Sean Marshall

Category: Transit

  • How Brampton commuters are caught in the middle at Steeles

    How Brampton commuters are caught in the middle at Steeles

    The intersection of Steeles Avenue and Main and Hurontario Streets

    Last year, I wrote about a foreseeable problem coming to the corner of Steeles Avenue and Hurontario and Main Streets in Brampton: the planned Hurontario LRT terminus, to be located on the south side of Steeles Avenue, would require thousands of commuters to transfer to Brampton Transit buses on the north-west corner of the intersection.

    This transfer would require crossing ten or eleven lanes of traffic at one of Peel Region’s busiest intersections, with crowding at the street corners, with passengers awaiting a walk signal two separate times to make the necessary connection.

    Screenshots of my questions and Metrolinx’s answers from the June 2020 Hurontario LRT virtual open house

    After twice receiving unsatisfactory answers at a Metrolinx online town hall, and hearing no information about how the crossing at this intersection might be mitigated, on March 9, 2021, I took the step of making an Access to Information Request to Metrolinx under the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act asking for communications between Metrolinx, the Ministry of Transportation, Mobilinx (the consortium awarded the contract to build and operate the LRT), and the City of Brampton.

    I received a package with the requested materials from Metrolinx on July 29, 2021. The request cost me $360.00, plus a $5.00 application fee. Communications from Metrolinx’s privacy officer were professional, friendly, and very helpful.

    Through my request that covered the dates December 1, 2018 to March 11, 2021, I obtained several letters from Brampton officials, including City Councillor Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, Director of Transportation Special Projects Chris Duyvestyn, Chief Administrative Officer David Barrick, and Mayor Patrick Brown to Metrolinx and Ministry of Transportation Officials requesting restoration of the north side stop at Steeles Avenue/Brampton Gateway Terminal. I also obtained replies from senior Metrolinx staff, including President and CEO Phil Verster and the Deputy Minister and the Minster of Transportation.

    What is the communications reveal is that decisions made during the 2014-2018 term of Brampton Council significantly tied the hands of everyone involved — both at the City of Brampton (which reversed its previous decisions when a new council was elected in October 2018) — and at Metrolinx, which was quickly working towards finalizing the contracts to construct the transit project. Unfortunately, important details, such as the final configuration of the Steeles-Hurontario/Main intersection, remain unknown. Neither Metrolinx nor the Ministry of Transportation, which funds Metrolinx, appear to grasp the problems that will be caused when thousands of commuters have to cross two major streets at an especially busy intersection.

    Despite Brampton’s work since December 2018 to move the Brampton Gateway stop back north of Steeles Avenue, including formal requests to Metrolinx and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), and despite a similar request from RioCan, owner of the massive Shoppers World Mall property at Main Street and Steeles Avenue, Metrolinx and the province have held firm in their decision.

    Though Metrolinx’s mandate is to “improve the coordination and integration of all modes of transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area,” terminating the LRT on the south side of Steeles Avenue will only reduce the integration of transit modes at Brampton Gateway.

    While Metrolinx and the MTO cite the difficulties of reopening a project which was getting underway, and concerned about setting precedents for other changes to the Hurontario LRT or other transit projects, this would still be a minor change, costing just $15 to $20 million according to a 2020 letter from Metrolinx CEO and President Phil Verster to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown.

    Sadly, transit riders in Brampton – who do not have affluence or political might — have been left in the middle of this political back-and-forth between municipal politicians, the province, and Metrolinx. They will be forced to endure a more difficult transfer between LRT and bus than anything proposed to them in public consultations.

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  • A good truck stop doesn’t make for a good bus stop

    Following Greyhound Canada’s inevitable final departure, several other companies have begun to take over Greyhound’s busiest routes in Ontario and Quebec.

    In May, Megabus Canada began service between Toronto, Kingston, and Ottawa, operating out of the new Union Station Bus Terminal. Megabus’ terminal in Ottawa is the St. Laurent Shopping Centre, with easy connections to Ottawa’s O-Train LRT and several bus routes.

