[QUOTE=BlackDog204;10160867]To call it a "mistake" is not correct, considering construction costs were a fraction of what they were today, and it would have served a huge area of the city.
MAY have been a mistake. No one can be certain about how Winnipeg's development may have changed. Would ridership have still declined? Peak ridership was 105m in 1946. Still 60m in early 80s, then sharp decline and levelling at 30-40m (generally).
LOL....you may want to check your math. It's closer to 2 million.
35% growth per decade
1961 475,000
1971 641,000
1981 866,000 ((approx Wilson Plan estimate)
1991 1,169,000
2001 1,578,000 (approx. Calgary)
2011 2,130,000
2021 2,875,000
2024 3 million+
...and yet far less expensive than building a subway system in the mid 2000's
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Yes, definitely. Now about $1 billion per mile.
Whether inner city Winnipeg declined in population is pretty irrelevant, considering overall use would have increased due to things like }park and rides" and the inevitable expansion of the original lines. Most inner cities in North America have declined in population from 50 years ago, yet public tansit ridership has increased.
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Only Winnipeg (and Montreal to a lesser degree) among major cities in Canada. Many US cities, esp. many in the Midwest and some Northeast. As I wrote above, ridership in Winnipeg is much lower.
This is just not true. The pre-Unicity population has declined by 11.1% from 1972-2016. In fact, I've heard this trend is reversing itself in many areas, so as of 2024, it could technically be under 10% decline from 1972.
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I mentioned 1961, this was peak population of 265,000. I added up census tracts a number of years ago and got a pop. of 190,000, so just shy of 30%. I'd have to do this again based on 2021 numbers. Note Winnipeg's current neighbourhoods do not align with pre-Unicity boundaries, ie. Elmwood ends between Harbison and Larsen, not Munroe. Census tracts do though.
source:
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=227673
Again, this is false:
Year................2001........2006.......2011.......2016
Downtown......15,954 > 15,960 > 16,673 > 17,826
River Heights..60,002 > 59,897 > 59,159 > 60,661
West End........56,055 > 56,340 > 56,52158,668
North End.......43,427 > 44,156 > 46,766 > 48,320
Elmwood........14,363 > 14,358 > 14,806 > 14,713
Inkster...........17,097 > 16,728 > 17,311 > 18,337
Pretty much every neighbourhood in old Winnipeg has seen an increase in population, especially the North End.[/QUOTE
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By decline I meant more than population. Take a walk in the North End when it warms up a bit. I'll make the effort to put the numbers together for 2021. It's a bit of a project. My point is that the project was very ambitious in 1959 and growth did not occur as expected. Who knows what MIGHT have happened, but it could have been an underutilized costly mistake. Starting in 1990s it would have needed major upgrades at a time when Winnipeg was at its economic nadir.
EDIT: Just had a quick look at the four CTs for Elmwood. 15,107 in 2021, so up 2% from 2011. Well, that's good. For historical comparisons, I use "1" census years. As I write this the 1902 Romanesque Guest Block is burning down on Main St.