The city could be given a rough ride when it attempts to purchase land for its rapid transit route, councillors and realtors say. And that might make Winnipeg Transit's busway more costly than taxpayers realize.

Transit director Rick Borland says his department has "made some progress" in talks with private businesses about purchasing land for a 3.5-kilometre busway track that would be built through Fort Rouge early next year.

But Sandy Shindleman, who represents at least one enterprise on the proposed strip just off Pembina Highway, suggests the city might need deep pockets as it moves ahead with the $50-million first leg of a rapid transit system.

"That's the thing about private property rights — they can charge or ask whatever they want," said Shindleman, president of Shindico Realty Inc.

"Some of those properties are certainly in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in fact millions of dollars."

Coun. Garth Steek, a vocal critic of the rapid transit plan, says taxpayers are about to get fleeced for more than the $200 million the system is supposed to cost.

"You bet anyone who has lands that they want will ask a king's ransom, and justifiably so," said Steek (River Heights-Fort Garry).

The rapid transit system will use high-tech hybrid-fuel vehicles costing $1 million apiece.

Transit owns most of the strip it needs between Main Street and the corner of Pembina and Jubilee Avenue, Borland said, but has made offers to several private land holders. One property owner's accountant, who asked to remain anonymous, said the city's offers have been too low.