    In June, Rider Express, a new intercity carrier based out of Western Canada (where it picked up many of Greyhound’s abandoned routes there), began operating its own Toronto-Kingston-Ottawa route, in competition with Megabus.

    Québec-based Orleans Express took over Greyhound’s former Ottawa-Montréal route, joining Ontario Northland and Rider Express at the Ottawa VIA Station. The VIA Station, like St. Laurent, offers a safe, enclosed waiting area, passenger amenities, and easy connections to the O-Train LRT.

    While Ottawa has many options for getting to and from Toronto: VIA Rail, Megabus, Rider Express, and two frequent airlines, connections to other cities and towns are limited at best. Ontario Northland’s single daily bus from Sudbury and North Bay through Renfrew County arrives in Ottawa in the late evening, a time not convenient for most passengers. Commuter routes to nearby communities such as Perth, Carleton Place, and Cornwall remain suspended during the ongoing pandemic.

    But at least there’s some bus service again, providing new capacity on some of Canada’s busiest intercity routes.

    On Thursday, July 15, intercity coach service returns to Southwestern Ontario, with a new Toronto-London service operated through a partnership between Megabus and St. Thomas-based Badder Bus. The route will run non-stop twice daily between the Flying J Truck Stop at Highway 401 and Highbury Avenue and the Union Station Bus Terminal in Downtown Toronto.

    Unfortunately, the Flying J truck stop, while convenient for truckers and other motorists, is a terrible place for a bus stop. The map below illustrates the truck stop’s location, on the southeastern outskirts of London.

    The truck stop was likely chosen for its proximity to Badder Bus’ operations centre in nearby St. Thomas, and for the space available to park and load a bus in the RV/trailer parking area. The truck stop operates 24 hours, with an on-site convenience store, washrooms, and restaurant, so there are amenities for bus drivers and waiting passengers.

    Unfortunately, Megabus and Badder Bus could not pick a less accessible place to catch a bus. The truck stop is surrounded by warehouses, light industry, and agricultural lands. Highbury Avenue is a high-speed highway connecting Highway 401 and central London, with a 100 km/h speed limit. Pedestrians and cyclists are prohibited from using Highbury Avenue (which, until the 1990s, was provincial Highway 126). There are no sidewalks leading south to Wilton Grove Road.

    Looking north on Highbury Avenue towards Highway 401, with the Flying J truck stop on the right. Note no sidewalks — pedestrians and cyclists are prohibited from Highbury Avenue at and north of the 401. (Google Streetview – April 2021)

    The only transit route within walking distance is London Transit Route 30, a rush-hour only service that serves the industrial area south of Highway 401. Downtown London is easily a 45 minute bus ride (when route 30 is operating), and Western University — a major market for Greyhound when it operated — is over an hour away by bus or a $50 taxi ride. Ironically, the northern outskirts of St. Thomas — that city remains disconnected to nearby London — are closer to the Flying J than Western University.

    The Greyhound Terminal in downtown London, two blocks from the VIA Station. At its peak in the 1980s, the terminal served Greyhound, Gray Coach, Erie Coach, and Cha-Co Coach, with buses departing for Toronto, Detroit, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and cities and towns throughout Southwestern Ontario. (Google Streetview – January 2021)

    Greyhound Canada operated out of a terminal in Downtown London, two blocks west of the VIA Rail station. Greyhound shared its building with other carriers in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including Gray Coach, Cha-Co Trails, and Erie Coach Lines. From Downtown London, there were direct buses to Toronto, Detroit, Niagara and Buffalo, and cities and towns throughout Western Ontario. The terminal was a short walk to nearly all of London Transit’s bus routes, making connections to Western University, Fanshawe College, and the major hospitals easy.

    Choosing a truck stop at the far edge of town, nearly inaccessible by public transit reminds me of the final years of Greyhound’s operations in Western Canada. Greyhound abandoned downtown terminals in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon in favour of new stops in outlying area.

