Without an emissions problem plaguing many of Winnipeg’s newest buses, a fall service reduction wouldn’t have been needed, says Winnipeg Transit director Dave Wardrop.

Wardrop said the problem effects emissions controls within the engines of buses five years old or newer and is to blame for about 56 of the 98 buses now awaiting repairs.

“Absolutely, if we hadn’t been encountering the emissions controls issues, problems, to the extent that we have, we would have been able to meet the original fall schedule,” said Wardrop Thursday.

Instead, the city was forced to reduce fall bus service last week while 109 of its total 585 buses awaited repairs. Service was reduced on multiple routes during both morning and evening rush hours as a result, leaving fewer seats on buses and longer waits for some passengers.

Wardrop said Transit is now working with a manufacturer in an attempt to speed up the remaining repairs and find a permanent solution to the persistent problem.

Delays are expected to continue until at least December. On Thursday, Wardrop said there’s still no guarantee that service reductions will end when the winter Transit schedule arrives.

Wardrop said Winnipeg is not alone in experiencing challenges with new emissions-control technology but a larger spare bus fleet has prevented other cities’ riders from coping with less frequent service.

“We have very few extra buses available,” said Wardrop, noting the city keeps a spare fleet of about 11% of its total buses while the industry standard is around 20%. “We don’t have that capacity in our system, this problem has arisen and has hit us particularly hard.”

But Coun. Marty Morantz (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge), the city’s finance chair, said buying new buses to top up the spare fleet may not be the solution.

“Certainly, they’ve been getting along for years like this. And what it came down to is these new buses that had these emission-control issues,” said Morantz.

joyanne.pursaga@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @pursagawpgsun