Metro Winnipeg will become the smallest centre in the world to own and operate a subway if one Metro councillor has his way.

Coun. Bernie Wolfe, a member of Metro's streets and transit committee and a long time supporter of a rapid transit subway system, says we'll have to have a subway when our population reaches 650,000.

It stands at 500,000 now and, according to Coun. Wolfe's estimate, a subway will needed by about 1980.

Transit director D. I. MacDonald said the big stumbling block between Metro and a subway is money. It costs about $10 million a mile to build a subway — and another $5 million a mile to equip and maintain it.

Mr. MacDonald said any definite plans for a subway should be known in about two years when Metro completes a thorough transportation study of the Greater Winnipeg area.

A report asked for by Winnipeg in 1959 — known as the Norman Wilson Report on the future of transit operations here — recommended a subway as the cure for a steadily increasing flow of automobiles and people into the downtown area.

"This will be one of the first big things that council will have to deal with," said Coun. Wolfe.

Although the biggest deterent is its cost; he said Metro can expect grants from the provincial government. The senior government contributes 60 percent of the costs of approved road construction projects in Greater Winnipeg.

He suggested also that Metro may receive financial assistance from the federal government — if Ottawa falls into line with the new United States' attitude towards urban transit.

If too much emphasis is placed on raising money through municipal taxation, it is doubtful that a subway will ever be constructed here. "I can't see it being built if too much of the burden is placed on local homeowners," Coun. Wolfe said.

One of the routes suggested by the report was from Queen St. in St. James, east along Portage Ave., and north along Main St. to Redwood Ave.

Coun. Wolfe said the value of a subway is that it could attract people back to the transit system. The trend now is for riders to switch from buses to cars as soon as they can arrange it.

Metro transit lost $1,000,000 in 1963 and expects a deficit of $1,500,000 this year.

Motorists on the outskirts of Metro could drive their cars to the periphery of the city and climb aboard a subway train that would shoot them into the heart of the downtown area. At night, they would be taken back to municipal parking lots and their cars.

This way, Coun. Wolfe explained, Metro would be attracting motorists to the transit system even though they continued to use their automobiles.

"And it's cheaper to build a subway than to tear down houses, pay property acquisition costs and erect super, elevated highways," he said.

When Metro was established in 1960, the city of Winnipeg turned over an elaborate plan for an elevated highway stretching from Pembina Highway, by the banks of the Red River, through the Disraeli Freeway and eventually linking up with Kelvin St. (Henderson Highway) in East Kildonan.

The plan's cost was estimated at about $17,000,000. Coun. Wolfe said it would cost about $20,000,000 to implement the plan today.

Mr. MacDonald said the recommendations of the Norman Wilson Report will be considered again when the massive transportation study is completed, possibly in 1966.

He said there are no cities with a subway system that have a population of less than 1,000,000 — and many cities with a population of more than 1,000,000 still have no subway system.

Coun. Wolfe said he is confident a good subway operation would eventually pay for itself by attracting more people to transit, by reducing wear on roads and by increasing businesss along its routes.

"There's no reason for any further delay in coming to grips with the problem."

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