[4] Operating 640 low-floor easy-access buses to more than 5,000 bus stops within the city limits,[4] Winnipeg Transit carries almost 170,000 passengers on an average weekday.

Soon after, upon prodding the begrudged City Council, Austin was able to establish the Winnipeg Street Railway (WSR) on 27 May 1882, under an agreement that required one mile of track to be laid within 6 months.

[7] Surely enough, Austin met the deadline: the first horsecar made a trial run on 20 October 1882, and regular public service began the next day with four cars.

[8] On 1 February 1892, Austin's competitors, William Mackenzie and James Ross of Montreal, received the exclusive right to operate electric street car service in Winnipeg, via city by-law 543.

[citation needed] Incorporated on 1 March 1902,[11] the Suburban Rapid Transit Company operated west of Winnipeg along Portage Avenue, inaugurating a line as far as Charleswood in 1903, and extending to 'Lot 112 St. Charles' in October 1904.

[12] Initially leasing cars and buying power from the WESR, the Company was bought up by the amalgamated WER in 1905,[13] which finished expansion of its line to the village of Headingley by the end of the year.

[16][17][18] The Company did well during the economic boom of the early 1900s, and built a new headquarters in the eleven-storey Electric Railway Chambers building at Notre Dame Avenue and Albert Street in 1911–1913.

In 1914, the Public Utilities Commission ordered the WER to start collecting fares on a pay-as-you-enter (PAYE) system, which required some rebuilding of cars.

The financial pressures of this competition, tensions with the Public Utilities Commission about route planning, complaints regarding the poor state of rolling stock all led to a crisis in 1918.

Negotiations with the city led to a repealing of the jitney bylaw, some route changes, a program of rebuilding old trolley cars, and the first appearance of motor buses in Winnipeg.

[23] Increasing competition with the automobile and the post-war economic slump led to the company rebuilding the rest of its own fleet as one-man cars.

[25] On 21 November 1938, WECo started the first modern trolleybus service in Western Canada, on Winnipeg's Sargent Avenue, using 6 vehicles on a 4.0-kilometre (2.5 mi) route.

[13] After dismantling the streetcar network, the GWTC created a mascot, Transit Tom, who made his advertisement debut in 1955, with the slogan “Take A Bus!”.

[43] On 1 January 1963, Metro Transit offered to purchase a fleet of 11 diesel buses for C$200,000 from White Ribbon Bus Lines, which served the City of Transcona.

In December, however, a legal case was opened at the Manitoba Court of Queens Bench, filed by a Lindsay Street (River Heights) resident claiming that Metro Transit, under the 1960 Metropolitan Winnipeg Act, had no authority to operate the Unibus service.

[52] In September 1971, 60 residents showed up to the last Metro Council meeting to protest the running of the Unibus service in the Riverview area, complaining of bus traffic on Balfour, Maplewood, and Casey streets.

[60]In 1977, Winnipeg Handi-Transit began as a 2-year test project to provide parallel public transit service to those with limited physical mobility.

When Edmonton and Calgary completed the first phase of their light rail (LRT) systems in the early 1980s, they found that they needed fewer diesel buses.

In April 1982 the Works and Operations Committee awarded Mediacom, Inc. a contract to build and maintain 200 transit shelters with advertising for a period of 15 years.

After Calgary Transit's C-Train LRT expanded into the Northeast in April 1985, 30 brand new Flyer buses (600-630 series) were sold to Winnipeg and put into service in 1986.

Beginning in September 1995, Winnipeg Transit designated Main Street, between Higgins Avenue and Graham, as a bus-only lane during peak hours (7-9 am, 15h30-17h30 weekdays).

After refurbishment between 2012 and 2014, Winnipeg Transit began operating some of these buses, starting with the 54 St. Mary's and 59 South St. Anne's express routes on 13 January 2014.

[86][87] In July 2016, Winnipeg Transit introduced the Peggo electronic fare payment system, designed to replace paper tickets and passes.

[103] Since then a wider study that is part of an updated Transportation Master Plan will examine ways extending service to exurban communities and introduce Park & Ride facilities on major thoroughfares near the Perimeter Hwy.

[109] In November Winnipeg's Public Works Committee approved a proposal to accelerate implementation of the TMP's primary route network to June 2025, instead of 2026 as previously scheduled.

Buses enter/exit the Southwest Transitway either just past Osborne Station or the Jubilee Overpass and continue to their final destinations in South Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba or Investors Group Field.

[117] The Low Income Pass Program was approved 14 to 1 by Council at a special meeting on 24 October 2019, with North Kildonan Councillor Jeff Browaty voting against the idea.

[119] Lower costs for a pass will increase (estimated) sales to 78,000 by 2024, putting an extra strain on transit buses as more passengers ride the system.

Recent data showed that these 5 routes have the highest number of pass-ups, between September and December 2022: BLUE, 75 Crosstown East, 11 Portage-Kildonan, 60 Pembina, and 47 Transcona-Pembina.

The fleet includes: In late 2018, it was announced that Winnipeg Transit was in the process of receiving twenty-eight 18.29 metres (60 ft) articulated buses (numbered 371-398) from New Flyer that would be delivered in the latter half of 2019.