Winnipeg Transit and Osborne Junction (Confusion Corner)

by David A. Wyatt

Return to history of public transit in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Osborne Junction is better know to Winnipeggers as "confusion corner." As the junction of four traffic arterials (Pembina Highway, Corydon Avenue, Osborne Street, and the street couplet that becomes south Donald Street) it has been a complex intersection for traffic design, and a significant hub of transit activity. Here are three views, separated by forty years.

Osborne Junction circa 1960

(above) Osborne Junction, circa 1960. A CanCar motorbus waits southbound on Osborne Street at the corner of Corydon Avenue while another bus enters the intersection of Corydon and Pembina, westbound. Three passengers stand at the northbound stop on Osborne Street. Gladstone School will soon be demolished to allow Pembina to be extended another block north to meet Osborne at McMillan, creating "confusion corner". Winnipeg Transit photo.

Osborne Junction circa 1968

(above) Osborne Junction, circa 1968. One CCF-Brill trolley bus at the centre island stop prepares to depart on the Corydon route while another heads north on Osborne street towards the city centre. A CanCar gas bus waits on McMillan Avenue at the light, for access to the centre island stop. A GM "new look" heads south on the Osborne route. One passenger waits at the northbound Osborne Street stop, in almost exactly the same place as the trio in the first picture. Winnipeg Tribune photo archives.

(above) Osborne Junction, 1999. Three New Flyer model D40 buses board outbound passengers at the centre island platform. From the centre island buses depart westward on Corydon and Grant services, and southbound on Pembina and Richmond routes. Notice the "transit trailer" on the sidewalk left of the middle bus. Winnipeg Transit used the tiny trailers to position employees making passenger counts. Alex Regiec photo. Used by permission.

(above) Osborne Junction, October 2007. In the fall of 2007 Osborne Junction was further modified by the addition of red pavement demarcating the transit-only spaces at the intersection. Alex Regiec photo. Used by permission.