Since the city of Winnipeg introduced the rapid transit corridor in the central/south part of the city bus routes have been streamlined. More routes now use the main streets and the secondary streets have lost most service. The Donald St. at Hargrave Place bus stop has been transformed into a silent bus stop. Before rapid transit 4 bus routes picked up passengers at the stop. Now only one, the 99 route, a secondary bus route, utilizes the stop.

The 99 only runs every half hour and stops running at 7:05 pm. A once vibrant bus stop has now become a ghost bus stop. No more people hanging around the stop occasionally scanning north to see if the lumbering bus is approaching. No more buses pulling up to the stop and lowering the entrance door elevator to let old folks and Mom’s with baby strollers on board.

Now people who previously grabbed the bus at the now silent bus stop have to walk 3 blocks to the east to get the bus. But the 7 minutes it takes to walk to that stop is made up by the speed of that bus as it hauls down the rapid transit bus track. As Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”