York Region Transit Needs Grass Roots Input

York Region Transit Needs Help

York Region Transit has been missing the mark for far too long and the last thing they needed was more routes to manage, however with the completion of Davis Drive finally on the horizon we can look forward to that very possibility, after somehow miscalculating the time and costs by 10's of millions of dollars. Tally-Ho. $300,000,000 and counting @ $1 million dollars per bus shelter.


That said, what to do with what we do have, especially since the government's plan to push people out of their cars and into transit seems to be failing, or at least is extremely premature. That's what happens when a town is being lead by a Region which acts conditional to ( Ont / Fed) funding and which is calling the shots on what's actually getting built locally. Did anyone even realize that the terms "sustainable growth" and all of that ilk come from the UN's 2030 plan? Well it does and as we blindly follow it, it's apparent were far to early to keep up with the UN plan of rolling out transit in 2016-17 as well as more "sustainable" "intensification" and "sustainable development".

Meantime what can we do to contain the costs? Trim the fat is a start! York Region Transit has the worst connecting buses I've ever seen, having used it fairly extensively during my campaign, thinking it would be convenient for door to door flyers delivery, but that was a mistake!

Regular Bus route to Main and Water St only runs once per hour and stops at 8 pm

Routes claiming to run every hour actually running every hour and 15 which then made riders miss connecting buses was common thus a run that should take 10 minutes taking an hour and a half at times. Also jumping out at me was the dual service on Davis drive with the new Viva 404 route running virtually the same route as the 55A. 

With one stroke I'd propose to the transit eliminate $300,000 and that's based on brief observation of an obvious flaw - I could look over to the other also fairly empty bus en-route.


I think a board or a committee that includes grass roots riders and drivers should be struck to better service the routes or fine tune some as I believe there are multitudes of savings more to be had.

Add in some Bike Share at these shelter points as well and that may assist with closer connections instead of a person waiting an hour to travel 10 minutes by motorized vehicle. family and day passes should also be made available as not everyone can afford monthly passes nor want to jump through welfare hoops to get access.

GO Bus / train service still seems a confusing intermix with York Transit, often causing people to pay extra fares to go the same distance within the transfer system from one system to another seems confusing for most and and needs rectifying.

Even if the add GO Train service at Mulock Drive as is being sought at this time, that will not eliminate the YRT users who need get there still and also those looking tio travel to the north part of Toronto use the Go so the dilemma will continue.

Amalgamate the system and stream-line it because right now its a waste case losing millions of dollars annually likely!

Tom Pearson

I Really Do Care