spirituality.

I have lived in Downtown Winnipeg for the past 20 years and I have become used to the rhythms of this neighbourhood.

I am very sensitive/aware of the environment around me. I chose to be like that before I incarnated this life time, and I firmly believe that in my prior lifetime (1850-1875 in western England) that I was also similar.

I love urban life, and I choose to live downtown because when I chose to live in this neighbourhood 20 years ago it was so I'd be within walking distance to the central Library. I will write about my feeling/memory of my past life and how I used to go to the Library on a horse, but that is for another blog post.

Recently, in the past couple of years, the City bought additional emergency vehicles. It bought extra ambulances and extra fire engines. That is all well fine and good. Winnipeg is a growing city and we need to have more like this...

But the problem I have with the additional fleet is that the City fire/ambulance crew conducts daily drills - with full sirens blaring.

I have noticed two that are conducted on a daily, or aldmost daily occurrance:

1. Near the intersection of Main St @ McDermot Avenue around 2:30 p.m.
2. Near the intersection of Donald @ Broadway around 4:50 or 4:54 p.m.

I have noticed/observed the first incidence when I was working for Agriculture Canada. The second incidence was that if I walked home or got home about 10 minutes before 5 p.m. that almost every single weekday afternoon, with cars backed up in heavy traffic southbound on the Midtown Bridge, that there'd be this regular occurrance of an ambulance with its sirens wailing trying to get thru.

I have travelled several times to various larger cities in North America over the past 10-11 years and no where else but in Winnipeg have I heard sirens or emergency drills taking place as often as I have here... Not in Toronto, not in Vancouver, not in Chicago.

So, this has been quite annoying to me because while it is much more difficult to prove than chemtrail activity - because one can have photographed a location with sky above and when that person is finally aware of them they can review their old photos and see the chemtrail activity from years before.

My theory is that sirens of various kinds - from Police, Fire, or Ambulance are basically FEAR energy and the part of the purpose of doing the drills or having the Police have their sirens turn on and off during the night in the neighbourhood is to create a FEAR energy to lower the spiritual vibrations of our city and thus hold us down spiritually from becoming more loving. Didn't the Nazis conduct lots of siren drills before WWII to perhaps scare/annoy citizens?

But what I will do is to video this and post to Youtube and then I will link from here.

I'm just tired of the siren/ambulance/fire drill happening daily at the same time, and I want them to do this less frequently, perhaps once per week rather than the the regularity they are doing this at the moment.

This other writer, is asking why in his town the air raid sirens get activated daily. The official response was that that was the method the town/city gave notice that all the volunteer emergency vehicles (and staff) were available if/when an emergency occurred. Just like the poster says, it seems odd that they would do it that way rather than use a cell phone/pager. Perhaps the purpose in both cases is to desensitize us so that when a real big emergency happens ,only apathy will prevail.

Here's another post in which the writer mentions TETRA waves @ 17.6 Hz to affect us physically. I wonder whether the newer sirens create an output harmonic frequency of this that has the ability to disrupt our physical well-being.

Source Rense.com

For a specific example, the new TETRA system which will be used by the police and emergency services in the UK for communication, uses between 380 and 400 MHz, which is switched on and off at such a pulse rate that a pseudo-ELF of 17.6 Hz (17.6 times per second) is produced. this means the brain and nervous system are hit by pulses of UHF (USA terms) microwave (UK terms) every 1/17.6th of a second. This is rather like electrochemical hammer blows to the head at a rate of 17.6 every second. Some of us find hammer drills irritating to listen to, imagine 17.6 hammer-like blows being delivered to the nervous and endocrinal system, at a cellular level - might this not have a disruptive effect on the organism? Since the cells communicate to each other in the ELF range, these hammer-like blows of pseudo-ELF disrupts and derange cellular activities, leading to dysfunction, behavioural changes and onset of carcinogenic proteins which can lead to the organism developing tumours.

"Jolly Roger" Hepburn 1893-1907

About a week after my uncle blessed our family's home, I was thinking it might be kinda nice to have a ghost buddy that I could help, ala Ghost Whisperer.

My "spirit guide", Daniel, found someone, a 14-year old boy with a nickname of "Jolly Roger" which is the skull and crossbones pirate symbol. He was introduced to me on November 12, 2009. His surname is Hepburn.

I did some recording of him on my laptop, but his voice is very quiet. I used audio editing program Audacity to boost the sound and to get rid of as much background sounds as possible. It is very difficult to hear on the computer. It was much easier when he communicated telepathically and would say things like "It's cold in your apartment". This was in late November / early December when Winnipeg had a frigid spell and the heat couldn't keep up, despite turning up the thermometer, the temperature went no further than 21 Celcius. Yet another day when I saw an orb light enter my apt. suite through the window and I asked who it was he said "It's Jolly Roger boy".

I would be ready to go to sleep and turn over to the left part of the mattress when I'd hear J. R. say "you're sitting on my neck". "Oh sorry J. R. I can't see you."

