Ember setupController and transient controllers

I'm trying to use setupController method to pass some data to the controller from the route and it only works if the controller is a singleton.

The setupController method is called in both situations but the variables are only set on the controller if it's a singleton.

How can I pass data from a route to a transient controller?

Here's a twiddle: http://ift.tt/1KRpFSd

Uncomment/comment the following line to toggle between singleton/transient: //application.register('controller:application', 'ApplicationController', { singleton: false });

I have not been able to find any information about whether or not this should work.

controllers/application.js:

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Controller.extend({
  appName:'Ember Twiddle'
});

initializers/application.js:

export function initialize(container, application) {
 //application.register('controller:application', 'ApplicationController', { singleton: false });
}

export default {
  name: 'application-init',
  initialize: initialize
};

routes/application.js:

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Route.extend({
  setupController: function(controller,model) {
    this._super(controller,model);
    controller.var1 = "Variable 1";
  }
});

templates/application.hbs:

<h1>Welcome to {{appName}}</h1>
<br>
<br>
{{var1}}
<br>