Maintenance facility Construction Begins

Construction is ready to begin on Regina’s new Transit Fleet Maintenance Facility, which will streamline transit repairs and make way for larger buses.

“This is big news for Regina residents. This is going to save a lot of money in terms of how we deliver transit service, more efficiently repairing our transit fleet,” said Mayor Michael Fougere.

The new $30.1-million, 60,000-square-foot bus repair facility will be attached to the current transit operation centre on Winnipeg Street, replacing the existing 70-year-old building on Albert Street.

Combining both locations into one will make transit service more streamlined and efficient, said Fougere.

“This was our biggest No. 1 project over the last couple of years,” he said. “(Residents) won’t see things change necessarily on the street but in terms of providing the background to this, the support for maintenance is really critical for us, so it’s saving money, it’s being more efficient and providing better public service.”

The old repair facility was initially built to repair trolley cars and doesn’t have the space needed to repair the city’s growing fleet of buses, said Jill Hargrove, the city’s director of facility management services.

The new building will have nearly double the current number of service bays and will allow maintenance staff to work more efficiently.

“This’ll be a purpose-built facility, so one that’s intended to deal with a modern fleet of 40- or potentially 60-foot articulating buses,” said Hargrove.

With the old maintenance facility unable to service articulating buses — two section buses with a joint in the middle — purchasing these larger vehicles has not previously been an option.

Now the City of Regina is looking at getting the longer buses in the next few years, said Nathan Luning, the city’s acting director of transit.

“That’s definitely within our plans. We notice now that we have (some) busier routes than others and we want to increase the capacity of those routes and those articulating buses will help us out, allow ... more people to take our service,” said Luning.

These longer buses can hold up to 110 passengers compared to the current buses’ capacity of 70 passengers, he said.

Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by early 2020.

BRANDON HARDER Regina Mayor Michael Fougere, left, speaks at a sod-turning event for the city’s new Transit Fleet Maintenance Facility on Winnipeg Street. To Fougere’s left are Liberal MP Ralph Goodale and Warren Kaeding, provincial minister of government relations.