The city must move toward a transit system which will speed people to and from work because passengers don't enjoy the company of others, the city's transit manager said Wednesday.

Roy Church said the city needs a separate system "because if it's time alone people want, we had to reduce the amount of time they must spend in traffic."

Mr. Church said such a system could be elevated or below ground - any system which allows transit to move freely rather than as part of the general traffic flow.

"One of the underlying reasons for people's refusal to go to public transit is the time spent on a bus and the psychological impact of spending that time with other people," he said. "We must move forward toward a system or a subsystem which improves our time."

He said railway corridors or hydro right-of-ways, along the same line as the proposed Southwest Transit Corridor, still appear to be the cheapest and most efficient of all grade separations.

The transit corridor has been approved in principle by city council although councillors could give no guarantee that funding would be available for the project. The corridor would run from the downtown area to the University of Manitoba.

Rick Borland, a planning engineer with the streets and transportation department, also called for a grade-separation system. Mr. Borland said Winnipeg Transit has attracted no new riders in the past 20 years despite increases in Winnipeg's population.

"In the past 20-year period the number of riders has been constant, but the population has gone up. All the new trips have gone to the auto."

A survey released last week showed about 66 per cent of Winnipeggers rarely or never use public transit while about one-in-three use it almost daily. The survey also said 80 per cent of those using their cars would not switch to transit even if using buses was "much cheaper" than using the car.

Mr. Borland said two-thirds of Winnipeg Transit users are "captives" because they have no other means of getting to work. He also said that to lure the "choice passengers, travel time must be improved.

"All our studies show that travel time is the most important factor cited by persons for not using transit. It certainly ranks ahead of cost as a factor.

In addition to Winnipeg, only Vancouver and the metropolitan area of Ottawa-Hull are large cities which rely solely on buses although those cities have a freeway system to speed passengers downtown.

Montreal and Toronto have subway systems, and Edmonton and Calgary have rapid transit systems which are either complete or under construction.

Calgary's $300-million Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system is scheduled for completion by 1981.

Mr. Borland said Winnipeg has built itself into a situation which discourages an efficient transit system.

He said the large number of people living in low-density suburban districts cannot expect good service because of the cost involved in running buses long distances for few passengers.

This situation becomes more evident, he said, as more and more industries locate in suburban areas.

Both Mr. Borland and Mr. Church pointed to studies which show that diesel fuel used in buses is one of the most economical uses of fuel in the world.

But Mr. Church said the city cannot go "pell-mell" in any one direction because of the uncertainty surrounding the world's energy supply.

"There's a whole bagful of new hardware and half a bagful of new software available which could help the situation, "but they all require capital."

Luring drivers out of their cars is a challenge transit will always face, Mr. Church said.

"The auto and the owner are married for life, and if the auto dies first the owner gets another car. The challenge will always be getting people into buses without giving the service away and without legislating it."