Bus
riders, if you travel to the west and north of Toronto,
check your schedules. While only minor changes will take
effect Monday for some patrons of Mississauga Transit, GO
bus users across the GTA should find out if their routes are
changing over the weekend. Service to universities will be
reduced for the season, some routes serving York Mills
subway station will no longer stop there, and look out for
new bus runs and routing in York Region.
There
are even a few outright cancellations. Guy Owen of Richmond
Hill writes: “On catching the regular GO bus to the Richmond
Hill train station, we all learned unofficially from the
driver that connections to the Richmond Hill station would
be cancelled effective April 26. Obviously we were all
shocked at this news. Apparently there will be some form of
bus connection to Langstaff station, which by train is only
5 minutes down the line from Richmond Hill. However, a bus
trip down Yonge St. at that time of the morning would be
much longer.”
Mr.
Owen, a “currently loyal GO Transit passenger”, is thankful
the bus driver spoke up, but is surprised that riders
weren’t given formal warning a lot sooner. He tried several
times this week to communicate with GO by email and phone to
learn the fate of this special connector bus, but as of
Wednesday had no firm news.
Edmund
Shea, Senior Information Officer for GO Transit, replies,
“We're sorry if passengers feel frustrated. Please bear with
us -- we recently switched to a new scheduling software
system and have had some delays in getting final schedule
change information to our customers. This info, including
the new bus schedules effective April 24, is now on our
website. Our bus drivers are our frontline ambassadors and
have also been communicating the changes to passengers.”
Mr.
Shea says the GO Bus connection with the Richmond Hill GO
trains was not “used by many passengers, so we decided to
serve a bigger market using Langstaff station instead.” To
save money and make better use of buses within GO’s system,
he says the new connection with Langstaff can be made
directly via Newmarket B buses and passengers can also take
York Region Transit (YRT) to either station.
The GO
official says that for riders like Mr. Owen, the morning
travel time will change by only a few minutes, but admits
“In the evening, his trip will be between 10 and 20 minutes
longer, depending on which homebound train he takes. We
apologize for any inconvenience, but we cannot sustain the
use of dedicated
buses on
this route.”
Keep in
mind that some of the changes taking effect this weekend on
GO and Mississauga Transit (MT) may offer riders new or
faster bus options. In case you cannot locate a new printed
schedule, call GO at 416-869-3200 or try www.gotransit.com,
and click on “New bus schedules effective April 24.” If you
live in the Richmond Hill area, keep your eyes open for
substantial changes to YRT bus routes starting May 9. The GO
website has links to both MT and YRT.
Next
week, City of Toronto officials will unveil ways to improve
traffic and transit in the Don Valley corridor, the often
very congested area between Bayview and Victoria Park
Avenues.
Planners from the city, the TTC and GO want feedback from
the public on several options, including special bus lanes
on the Don Valley Parkway, direct buses to downtown from the
highrise neighbourhoods of Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park,
and perhaps even a new GO Train station at Eglinton Ave.
There
are public meetings next Tuesday, April 27 at the Don Mills
Library at 888 Lawrence Ave. E. and Thursday, April 29 at
the Walter Stewart Library west of Coxwell Avenue at 170
Memorial Park Ave. On both evenings, an open house starts at
5:30 p.m., followed by presentations and discussion at 7
p.m. For details, go to:
www.city.toronto.on.ca/planning/dvp.htm or call
416-392-8572.
Send
e-mail to
transit@eddrass.com.
Include address and phone number.