    In Edmonton, the downtown Greyhound terminal was expropriated for a new hockey arena, but Greyhound moved for the VIA station in the city’s northwest, which had no public transit access. (Red Arrow, a competing coach operator, maintained a downtown office and stop). In Regina, Greyhound moved from the downtown STC terminal to the airport, which has no public transit connection, and in Saskatoon, Greyhound moved to a truck stop — similar to London’s Flying J — in the northern outskirts of that city. It was clear that Greyhound Canada had no interest in attracting customers and was planning for an eventual withdrawal.

    Given Greyhound’s experience, why would a new carrier choose such a poor location for an intercity bus stop, especially in a city as large and important as London? The terminal need not even be in Downtown London to be a major improvement; a stop at White Oaks Mall, just one interchange to the west at Wellington Street, would provide good local transit connections to Downtown London and even Western University while remaining close to the highway.

    For now, Ontario’s newest bus stop might also be its worst bus stop.

  • The TTC, by the numbers

    The TTC, by the numbers

    Route 116 Morningside was created in 1989, replacing a branch of Route 34 Eglinton East

    On Sunday, June 20, the TTC will renumber two bus routes, Route 5 Avenue Road and 6 Bay. This change comes ahead of the opening of the Crosstown LRT and the Finch West LRT, which will be assigned those numbers, as they added to the city’s rapid transit network in the next few years.

    Route 5 Avenue Road, in service since 1954, will become Route 13 Avenue Road. 6 Bay, which has existed since 1963, will be renumbered 19 Bay. Those follow similar measures in 2001, when the 2 Anglesey and 4 Annette routes were renamed to 48 Rathburn and 26 Dupont, respectively.

    Though there are over 150 bus routes operated by the TTC, including express routes and all-night routes, the TTC was relatively late numbering all of its services. A consistent system for numbering bus routes did not exist until the late 1950s (though they did not appear on system maps until 1964), while streetcar lines were not assigned numbers until 1979.

    Later, new series of route numbers were assigned to the overnight “Blue Night” network in the late 1980s, rapid transit lines in 2001 (just prior to the Sheppard Subway’s opening), and express bus routes only a few years ago. But for the regular service lines (those between 7 and 189), the numbers seem random — not grouped by geography, service type, or year each route was established.

    In the late 1950s, though, when bus routes were numbered for the first time in 30 years, there was a system: numbers would be assigned in alphabetical order, with north-south routes given odd numbers, and east-west routes assigned even numbers.

    Bus on Route 34 Eglinton East, in the late 1950s.
    City of Toronto Archives Series 648, File 29, Item 1.

    Route 1, Armour Heights, was a short shuttle that ran along Avenue Road between the fare zone boundary at Roe Avenue (the end of the frequent 61 Nortown trolley coach) and Bombay Avenue, north of Highway 401. Route 2 Anglesey served several neighbourhoods in central Etobicoke. Route 96 Wilson remains a busy east-west route in North York, and Route 97 Yonge was originally a very frequent trolley coach route between the north end of the subway at Eglinton Station and the City of Toronto limits at Glen Echo Loop.

    In 1964, the numbering system was still mostly intact, with two notable exceptions: 6 Bay, introduced one year earlier in 1963, was a north-south route. Route 17 Birchmount, introduced in 1960, broke the alphabetical order after Route 15 Brimley.

    The opening of the Bloor-Danforth Subway in 1966 and major extensions in 1968 resulted in major route restructurings, and while the TTC tried to maintain the odd numbers for north-south routes and even numbers for east-west routes, that eventually came to an end, especially when further expansion required the use of three-digit numbers in the mid 1970s.

    The interactive map below shows the full extent of the TTC’s service area in 1964, along with the municipal boundaries of that era, before Metro went from thirteen cities, towns, and townships to just six.

    Link to interactive map

    Though today’s regular service bus route numbers do not follow a specific pattern, recent changes to the night bus and express bus numbering systems have restored order to the numbering scheme.

