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Intercity Bus Services

ShonTron said:
Uh, yes.

seanmarshall.ca

Mapping Ontario’s transit connections

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, several new inter-community transit services launched in Ontario during the last few months. Every interurban transit connection in Ontario is included in an …
seanmarshall.ca seanmarshall.ca
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It's pretty bad when the transit service between Stratford and Kitchener is better than it is between Guelph and Kitchener. I can take a bus between Kitchener and Listowel several times a day, but I can't get to Hamilton or Brantford.
 
Regional Transit in Niagara has now received the requisite Triple Majority approval to go ahead.

niagararegion.ca

News Releases - Niagara Region, Ontario

niagararegion.ca

From the above:

1645737231694.png
 
Bordercollie said:
Great but it doesn't say which regions???....
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Its Niagara Region, as I mentioned right off the top.

Are you looking for a list of the local systems?

That's Niagara Falls Transit, St. Catharines Transit, and Welland Transit, along with existing regional service.
 
Northern Light said:
Its Niagara Region, as I mentioned right off the top.

Are you looking for a list of the local systems?

That's Niagara Falls Transit, St. Catharines Transit, and Welland Transit, along with existing regional service.
Click to expand...

There is still Fort Erie Transit, which operates an on-demand service separate from NRT's On-Demand. Port Colborne and NOTL switched from fixed-route to NRT On-Demand in the last two years, while Thorold always contracted to St. Catharines Transit.
 
ShonTron said:
There is still Fort Erie Transit, which operates an on-demand service separate from NRT's On-Demand. Port Colborne and NOTL switched from fixed-route to NRT On-Demand in the last two years, while Thorold always contracted to St. Catharines Transit.
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What about Grimsby?
 
gabe said:
FlixBus stepping in to fill some gaps.


https://twitter.com/x/status/1507057724437278729
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I've taken a look at FlixBus' services, and they are really taking the classic low-cost carrier strategy of avoiding terminal fees. Whereas the other operators depart from facilities such as Union Station in Toronto and St. Laurent Station in Ottawa, FlixBus is just loading from sidewalks without any facilities.

The one massive exception, is that they somehow secured a slot on Platform 15 at Guelph Central Station. That's a prime location, the one of the closest bays to the station building. I can only assume that the City of Guelph offered them that spot for free, based on how stingy they've been with their other stops.

Here are the combined schedules for 11 April 2022, also showing Rider Express and Megabus. If I've missed any other intercity bus companies on these routes, let me know.

Kitchener - Toronto seems well suited for travel from Toronto to Kitchener, though not quite correctly timed for a full working day's commute. Seems like a good call, filling in the notable gaps in GO Transit's train schedule.
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The single daily Ottawa-Toronto trips are simulateous with other existing trips from other companies. That may expalain why FlixBus is playing up the "express" non-stop nature of the route, in contrast to the existing offerings.
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The Toronto-Niagara tmes are a bit more spread out from Megabus, but still largely redundant. FlixBus may actually have an advantage here in that their street-corner stop is in Clifton Hill near the touristy part of Niagara Falls, as opposed to Niagara Falls Station, which is in the old town centre.
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I was browsing through Ontario Northland's 2022 bus timetables, and I was surprised to note that most ONTC bus trips have been cut back to Yorkdale, no longer serving downtown Toronto. At first glance, this might seem like a disappointing development, but looking into the travel options, it actually makes a lot of sense. There is no fast driving route from the 400 to Union station, but there are two fast transit routes: TTC Line 1 University, and the GO Barrie Line. ONTC has improved connections to those lines by adding Highway 407 Station to most bus trips (previously only a couple buses per day), and also adding a new stop at King City GO station to connect to off-peak GO trains.

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Here's a timetable where I've filled in the most relevant GO bus and train trips, as well as some approximate subway trips.
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Barrie Allandale Waterfront station is only served by one southbound trip per day. But that makes sense because there are only two trips which pass by during a time of day that trains are running, and the other trip already starts at Union anyway.

At King City station there's a pretty good connection from the southbound Sudbury bus to the 12:07 GO train, but the transfer from the preceding North Bay bus is long enough that most people would better off staying on until Highway 407 station. In the northbound direction, the buses are timed such that you'd always just miss them. A 3-minute transfer is nowhere near enough buffer when connecting from a mixed-traffic GO bus to an ONTC bus which only runs a few times a day. The 6-minute transfer from the 13:34 train is a bit more plausible, but it still seems unlikely that people would accept that level of risk.

In most cases, the subway is the fastest option for people accessing Ontario Northland services from the City, mostly because you don't need to wait half an hour for it to show up.
 
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