Another night around 11.30 p.m. I saw his tiny orb exit my apartment through the living room window. The next day I asked him where he went and he replied "I just went out for a bit," which is fine for me because it would be impossible for me to be his parent. I cannot ask that he stay in after a certain time. I am just his friend, nothing more.

One recording he gave me details about the circumstances of his death, and he said that he wants "proper burial for my pieces of bones". " What happened to him was that on or near February 22, 1907 he had somehow fallen through the ice on one of the Winnipeg area rivers (I sense though that it was the Red River).

I asked him whether he had any brothers or sisters, and he told me he had a younger brother named Bob (Robert).

When I had some time, I had gone to the Library to view the Free Press microfilm from that date. I may have missed it, but all I could see similar was a Mr. Hawthorne of Winnipeg had frozen to death while in Calgary. The story appeared on the February 23, 1907 edition. He was a member of the Canadian army and was in his 20s. Not the guy I was looking for.

When I first saw "J. R." I had to make a space as dark as possible with little or no light. That room was my washroom. I had turned off all the lights in the living room and closed the curtains. Closed the washroom door and sat on the toilet seat cover.

First there was an orange orb light near the floor. That's a sign that a spirit is trying to make itself visible. Then blue & white lights form and move about. Within a couple of minutes I could "see" J. R. sitting on the edge of the bathtub, blueish-coloured, with his hands on his face and looking downward. Then he'd switch positions and sit in the bathtub and keep switching positions every couple of seconds, always only giving me a side view of him. He had Harry Potter-like eye glasses and fairly thick light-coloured hair with sideburns, but not covering his ears.

Why I have not really seen him face on is that it is known that ghosts don't have eye pupils, so their eyes are completely black and I guess that he didn't want me to see him that way.

When a spirit is visible, so much energy is used up in manifesting in that form that there isn't enough left to speak. It's an either or decision.

More recently I wanted to try photographing him, and read that if you keep using the flash on the camera that this will encourage the spirit to be visible. Well, that actually did something else. I don't think he wants to be photographed because when I pointed the camera into the washroom, I saw this wavy light near the bottom of the doorway move to my bedroom and I followed the light pressing the shutter button. One particular frame had a grey transparent vertical rectangle on the right side of the image. I believe J. R. was doing all he could to prevent a photo of him. What I think this means is that it doesn't matter whether people "see" him or not, but that he somehow gets closure and can then ascend to Heaven.



I don't know how else to help this kid. I am not willing to go swimming into the River. That I do know. I wish I could prove through some kind of written account that he went missing back then and his body was never found.

What makes finding more details about him difficult are two things. He has not given me his real first name (unless it really is Roger), and secondly the Free Press has taken away access to its electronic edition at the Library. That would make it really simple to just type in the name Hepburn into the search box and have it look in the 1907 Free Press text.

I also do not know how many others he has communicated with over the past 103 years, and whether those others ever got any further than I have in helping him.

At least then he would become a Winnipeg documented ghost.

Since then he has told me that he does no longer wish to stay with me because he doesn't like sitting near where the cat litterbox is, and my bed is not wide enough for him to sleep on.

J. R. is a much more friendly ghost than Aern ever was and I wish to continue to make his cause known.

Winnie the Shit

I'm from Winnipeg you see, and I have to deal with this Winnie the Pooh stuff all the time. I caught on to the name thing — a LONG time ago.

To say clearly now. I'm NOT a fan of Winnie the Pooh.

The reason is this:

The Winnie character was "invented" in Winnipeg way back in World War I days (1914-1918). The story goes that A. A. Milne's son had seen a brown or black bear at the Winnipeg Zoo and asked what it's name was. The boy said "I think I'll call him Winnie". The father replies "Why is that son?". The boy says "I don't know, just Winnie the Pooh".

Now any half-brained person can figure this out. The boy saw the brown coloured bear, it reminded him of (was the same colour as) shit, and he lived in Winnipeg. He put it all together and you have the character name — Winnipeg the Shit! Kind of sums up our town, doesn't it?

To me, it's really an embarrassment to our City.

And they were going to put a Winnie the Pooh display at Assinibioine Park Zoo. Total waste of money. It could be better spent on a rail-based rapid transit system for Winnipeg.

There's a short story on the Net that proves I'm not the only one who connects the dots. It goes something like this:
A group of kindergartners were trying very hard to become accustomed to the first grade. The biggest hurdle they faced was that the teacher insisted on NO baby talk! You need to use 'Big People' words," she was always reminding them.

She asked John what he had done over the weekend?
"I went to visit my Nana."
No, you went to visit your GRANDMOTHER. Use ?Big People' words!"

She then asked Mitchell what he had done
"I took a ride on a choo-choo."
She said "No, you took a ride on a TRAIN. You must remember to use 'Big People' words."

She then asked little Alex what he had done? "I read a book," he replied.
That's WONDERFUL!" the teacher said. "What book did you read?"
Alex thought real hard about it, then puffed out his chest with great Pride, and said, "Winnie the SHIT"