    Number Route Type
    1-6Rapid transit lines (subway, LRT).
    7-189Regular local bus service
    300-396Night bus and streetcar routes, with numbers often echoing the daytime service (for instance, 329 Dufferin night buses follows the daytime 29 Dufferin bus’s route)
    400-407Community buses, offering ultra-local accessible services in selected parts of the city.
    501-512Streetcar routes. Streetcar route numbers were introduced in 1979, coincident with the introduction of the CLRV streetcars. The small area for destination signs in the new vehicles required numbers to be displayed instead of names for information to be legible.
    600-699Subway operations, internal use only. Previously, rapid transit routes were numbered in the 600-series, with Yonge-University-Spadina numbered 601, Bloor-Danforth 602, and Scarborough RT 603. Briefly, the Harbourfront Streetcar was branded as a rapid transit route and assigned number 604.
    900-996Express network bus routes, with numbers often echoing the regular service (for instance, 996 Wilson Express follows the local 96 Wilson bus’s route)
  • Greyhound Canada’s inevitable decline leaves a few gaps to fill

    Greyhound Canada’s inevitable decline leaves a few gaps to fill

    Barry’s Bay, on Greyhound’s Peterborough-Pembroke route, is one of many smaller towns and villages that permanently lost all intercity bus connections since the COVID-19 pandemic

    On Thursday, May 13, Greyhound Canada announced that it was permanently ceasing operations. This should not have come as a shock to anyone following the intercity transport industry: for over three decades, intercity bus carriers in this country were privatized (Gray Coach and Canada Coach Lines in Ontario, shut down (Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation), or strangled by continued cutbacks and poor customer service (Greyhound). In 2018, Greyhound Canada ended all its remaining services between Vancouver and Sudbury. The loss of commuter and student traffic — Greyhound’s bread-and-butter in Ontario and Quebec — due to the pandemic led to a temporary, then permanent shutdown.

    The next day, on Friday, May 14, Megabus — operated by Coach Canada, a subsidiary of UK-based Stagecoach — announced that it would begin service on the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Kingston routes abandoned by Greyhound. Two buses a day will soon operate between Toronto, Scarborough Town Centre, Kingston, and Ottawa, daily except Tuesdays and Wednesdays, terminating at St-Laurent Shopping Centre, a stop on Ottawa’s new LRT. Though this provides a new option for travelers between the big three cities (VIA Rail continues to serve this route), it does not fill the gaps left by years of decline by private intercity bus operators.

    (I updated my map of Ontario’s intermunicipal carriers to include Megabus’ new route).

    Before Greyhound’s website disappeared, I downloaded the PDF schedules for Ontario and Quebec. In 2019, Greyhound operated three routes between Toronto and Ottawa: an express bus, with stops only in Scarborough, Belleville, Peterborough, Madoc, and/or Kanata, a local bus, making stops in cities and towns along Highway 7 between Peterborough and Carleton Place, and a Kingston-Ottawa bus via Smiths Falls. You can view and download the schedules below:

    table-745-toronto-ottawa-expressDownload
    table-746-toronto-peterborough-ottawaDownload
    table-786-ottawa-kingstonDownload

    Peterborough loses two buses a day to and from Ottawa and express bus service to Downtown Toronto (which made the trip in less than two hours off-peak.) Though Peterborough is still connected to Toronto via GO Transit bus Route 88, it can take nearly three hours to go between Union Station and Downtown Peterborough, including a train connection at Oshawa, and many local stops in Clarington and along Highway 115. Other towns, such as Norwood, Marmora, Madoc, Perth, and Carleton Place, lose all bus services, except for a commuter-oriented weekday run between Ottawa and Carleton Place.

    Greyhound has chosen to become irrelevant to most Canadians long before the final shutdown announcement. Northern Ontario, at least, still has Ontario Northland (which has expanded its reach), and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area has GO Transit (though gaps continue to exist in that network). If your rural community is lucky, your local or regional municipality launched a new, subsidized bus or microtransit service. There is also VIA Rail, which serves most larger communities that lost Greyhound services in 2020-2021 (Windsor, Chatham, Belleville, Ottawa, etc.), though it is typically more expensive.

