A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star:
A new life, living in transit
Thousands of recent immigrants spend much of their day on public transit, watching suburbs blur by from home to work
Jun. 2, 2006. 06:14 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER
It's mid-afternoon, two days since the TTC wildcat strike, and factory worker Zabiullah Obaidi waits patiently at a remote bus shelter that seems like it's on the edge of the world.
He's standing near the intersection of Steeles Ave. and Highway 27 just after 2 p.m., between the second and third legs of his two-hour commute to work.
About 35 other factory workers, all but one of them men, and all but one from visible minorities, have gathered here after stepping off one of three TTC buses that come to this stop.
They are among the thousands of blue-collar workers in the GTA who rely on transit for their livelihood, spending as many as five hours a day in a daily trek to and from sprawling suburban areas where industries locate, new immigrants may find housing they can marginally afford — and buses are few and far between.
Obaidi, who emigrated from Afghanistan six years ago, builds plastic window frames. Like the others waiting here, he works for Royal Group Technologies, one of North America's largest manufacturers of vinyl building products.
Because there is no existing transit route into the company's industrial park, two kilometres north of Steele the firm has chartered a York Region Transit bus to shuttle employees back and forth from the TTC stop.
"Depending on how fast I reach here, I spend 25 minutes, sometimes 35 minutes, waiting for the YRT bus," says Obaidi, who, unlike his colleagues squatting behind a nearby retaining wall, chooses not to take shelter from the intense sun.
For his 3 p.m. shift, he left his home near Jane St. and Wilson Ave. just before 1 p.m. to catch the 96 Wilson bus.
After a 10-minute wait, then a 20-minute ride, he arrived at a stop near Humber College to transfer onto the 46 Martin Grove bus.
There was another 10-minute wait, followed by a 15-minute ride that brought him here just before 2 p.m. The chartered shuttle won't leave 'til 2:35 p.m. and gets to his factory shortly before 3 p.m.
At the same time of day, the trip from Jane and Wilson to the factory takes 15 minutes by car.
But Obaidi's daily journey isn't bad, compared with Percy White's.
"Me come from Markham, mon," says White, laughing through his Jamaican patois.
"Sometimes I leave home around 12 noon for my shift that starts at 3." He says his waiting times between buses are much longer than Obaidi's.
"The worst is at night when I don't get home 'til after 2:30 in the morning," he said, noting that his shift ends at midnight. "I spend five hours a day commuting."
A report released Tuesday by York Region underlined the difficulties faced by recent immigrants who, increasingly, are settling in the region first rather than Toronto, but then face the isolation that comes with being poor, a long distance from many government and settlement services, and without a car in a setting that practically demands four wheels.
Stephen Lam, director of Immigrant Services and Community Programs for Catholic Community Services of York Region, contributed to that report. "For people new to the country, they often have to rely on public transit because they don't have a driver's licence or they can't afford a car," Lam says.
"They sometimes have to walk more than 20 minutes to get to a bus stop and then have to transfer multiple times before getting to work. It's not like downtown Toronto."
He says the extended commutes they must make to the factories where they find work bring extra problems, especially with child care and limited time for families to spend together.
That's an issue Kabir Enamul worries about.
"I spend about five hours a day commuting right now," says the former computer engineering professor from Bangladesh. Enamul has worked at Royal Group as a quality-control inspector for 18 months.
When he's on the 3 p.m. shift, his daily journey begins with a 15-minute walk from home just after noon to the Victoria Park subway station.
That's followed by a 45-minute ride, then a transfer at Kipling to a bus that takes him to the YRT shuttle stop. Enamul says that once his wife and children come from Bangladesh, he'll go back to school.
"Right now, because my family is back home, I have not bought a car — I need to save money — and I have been too busy to move. Right now, I only focus on work. All I do is go back and forth between work, that's all."
AoD
A new life, living in transit
Thousands of recent immigrants spend much of their day on public transit, watching suburbs blur by from home to work
Jun. 2, 2006. 06:14 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER
It's mid-afternoon, two days since the TTC wildcat strike, and factory worker Zabiullah Obaidi waits patiently at a remote bus shelter that seems like it's on the edge of the world.
He's standing near the intersection of Steeles Ave. and Highway 27 just after 2 p.m., between the second and third legs of his two-hour commute to work.
About 35 other factory workers, all but one of them men, and all but one from visible minorities, have gathered here after stepping off one of three TTC buses that come to this stop.
They are among the thousands of blue-collar workers in the GTA who rely on transit for their livelihood, spending as many as five hours a day in a daily trek to and from sprawling suburban areas where industries locate, new immigrants may find housing they can marginally afford — and buses are few and far between.
Obaidi, who emigrated from Afghanistan six years ago, builds plastic window frames. Like the others waiting here, he works for Royal Group Technologies, one of North America's largest manufacturers of vinyl building products.
Because there is no existing transit route into the company's industrial park, two kilometres north of Steele the firm has chartered a York Region Transit bus to shuttle employees back and forth from the TTC stop.
"Depending on how fast I reach here, I spend 25 minutes, sometimes 35 minutes, waiting for the YRT bus," says Obaidi, who, unlike his colleagues squatting behind a nearby retaining wall, chooses not to take shelter from the intense sun.
For his 3 p.m. shift, he left his home near Jane St. and Wilson Ave. just before 1 p.m. to catch the 96 Wilson bus.
After a 10-minute wait, then a 20-minute ride, he arrived at a stop near Humber College to transfer onto the 46 Martin Grove bus.
There was another 10-minute wait, followed by a 15-minute ride that brought him here just before 2 p.m. The chartered shuttle won't leave 'til 2:35 p.m. and gets to his factory shortly before 3 p.m.
At the same time of day, the trip from Jane and Wilson to the factory takes 15 minutes by car.
But Obaidi's daily journey isn't bad, compared with Percy White's.
"Me come from Markham, mon," says White, laughing through his Jamaican patois.
"Sometimes I leave home around 12 noon for my shift that starts at 3." He says his waiting times between buses are much longer than Obaidi's.
"The worst is at night when I don't get home 'til after 2:30 in the morning," he said, noting that his shift ends at midnight. "I spend five hours a day commuting."
A report released Tuesday by York Region underlined the difficulties faced by recent immigrants who, increasingly, are settling in the region first rather than Toronto, but then face the isolation that comes with being poor, a long distance from many government and settlement services, and without a car in a setting that practically demands four wheels.
Stephen Lam, director of Immigrant Services and Community Programs for Catholic Community Services of York Region, contributed to that report. "For people new to the country, they often have to rely on public transit because they don't have a driver's licence or they can't afford a car," Lam says.
"They sometimes have to walk more than 20 minutes to get to a bus stop and then have to transfer multiple times before getting to work. It's not like downtown Toronto."
He says the extended commutes they must make to the factories where they find work bring extra problems, especially with child care and limited time for families to spend together.
That's an issue Kabir Enamul worries about.
"I spend about five hours a day commuting right now," says the former computer engineering professor from Bangladesh. Enamul has worked at Royal Group as a quality-control inspector for 18 months.
When he's on the 3 p.m. shift, his daily journey begins with a 15-minute walk from home just after noon to the Victoria Park subway station.
That's followed by a 45-minute ride, then a transfer at Kipling to a bus that takes him to the YRT shuttle stop. Enamul says that once his wife and children come from Bangladesh, he'll go back to school.
"Right now, because my family is back home, I have not bought a car — I need to save money — and I have been too busy to move. Right now, I only focus on work. All I do is go back and forth between work, that's all."
AoD