Road and Rail
Manitoba’s transportation options are relatively diverse but rely heavily on road networks.
About two decades ago, the last Greyhound highway bus stopped service in the province. The last vestiges of inter-city bus transportation meant that northern communities lost an important connection to Winnipeg and the south.
Passenger rail service, too, is limited, with only the Winnipeg to Churchill Via rail line operating as an intra-province rail option and the east/west Canadian Via rail line that operates from coast to coast and follows Highway 1 in Manitoba offering rail passengers service between the three larger cities: Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg.
Yet, cargo and freight by rail remains an active option, with lines operating east to west and a very limited number north/south within the province. Instead, grain, lumber, oil, vehicles and even Diego Crown Royal whisky travel by rail in volume. The two lines that operate are the Canadian Pacific Kansas City line and the Canadian National line.
The Prairie Dog Central is a vintage train rail line that operates during teh summer months from Winnipeg to Warren as a tourist attraction.
That leaves our road network to carry the vast majority of freight and people in eighteen-wheeler trucks or passenger cars. With this demand for good roads, our highway network is stressed by heavy use and often in poorer condition than the neighbouring US states to the south.
Rural areas mostly rely on gravel roads or B-class highways that are operated and maintained by local municipalities. We have a network of paved highways, including a limited number of higher-grade roads that allow heavy semi-truck freight to travel on them.
The cities have better quality streets that tie in with the rural and cross-country TransCanada Highway. These are maintained by those local urban jurisdictions, with some financial input from the province.
Active
Active transportation is a bright light in the province. Since 1990, most parts of the province have invested in active, heathy lifestyle routes, with hundreds of miles of bike and walking trails, along with dedicated street lanes, built to accommodate those who wish to use a more environmentally-friendly network or who do so for fitness reasons.
Public
Public transportation options take three forms: taxi (individual), buses and special service vehicles (seniors and handicapped).
In small rural communities, the province has partnered with the municipal authorities and, in some instance, charitable or service groups, to provide vans for transporting seniors and physically challenged people to appointments, events and facilities.
In the cities like Selkirk, Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Thompson, The Pas, Winnipeg and others, bus service can be quite expansive, but costs can be a factor in low-income budgets, where single-trip fees may be $3 or more. Winnipeg has been developing a limited rapid-transit network, but it is very limited in scope.
Air
Air service connections between centres focuses mostly on northern and remote communities. There is no formal air service between Manitoba’s major southern cities. All First Nations northern reservations have fly-in connections from St Andrews Airport or Winnipeg. Cities such as The Pas and Thompson also have regular service, along with air routes into the northern Arctic regions of the country.
Winter Roads
Winter roads are seasonal roads, usually built on ice across lakes or frozen terrain in the northern parts of the province. These routes serve remote communities by providing food and supplies during the winter. In the summer, many of these places would need to rely on air cargo to obtain supplies, so summer generally is limited to produce, snacks and light foods, with no building supplies, heavier food supplies or other bulky goods being shipped north between April and December.
Water
The last freight ship to supply goods to a few of the reserves along the Red River, the Poplar River Freighter, stopped operating three decades ago.
Depending upon water flow on the Red River, a water taxi operates as a touri9st attraction along a small portion of the Red River in Winnipeg.