    Despite these continued and emerging services, there remains a need for government support of those crucial links left behind by Megabus, VIA, and GO Transit.

  • A tale of two stations: Brampton and Bramalea

    A tale of two stations: Brampton and Bramalea

    Cutting down trees to make way for a surface parking lot in Downtown Brampton

    Earlier this April, contractors hired by Metrolinx cut down trees on its Downtown Brampton property, where twelve houses once stood. The work, originally scheduled for the week of March 22, did not begin until April 12.

    The tree removal brings Greater Toronto’s regional transit operating and planning authority one step closer to building a new 200-plus surface parking lot in a city that hopes to renew its downtown core.

    Starting in 2016, Metrolinx purchased over a dozen homes along with two four-storey office towers in an area bounded by Railroad, Nelson, and Elizabeth Streets, immediately south of the Brampton GO Station. It vacated and demolished the houses between 2016 and 2019, and left the two office buildings vacant. Metrolinx’s plan was to build a new surface parking lot to expand parking capacity, though in early 2018, the Liberal provincial government announced a new Ryerson University/Sheridan College campus on the existing main parking lot on the north side of the station. Metrolinx’s acquisition of occupied homes — including heritage-listed buildings and a rooming house — made more sense.

    After the election of a new Progressive Conservative government led by Doug Ford, funding for the educational campus was pulled, though the City of Brampton and Ryerson University continued to advance plans for the downtown area. The city bought up more of the downtown core, including the southeast corner of George and Nelson Streets, across from the vacated office buildings, as well as the thirty-year old office building at 2 Nelson Street West, below which is the Brampton Transit downtown terminal. These newly acquired lands would be home to a larger bus terminal that would link to an expanded GO station and a proposed extension of the Hurontario LRT, and an Innovation Centre that would serve the education campus and include a new central library.

    The old plans for the Ryerson Unversity/Sheridan College building on the GO Transit parking lot, and a Centre for Innovation on the southeast corner of George and Nelson Streets. The Metrolinx lands are in the block between the Centre for Innovation and the GO Station/proposed Ryerson building

    As part of its Vision 2040 inspirational guidelines, Brampton now seeks to focus new midrise and highrise development in and around the downtown core, along Queen Street eastwards towards Bramalea City Centre, and in the Main and Steeles area, where the Hurontario LRT will terminate, and where RioCan, owners of Shoppers World, plan to redevelop the mall.

    Already, there are several high-rise developments in the downtown area under construction or in the planning phase. More development lands will be unlocked with the Riverwalk project, which will improve flood protection along Etobicoke Creek while providing an improved public space.

    A two-tower rental highrise development is progressing on the old Dominion Skate Factory lands, across the tracks from the GO Station, bringing hundreds of new residents to the downtown core and right to the station.

    Given Brampton’s urban aspirations for its downtown core, another surface parking lot — adding 200 spots to the existing 861 spaces — is not the right idea.

    At Bramalea Station, construction has nearly finished on a 1,300 spot parking garage, part of a larger project that also includes a new, larger station building, a larger bus terminal, additional pedestrian tunnels, and improved platforms and security features. Bramalea already has over 2500 parking spaces, but unlike in Downtown Brampton, this is a logical space for parking expansion. The station is surrounded by warehouses and factories, at the intersection of two major truck routes, and close to highways. It is not a place that is easily urbanized. However, improved pedestrian and cycling access is very much warranted.

    New garage nearly complete at Bramalea GO Station

    With the expansion of parking at Bramalea GO, why is Metrolinx eager to add another parking lot in Downtown Brampton, especially with Ryerson’s downtown plans on hold?

    Hopefully we will learn more shortly.

  • Why pedestrian safety is a matter of justice for essential workers

    The new YYZ9 Fulfillment Centre in Northeast Scarborough, looking across Steeles Avenue

    In August 2020, in the midst of an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon opened its sixth fulfillment centre in the Greater Toronto Area near Steeles and Tapscott Road in northeast Scarborough. Upon opening, the new warehouse, where consumer orders are packed for delivery, employed 700 workers, 100 more than Amazon initially planned due to high order volumes.

