Intercity Bus Services

[ShonTron]

There's the mythical London-St.Thomas transit connection!

Nope, it already exists.

A bus to St. Thomas, finally

A daytrip to St. Thomas – Canada’s Railway Capital – is finally possible without a car. It’s worth a visit. I have also updated my Ontario intercity transport map for June 2024.

seanmarshall.ca

 

[Garuda]

Now that St Thomas has bus service what is the largest city in Ontario without bus service? My educated guess is Lindsay. Given the college, I'm surprised GO doesn't run a bus.

 

[ShonTron]

Now that St Thomas has bus service what is the largest city in Ontario without bus service? My educated guess is Lindsay. Given the college, I'm surprised GO does run a bus.

Yes, it’s Lindsay. After that, the largest towns without rail or bus service at least three days a week include Hawkesbury, Caledonia, Dunnville, and Petrolia.

Bruce and Huron Counties are poorly served, especially with growing populations in Port Elgin/Southampton and Kincardine due to Bruce Nuclear expansion.

 

[Bordercollie]

Yes, it’s Lindsay. After that, the largest towns without rail or bus service at least three days a week include Hawkesbury, Caledonia, Dunnville, and Petrolia.

Bruce and Huron Counties are poorly served, especially with growing populations in Port Elgin/Southampton and Kincardine due to Bruce Nuclear expansion.

Lindsay could be serviced by GO transit by extending the Peterborough route. Did CanAr not bring that route back?

 

[Garuda]

Lindsay could be serviced by GO transit by extending the Peterborough route. Did CanAr not bring that route back?

CanAr become TOK Coachlines and pulled out.

Entertainment Tour Travel Inc (now thats a business name) launched serviced in Feb 2024 but quietly ended bus service shortly after.

IMO, Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County should band together to offer a smaller bus service from Oshawa Station. This would offer quick tunraround without dealign with GTA traffic.

 

[Allandale25]

 

[reaperexpress]

I've been saying for a while that Barrie-Pearson seems like an underserved market. I thought Ontario Northland would be the easiest operator to run it since they could simply serve Pearson instead of Yorkdale. It's already faster to take the subway from VMC to Yorkdale than the ONTC bus anyway.

I guess OnexBus beat them to the punch

 

[lenaitch]

I've been saying for a while that Barrie-Pearson seems like an underserved market. I thought Ontario Northland would be the easiest operator to run it since they could simply serve Pearson instead of Yorkdale. It's already faster to take the subway from VMC to Yorkdale than the ONTC bus anyway.

I guess OnexBus beat them to the punch

A one or two trip per day service to an airport that essentially operates 24/7/365, particularly when it is the terminus service. is going to have limited potential.

 

[ShonTron]

A one or two trip per day service to an airport that essentially operates 24/7/365, particularly when it is the terminus service. is going to have limited potential.

Flixbus’s Sudbury-Toronto and Owen Sound-Toronto routes also stop at Barrie and Pearson.

ONTC’S buses from Sudbury and North Bay all stop at Highway 407 Station now, and offers through ticketing to GO (including the Route 40 bus).

 

[reaperexpress]

ONTC’S buses from Sudbury and North Bay all stop at Highway 407 Station now, and offers through ticketing to GO (including the Route 40 bus).

Yeah and they also have an ONTC sign at Pearson directing passengers to Route 40. But passengers heading to/from the airport are disproportionately likely to be discouraged by transfers because they are more likely to have luggage, and more likely to be people who don't have any experience riding GO Transit (or even transit at all).

If ONTC ran all their buses to Pearson there'd be 7 round trips per day, which isn't terrible. The Orléans Express bus service from Ottawa Station to Montréal Trudeau airport only has about 4 trips per day yet in my experience it is very popular.

 

[lenaitch]

Yeah and they also have an ONTC sign at Pearson directing passengers to Route 40. But passengers heading to/from the airport are disproportionately likely to be discouraged by transfers because they are more likely to have luggage, and more likely to be people who don't have any experience riding GO Transit (or even transit at all).

If ONTC ran all their buses to Pearson there'd be 7 round trips per day, which isn't terrible. The Orléans Express bus service from Ottawa Station to Montréal Trudeau airport only has about 4 trips per day yet in my experience it is very popular.

My response was more to the suggestion for a service originating/terminating at Barrie & Pearson service (with or without interim stops). Jogging all of their routes originating at Union over to Pearson then back would seem to be quite disruptive.

You're right that seven is something. Business travellers wouldn't want to spend any more time at the airport than they have to. Neither will those with young kids. Younger vacation travellers, perhaps. Older travellers prefer door-to-door service. When I drove for the airport shuttle service (hourly 24/7), even with Barrie as the major population centre, it represented about 1/2 of our business - the rest came from the surrounding County. We did door-to-door, and most people likely won't schlepp their luggage to a single pick-up point. Even when we did van-to-van transfers, we handled the luggage.

 

[Garuda]

I've been saying for a while that Barrie-Pearson seems like an underserved market. I thought Ontario Northland would be the easiest operator to run it since they could simply serve Pearson instead of Yorkdale. It's already faster to take the subway from VMC to Yorkdale than the ONTC bus anyway.

I guess OnexBus beat them to the punch

Not to go off topic too much but I feel that Lake Simcoe Regional Airport could use a quick turnaround flight from western Canada. I'm surprised a budget airline hasn't looked into such a flight from Calgary.

 

[reaperexpress]

My response was more to the suggestion for a service originating/terminating at Barrie & Pearson service (with or without interim stops). Jogging all of their routes originating at Union over to Pearson then back would seem to be quite disruptive.

You're right that seven is something. Business travellers wouldn't want to spend any more time at the airport than they have to. Neither will those with young kids. Younger vacation travellers, perhaps. Older travellers prefer door-to-door service. When I drove for the airport shuttle service (hourly 24/7), even with Barrie as the major population centre, it represented about 1/2 of our business - the rest came from the surrounding County. We did door-to-door, and most people likely won't schlepp their luggage to a single pick-up point. Even when we did van-to-van transfers, we handled the luggage.

Most of Ontario Northland's Toronto bus services terminate at Yorkdale without continuing to Union. Because it's faster to take the subway from Hwy 407 station than it would be to stay on the bus anyway.

Here's the current schedule:

My proposal is to simply swap Yorkdale for Pearson. It only takes 5 minutes longer to get from Hwy 407 Station to Pearson than it does to Yorkdale, so it would be a pretty minimal change to most ONTC schedules. For the few trips that do actually go to Union, they could either truncate the trips at Pearson or add about 10 minutes to their trip to Union. Getting from Pearson to Union doesn't take much longer than getting from Yorkdale to Union anyway.

 

[lenaitch]

Most of Ontario Northland's Toronto bus services terminate at Yorkdale without continuing to Union. Because it's faster to take the subway from Hwy 407 station than it would be to stay on the bus anyway.

Here's the current schedule:

View attachment 587445

My proposal is to simply swap Yorkdale for Pearson. It only takes 5 minutes longer to get from Hwy 407 Station to Pearson than it does to Yorkdale, so it would be a pretty minimal change to most ONTC schedules. For the few trips that do actually go to Union, they could either truncate the trips at Pearson or add about 10 minutes to their trip to Union. Getting from Pearson to Union doesn't take much longer than getting from Yorkdale to Union anyway.

View attachment 587444

Good points (although i might argue the added time from Pearson to Union). ONTC would likely need so type of layover facility at or near the airport.