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Intercity Bus Services

Bordercollie said:
Well from Toronto, one transfer will get you to Collingwood but after that you are on your own. Plus there is no service on weekends.

I'm surprised that the municipalities of Collingwood, Medford, Thornbury and OwenSound collectively fund the Linx Bus to their municipalities? Seems like a no brainer.

Collingwood 22k
Thornbury 19k
Medford 10k
Owen Sound 26k

77k people should be enough to support hourly bus service 7 Days a week. Not including tourists. I'm not gonna suggest a bus going to Tobermory because there is almost nothing between Tobermory and OwenSound.

I'm sure a lot of these people commute to Barrie to go to the mall or doctors appointments.
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Linx is funded and operated by the County of Simcoe. Thornbury, Meaford and Owen Sound (as well as Blue Mountain) are in Grey County. I suspect the taxpayers of Simcoe County would expect the taxpayers of Grey County to kick in.
 
lenaitch said:
Linx is funded and operated by the County of Simcoe. Thornbury, Meaford and Owen Sound (as well as Blue Mountain) are in Grey County. I suspect the taxpayers of Simcoe County would expect the taxpayers of Grey County to kick in.
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I'm sure that they would be happy to, given that currently there is no way for them to travel in that region other than to drive. And is there no weekend bus service with Lynx because there is no perceived demand? Or do they just assume that people don't travel on weekends?
 
Bordercollie said:
I'm sure that they would be happy to, given that currently there is no way for them to travel in that region other than to drive. And is there no weekend bus service with Lynx because there is no perceived demand? Or do they just assume that people don't travel on weekends?
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And it may grow into that. Most of the routes are set up to service college campus' and hospitals, so weighed towards daytime, Monday to Friday.

Taxpayer funding, particularly in rural areas, is not a bottomless well. I say Linx is funded by the County but I don't know if the Province kicks in anything.
 
lenaitch said:
And it may grow into that. Most of the routes are set up to service college campus' and hospitals, so weighed towards daytime, Monday to Friday.

Taxpayer funding, particularly in rural areas, is not a bottomless well. I say Linx is funded by the County but I don't know if the Province kicks in anything.
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If it was part of Metrolink it would be part of PRESTO right? Also Horseshoe Valley is becoming it's own community, and I'm surprised there is no public or private transit of any kind.
 
Bordercollie said:
.I'm not gonna suggest a bus going to Tobermory because there is almost nothing between Tobermory and OwenSound.
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Arguments about which service is viable and how to pay for it aside, I think the people of Wiarton would object to the characterization of the route above.

Granted the 'urban' area is only 2,000, but it does have a larger catchment and does sport a hospital.
 
On the subject of Linx service in Simcoe.......

Have a look at the ridership growth, its been substantial:

1709820912460.png


And into the 2023 the growth was even higher:


1709820965508.png



Source:


At that kind of growth, I would imagine the next 5-year service plan will see some growth of weekend service, and probably a move to 30-minute service on more popular routes.
 
Northern Light said:
On the subject of Linx service in Simcoe.......

Have a look at the ridership growth, its been substantial:

View attachment 546314

And into the 2023 the growth was even higher:


View attachment 546315


Source:


At that kind of growth, I would imagine the next 5-year service plan will see some growth of weekend service, and probably a move to 30-minute service on more popular routes.
Click to expand...

At the very least, there should be weekend and evening service on the Barrie-Wasaga and Barrie-Orillia routes to start, perhaps Barrie-Midland too.

Hourly service is fine for the types of routes it operates; I’d rather see better connections (Tottenham, a more useful stop in Angus) and local transit fare integration first.
 
Bordercollie said:
If it was part of Metrolink it would be part of PRESTO right? Also Horseshoe Valley is becoming it's own community, and I'm surprised there is no public or private transit of any kind.
Click to expand...
I don't know about the direct connection between Metrolinx and Presto, but if linx were to become part of Metrolinx then it would become a service operated by the Province rather than the County. There are no doubt arguments for and against the province operating local transit. One, I think, would be whether and how much the ridership travels outside of the municipality. Note that the city transit services of Barrie and Orillia, as well as other municipalities, are not operated by Metrolinx.

Also, while Simcoe County is within the GGH, Grey County is not, so technically outside of Metrolinx's mandate; although that boundary seems to be fairly elastic.

As for Horseshoe Valley, I would think an area that consists of estate-level housing is probably not a great candidate for early generation transit service.
 
Northern Light said:
On the subject of Linx service in Simcoe.......

Have a look at the ridership growth, its been substantial:

View attachment 546314

And into the 2023 the growth was even higher:


View attachment 546315


Source:


At that kind of growth, I would imagine the next 5-year service plan will see some growth of weekend service, and probably a move to 30-minute service on more popular routes.
Click to expand...
How on earth is their 2020 ridership higher than 2019? Even if they doubled their service I'd expect a substantial drop due to the lockdowns.

For future expansion, I still think that Routes 1 (Penetanguishene - Barrie) and 3 (Orillia - Barrie) should be extended to Allandale station. They could potentially make a cost-sharing agreement with Barrie Transit that would allow Barrie Tansit tickets to be accepted on Linx buses between their current terminus at Georgian College / RVH and Allandale station, potentially replacing Barrie's route 6 for this segment. Linx Route 2 already goes to Allandale station.
 
reaperexpress said:
How on earth is their 2020 ridership higher than 2019? Even if they doubled their service I'd expect a substantial drop due to the lockdowns.
Click to expand...

One of the primary destinations is the hospital where someone might have their weekly dialysis or other non-optional procedures performed. Various other options, like getting a lift with a neighbour during their commute, were taken off the table.

Pure speculation. The only other passenger on the single 2018 trip I made was a patient at the hospital.
 

reaperexpress said:
How on earth is their 2020 ridership higher than 2019? Even if they doubled their service I'd expect a substantial drop due to the lockdowns.

For future expansion, I still think that Routes 1 (Penetanguishene - Barrie) and 3 (Orillia - Barrie) should be extended to Allandale station. They could potentially make a cost-sharing agreement with Barrie Transit that would allow Barrie Tansit tickets to be accepted on Linx buses between their current terminus at Georgian College / RVH and Allandale station, potentially replacing Barrie's route 6 for this segment. Linx Route 2 already goes to Allandale station.
Click to expand...
And that may happen once the Barrie Allendale Transit Terminal is completed. Construction only just got started.
 
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