    The starting wage for an Amazon fulfillment centre employee is $17.00 an hour, despite notoriously tough working conditions. With most professional and office workers at home, and with ongoing pandemic restrictions, Amazon has enjoyed significant sales increases. But those workers picking and packing orders are not able to work from home – and workplace spread has been a significant factor in COVID-19 transmission in Ontario.

    Brampton, home to two of the GTA’s fulfilment centres, and close to Amazon’s Mississauga, Milton and Bolton warehouses, has been a COVID-19 hotspot. Like Toronto, Peel Region has been under lockdown and stay-at-home orders since November.

    Like most new logistics facilities, the new Scarborough warehouse, like the other five GTA Amazon fulfillment centres, is in an industrial area on the city’s outskirts, where land is plentiful, but transit and pedestrian access is lacking. East of Tapscott Road, Steeles Avenue narrows from four lanes to two, and there are no designated pedestrian crossings at the intersection with Eastvale Drive. The eastbound TTC stop at Eastvale Avenue was removed in 2018 after a passenger was struck and killed trying to cross the street after disembarking from a 53 Steeles East bus. The next nearest stop, at Tapscott Road, is 300 metres west.

    Steeles Avenue, looking west towards Eastvale Drive and the signalized intersection beyond, at Tapscott Road

    The sidewalk on the south side of Steeles Avenue ends at Tapscott, a few hundred metres west of the Amazon fulfilment centre. On the north side, the sidewalk ends at Ferncliffe Crescent in Markham. Despite a new residential area in Morningside Heights, to the east, there is no sidewalk along Steeles to connect to it. Pedestrians heading to Amazon or towards Staines Road must choose whether to walk in the mud, or on the busy roadway. Though the posted speed limit is 50 km/h, motorists regularly travel at 60 km/h or faster.

    Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)

    A stairway and ramp were built on the north end of the Amazon property, likely with the expectation that a sidewalk on the south side of Streeles Avenue would soon be installed. This would provide improved pedestrian access to the fulfillment centre. But without a safe and logical way to get to it from the street, it remains largely unused.

    Passmore Avenue, on the south side of the fulfillment centre, was rebuilt with a sidewalk in the late fall of 2020, months after Amazon opened. However, it requires a lengthy walk north to Steeles Avenue up Tapscott, and there are no sidewalks on Tapscott from Passmore south, towards McNicoll Avenue. The intersection of Passmore and Tapscott itself – controlled by an all-way stop – still does not feature proper crosswalks.  

    Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)

    Though there are two TTC bus routes that operate to the corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue – 53B/953B Steeles East and 102B/C Markham Road – for months, workers had to walk on the roadway, through a construction site to access those buses. Anyone looking to go east, towards Morningside Heights, or southeast, towards Malvern, still face a long, dangerous walk or a lengthy bus commute.

    The corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue

    The TTC, starting January 11, 2021, began diverting the 53B Steeles East bus to directly serve the Amazon fulfillment centre, finally serving a major industrial trip generator and reducing essential workers’ travel times. Even still, the new sidewalk on Passmore ends at the warehouse entrance – anyone waiting for a bus must still walk and wait in the snow or mud.

    Eventually, Steeles Avenue will be widened, with new sidewalks and bike lanes, and Morningside Avenue will be extended north to Steeles Avenue. However, these improvements have been planned for years and completion is still several years away. Though new warehouses have opened here, civic infrastructure has not caught up.

    New TTC bus stop serving the Amazon Fulfillment Centre on Passmore Road (Sonali Praharaj)

    The TTC’s service change, adding a new bus stop on Passmore Avenue, was a welcome – yet overdue – acknowledgement that essential workers, especially racialized and lower-paid workers, deserve better. It is inexcusable that new employment uses are planned, approved, and constructed before the appropriate pedestrian infrastructure and transit services are in place. It is also inexcusable that after a TTC customer was killed that a nearby bus stop was removed, rather than safety improvements added instead. This is not just a matter of ensuring a basic level of safety for pedestrians – this is a matter of justice for those we consider essential workers.

