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Intercity Bus Services

I can’t imagine ridership is particularly high north of Lindsay. Life up there basically needs a car, I imagine there aren’t too many people living up there without one who wouldn’t be able to drive down to Lindsay if they had to. The lost service to Lindsay is a shame though and should definitely be replaced with GO service, which would probably get much more ridership just based on brand recognition alone.
 
APTA-2048 said:
From TOK Coachlines (formerly Can-ar Coach):

November 6th, 2023

Dear Valued Customers,

It is with regret that we wish to inform you of an important decision concerning our services.

After 34 dedicated years of serving the Haliburton, Kawartha, and Durham regions, we regret to announce that we will be Discontinuing the Haliburton to Toronto line-run effective January 31st, 2024.

For those who have already purchased tickets, you have the option to use them before the aforementioned date, or if preferable, you can request a full refund by February 29th, 2024.

  • Tickets purchased online, please request via email with your ticket number, contact name and phone number to info@tokcoachlines.com
  • Paper tickets purchased from ticket agents, please send original to TOK Coachlines, 221 Caldari Road, Concord, ON L4K 3Z9
  • Valid tickets purchased by November 6th, 2023 will be honoured for a full refund
Despite our unwavering commitment to servicing customers in this region, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain exceptional standards in service given the rising operating costs combined with the ongoing province-wide driver shortage, this difficult decision became inevitable.

Serving the wonderful communities of Haliburton, Kawartha, and Durham has truly been an honour. We deeply appreciate the trust and loyalty you have shown us throughout the years. Your continued patronage has been the backbone of our operations, and for that, we are immensely grateful.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your journey.

Warm regards,

TOK Coachlines
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This is really sad to see but not suprising at all. Especially after they pulled out of Union Station. Through the grape vine I heard that dealing with traffic was a major frustration.

Lindsay having a college and a sizeable population running a GO bus to Lindsay and onto Peterbrough via Highway 7 (stopping in Omemee) is a no brainer. Think of it as a milk run version of the current route 88

I also think it would be a viable alternative to run a smaller bus from Oshawa Station to Lindsay, Fenlon Falls, Minden and Haliburton. The same way Guelph Owen Sound Transportation runs a bus from Owen Sound to Guelph Central Station.
 
ShonTron said:
Kawartha Lakes could at least theoretically operate a bus between the GO Transit service on 35/115 to Lindsay and maybe as far as Fenelon Falls. It has a basic local transit service in Lindsay itself but that’s about it.
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One of the complicating factors here is 'The City of Kawartha Lakes' which I consider one of the more illogical geographic setups.

The primary municipal relationship for Lindsay is Peterborough, and if they were in the same County, a municipal route linking the two would make sense and the financial resources to support it would be there.

The Lindsay-Ptbo connection, as noted by @Garuda above to me would the first priority. Ideally, it would be a GO route, but absent that, a cost-shared route with Ptbo makes the most sense to me.

***

In the medium term, extending the Stouffville Corridor to Uxbridge (the tracks are there, but the rail/signals are not currently appropriate for GO), would seem like a way to better extend inter-city service into this area. While re-extending to Lindsay is viable in the longest term, its a bit of a pipe dream for the moment, with the bulk of the corridor secure as a trail I would not be investing resources lobbying for that anytime soon.

The more rural areas to the north, as others have suggested, don't currently look viable as a routing, though the closer we bring higher quality bus/rail, the more that viability may improve, 2-3 decades out.
 
innsertnamehere said:
The lost service to Lindsay is a shame though and should definitely be replaced with GO service, which would probably get much more ridership just based on brand recognition alone.
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I agree that there should be a provincial bus network linking up all regions in Ontario, but a brief look into Metrolinx‘ mandate shows that this can’t be GO Transit. Ontario Northland seems to be the most naturally placed, but maybe it‘s time to create an „Ontario Southland“ to cover everything which is neither Northern Ontario nor the Golden Horseshoe…
 
As far as service to the Highway 35 corridor goes, I would offer a variation on my response to @ShonTron ’s Twitter post regarding Peterborough - get a 407 GO service all the way along the 407 (as opposed to most of the way) to the 115/35 P&R - it feels like GO planning hasn’t adjusted to the existence of that last section of express route.

That was an idea for a continuous, express service from Peterborough across the top of the GTA, but could also support some form of either shuttle or through service to Lindsay, thus providing options to
  • Peterborough (indirectly)
  • Oshawa/Bowmanville and from there to Toronto, or eastwards with VIA.
  • via 407 to one or more of Markham, Langstaff, 407 TTC, Pearson
In theory you could also have that vehicle do a triangular route to Peterborough but I think that would have a lower priority over maxing the potential of the wider GO network
 
innsertnamehere said:
I can’t imagine ridership is particularly high north of Lindsay. Life up there basically needs a car, I imagine there aren’t too many people living up there without one who wouldn’t be able to drive down to Lindsay if they had to. The lost service to Lindsay is a shame though and should definitely be replaced with GO service, which would probably get much more ridership just based on brand recognition alone.
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I agree; although I note the wording of their media release cited staffing problems rather than ridership, so who knows.

Unless you are one of the thousand or so residents of either Minden or Haliburton villages and need or plan to travel outside of said village, you need wheels. Moreso if you live anywhere else in either the Country or City.

Northern Light said:
One of the complicating factors here is 'The City of Kawartha Lakes' which I consider one of the more illogical geographic setups.
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No kidding. I know a few folks who live in what used to be Victoria County outside of Lindsay and, even after all of these years, still don't like it. I don't think there is much of a de-amalgamation movement anymore. The longer you go, the more expensive and disruptive it becomes.
 
Tweeted out here and link in tweet is this. I'm not sure if Zach is here, but great account to follow.

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ShonTron said:
Updated the Intercity Transport map for the end of 2023.
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Do you happen to have a comparison map to 2019 when Greyhound was still around? To my poor memory, today's service appears to hit nearly all of the same towns and many with improved service.
 
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rbt said:
Do you happen to have a comparison map to 2019 when Greyhound was still around? To my poor memory, today's service appears to hit nearly all of the same towns and many with improved service.
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I was able to download the Greyhound Canada schedules before they were wiped, including Western Canada.

For Toronto-Ottawa or London-Toronto, I’d say yes. The trouble is though you have to figure out the different operators with their own schedules and stop locations. So it’s not as simple. But for Toronto-Peterborough-Ottawa, nope, absolutely not.

Greyhound also provided a through route and schedule. Sure you can get from Toronto to Winnipeg today by bus, but that means taking three different Ontario Northland buses.

Things are grimmer out West.
 
Over the holidays, I completed my quest to ride every company operating between Toronto and Ottawa with a ride on Flixbus. I've now ridden Megabus, Rider Express, Book A Ride, Flixbus, Red Arrow, Via Rail, Air Canada and Porter.

What struck me about Flixbus (and also Rider Express) was how bloody fast they drive. The Rider Express driver in particular was an absolute maniac, but Flixbus actually achieved the highest speeds.

Here's a quick trip report with some clips of the speedometer:
 
reaperexpress said:
Over the holidays, I completed my quest to ride every company operating between Toronto and Ottawa with a ride on Flixbus. I've now ridden Megabus, Rider Express, Book A Ride, Flixbus, Red Arrow, Via Rail, Air Canada and Porter.

What struck me about Flixbus (and also Rider Express) was how bloody fast they drive. The Rider Express driver in particular was an absolute maniac, but Flixbus actually achieved the highest speeds.

Here's a quick trip report with some clips of the speedometer:
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Was the driver's name Ricky Bobby?
 
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