  • A major malfunction at Major Mackenzie Drive

    A major malfunction at Major Mackenzie Drive

    Viva Blue buses on the new Yonge Street Rapidway, February 2021

    On December 20, 2020, the newest section of York Region’s Viva Rapidways opened for service on Yonge Street between Highway 7 and Major Mackenzie Drive. I have been critical of York Region’s rapid transit projects for several reasons: they are underutilized, they are poorly designed for pedestrians, and without frequent service and convenient connecting routes, the money spent on fancy new infrastructure ends up becoming a questionable investment.

    At least the new Yonge Street Rapidway would serve York Region’s busiest transit corridor, supporting new high-density development in Richmond Hill. Unlike on Highway 7 or in Newmarket, there are no two-phase pedestrian crossings on this part of Yonge. Unfortunately, a botched connection between the new Rapidway at Major Mackenzie Drive created a new problem for the YRT/Viva transit network.

    This issue — along with the other problems with York Region’s Rapidways that I discussed previously — should be held up as lessons on what not to do when building new transit rights-of-way in street medians, be it on Hurontario Street in Mississauga and Brampton, planned BRT lines on Dundas Street in Mississauga, or Queen Street in Brampton.

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  • Mapping Ontario’s transit connections

    Mapping Ontario’s transit connections

    T:GO inter-community transit van at Woodstock VIA Rail station, September 2020

    October 2021

    I made several changes to the interactive map, including a complete update of the GO Transit bus and rail network, including the most recent rail corridor extensions to Bloomington and London, and a new weekday bus route to Brock University in St. Catharines.

    Over the summer, Quinte Transit added a new route between Trenton and Belleville, Simcoe County Linx added a new route between Midland and Orillia, serving Tay Shores and Coldwater, and a new service launched between Brockville, Prescott, and Cardinal in Eastern Ontario.

    Meanwhile, several towns and cities in Southwestern Ontario remain off the map.

    The updated map can be found here.

    June 29, 2021/July 6, 2021: Beginning Monday, June 28, Rider Express, an intercity coach company based in Western Canada (which picked up several routes formerly operated by Greyhound Canada and the Saskatchewan Transportation Company), began service in Ontario. Rider Express is looking to fill some of the gaps left by the recent announcement that Greyhound will cease all domestic routes in Eastern Canada.

    That’s the good news. The bad news is that its first route in Ontario, connecting Toronto Station, Kingston, and Ottawa, replicates Megabus’ new route (which I have also added) and competes against VIA Rail’s Corridor rail service. Several of Greyhound’s daily Toronto-Ottawa buses ran through Peterborough and along Highway 7 through Eastern Ontario, leaving towns such as Norwood, Havelock, and Perth off the map. Though Peterborough is connected to Toronto by GO Transit, it is a long train and bus ride, while Greyhound offered a direct, express service to Downtown Toronto.

    Two steps forward, one step back.

    I made additional changes to the interactive map to show new GO Transit, Can-Ar Coach, Megabus, and Ontario Northland routings to the new Union Station Bus Terminal, which replaces the old GO bus terminal and the Toronto Coach Terminal on Bay Street. Meanwhile Ontario Northland moved from the now-closed Ottawa Central Bus Station to the VIA Station on Tremblay Road.

    Meanwhile, starting July 8, Orléans Express will expand into Ontario, with a new Gatineau-Ottawa-Montréal route, operating twice daily. It will join Rider Express and Ontario Northland at the VIA Rail Station in Ottawa.

    May 2, 2021: On Monday, May 3, “The Link” begins operations on two routes in Selwyn Township and Curve Lake First Nation, connecting several communities with Peterborough Transit and GO Transit at Trent University. The service, which is operated by Peterborough Transit, will run on weekdays, with five trips in each direction on both routes. Fares on “The Link” buses include a free transfer to and from Peterborough city bus routes at Trent, with direct service to downtown, major shopping centres, the hospital and Sir Stanford Fleming College.

    February 15, 2021: A few small updates, including the addition of two community routes in Muskoka District Municipality, a bus connection between North Bay and northern Quebec, and a revised bus stop location for Ontario Northland in Orillia.

    December 14, 2020: I made several updates to the interactive map, including the addition of Huron Shores Area Transit, which launches today. I made a few changes suggested by one of my readers, and added Niagara Region Transit’s on-demand service in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which replaces a fixed route that was cancelled earlier this year.

    November 9, 2020: I made several updates to the interactive map, including the addition of PC Connect in Perth County, which launches next Monday. I mapped Port Hope’s transit connection to Cobourg, as suggested by one of the readers, and corrected a few minor errors.

    October 15, 2020

    Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, several new inter-community transit services launched in Ontario during the last few months.

    Last August, T:GO began service on four routes radiating from Tillsonburg, where there was already an in-town circulator service. Mondays through Fridays, twenty-seater vans operate between Tillsonburg, Norwich, Woodstock, Ingersoll, and other communities, offering connections to Woodstock Transit, the hospital, and the VIA Rail Station.

    In September, the City of Owen Sound, Grey County, Middlesex County, the town of Strathroy-Caradoc, and Prince Edward County all launched their own services, connecting rural communities and small towns to larger centres such as London, Guelph, and Belleville. In addition, Simcoe County expanded its Linx bus service to serve Alliston and Beeton, and other services, suspended during the early days of the pandemic, resumed operations. Also this year, Niagara and Durham Regions expanded their rural on-demand transit services.

    GOST minibus at Owen Sound Transit Terminal

    All these new services help to fill the gaps left behind by private coach companies; these have become especially vital as Greyhound Canada suspended all operations in Ontario and Quebec this year (after abandoning Western Canada in 2018), and Coach Canada (operating as Megabus) cut service on some of its routes.

    While these new intercommunity routes help to serve local needs, there is a wide variety of service provided in rural and small town Ontario. But without provincial coordination, it is nearly impossible to keep track of them all, never mind plan a trip.

    So I went ahead and mapped them all the best I could. Clicking on each route brings up a pop-up window containing further information, including a link to each agency’s website, where available.

    Link to interactive map

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  • Why Durham Region is going the microtransit route during the pandemic – and what it means for other transit systems

    Why Durham Region is going the microtransit route during the pandemic – and what it means for other transit systems

    Durham Region Transit and GO Transit buses meeting at Durham College/Ontario Tech University

    Previously on this site, I expressed my skepticism about Durham Region’s commitment to improving transit service. But in the five years since, the region east of Toronto has done exactly that by creating a route grid along major corridors, fusing together a network from four separate municipal systems.

    While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seen transit ridership plummet across the province, followed by service cuts to match the reduced demand, Durham is doing two interesting things: firstly, it is adding additional service on its main corridors, and it is replacing twenty-five low ridership routes with on-demand transit.

    In my latest article for TVO.org, I take a closer look at Durham Region Transit’s response to shifting ridership during a pandemic and the benefits and pitfalls of microtransit as a potential solution.

  • Stranded at Bramalea GO: Metrolinx’s missed connections

    Stranded at Bramalea GO: Metrolinx’s missed connections

    Temporary bus terminal, Bramalea GO Station
    The inhospitable temporary bus terminal at Bramalea GO Station

    On Tuesday, August 25, I paid a visit to Kitchener.

    Greyhound suspended all operations in Eastern Canada on May 13, 2020 due to low ridership during the COIVD-19 pandemic. Meanwhile VIA Rail reduced its operations, including Train 85, which departed Union Station at 10:55 AM for Guelph, Kitchener, Stratford, and London. Therefore, GO Transit became the only way to get between Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo for a day trip without a car.

    From boarding the 11:53 Kitchener Line train from Union Station, it should have taken just under two hours to get to Downtown Kitchener. Instead, because of a minor train delay, and a failure of the connecting bus to hold for transferring passengers, it took me three and a half hours.

    If we value transit users, passengers must not be left behind when making these transfers, especially when connecting between posted connections.

    (more…)