YRT. Good system that needs work, or bad system needing overhaul

So I have taken buses in York Region for years. Ever since the Viva was introduced in 2005. But the problems over the years have been growing. Reduced frequency on select routes throughout the region. Buses that have too much time in the schedule so they drive slower than speed limits. Also York Region is growing and the transit cannot keep up with the growth.

One of the biggest problems in York region is the contracted service. Durham just finally took Whitby operations back, and that was the last contracted service. The issue with contracted service, especially with YRT, is the fact that each area is contracted to a different company. Which limits scheduling in some ways. For instance some buses wouldn’t be able to interline with certain routes. For instance a bus from Markham wouldn’t be able to interline to a Richmond Hill route. Or Vaughn to Markham.

Why is this important you may ask? Well it is simple. Routes travel on weird or varying frequencies throughout the region for a few reasons. One being that it might take 31 minutes one way to do a trip. So round trip is 62. If ridership is low they would only want to run the one bus. With some built in recovery on each end that bus could run every 70 minutes. Adding a second bus could allow it to run every 35. But even that is still an odd frequency. Another reason, for the varying frequencies, is because there has been so much time built into schedules to ensure they run on time as much as possible. The last main reason is some routes have been extended to serve new areas, with no additional buses.

Just looking now at the 2024 transit initiatives for YRT. While some of them look ok it also looks like it is small tweaks to make things look better. For instance Route 7 Martin Grove will have Sunday and Holiday service running approximately every 72 minutes. That is one hour and 12 minutes. Frequencies like that are hard to plan around. If you are transferring from another bus and the first bus is late, you miss the connection. Therefore you are now stuck waiting possibly over an hour for the next bus. That is really difficult to do for most people. Especially for those that are paying close to 4 dollars on presto and only getting a 2 hour transfer.

Another change they are looking at for this year is improving the Route 9, 9th Line bus. Peak period frequency will be adjusted from the current 35-37 minutes, to 32 minutes. The 25 Major Mackenzie bus will see an improvement in the middays and evenings. Instead of a service that operates every 60-63 minutes it will operate every 40-44 minutes. Also, they will introduce Saturday service (although I thought they already had Saturday so maybe they meant Sunday) operating from 6am to 8pm every 70 minutes.

A change that was made recently for the Route 26 Maple. They changed the routing to provide two-way service north of Major Mackenzie Drive. Service was extended to Maple Go Station. Maple offers all day go train connections but midday service on this route was discontinued. Rush hour service operates every 42-48 minutes as well.

If there was only one operator for the entire region, even if it was contracted, bus service could interline more. Buses could operate differently, schedules could be setup differently. Currently to many bus routes operate on such abnormal frequencies and it makes it hard to transfer to other routes. Even coming off of the Go Train at some stations is a chore. Trains pull into, then you have to walk to the bus stop or bus loop, hoping your bus is coming soon. If you just missed one, the odds of you waiting 30 plus minutes is high.

What York region needs to do, with help from the Ontario Government, is rebuild this system from the ground up. That means rebuilding routes, and schedules. Running the system like a transit agency not a corporation trying to turn profits. Also they need to run the service like a service. Right now it feels like they are running it because they have to. At the same time they have built transit terminals and bus rapid ways. Then they pat themselves on the back for giving the region some shiny new toys. Those toys may or may not actually do anything to improve service.

One great example of a shiny new toy is the Davis drive rapidbus way. It was built for the Viva Yellow to operate across Newmarket from the 404/Davis lot to the Newmarket bus terminal. The rapid bus way doesn’t operate that whole stretch of the route but for most of it. The construction was in the 10s of millions, probably even 100’s of millions. Time savings on the route running across Davis drive? Less than 5 minutes. That route operates with 2-3 buses depending on time of the day. The route is not a busy route, it has the lowest passenger counts of all the Viva routes currently operating.

Eventually that route will operate up Yonge St to Green Lane and over to the East Gwillimbury station. Even then that route will not carry many more riders. The only way that route would be able to gain more ridership is if it operated to Cornell Terminal. Operating to Bloomington GO station and through Stoufville to Cornell Terminal. It would have more riders because it would be connecting more areas together.

With a second subway extension operating into York region (Richmond Hill centre in 2031), the region has approximately 7 years to upgrade the service. Right now a lot of people in York region own cars, or have access to a vehicle. Just look at the parking lot at most of the malls, or even the roads around major shopping areas. Yonge street is so congested between highway 7 and at least Major Mackenzie but usually even closer to Elgin Mills. Highway 7 is congested throughout Vaughn, most of Richmond Hill east of Bayview and most of the way to McCowan road. Sure there are buses that travel along those roads. Those buses run decent scheduling. It is the other routes, the feeder routes that run less often.

There was a study done years ago that basically summarized how to build better transit. One of those options was to simplify the service frequency so that people can easily remember schedules. The way it was described is buses that are high capacity or express should run 10 minute or better frequencies. If the route is busy but not high capacity then it should operate every 15 minutes. Feeder routes that travel through residential areas with shopping or medical offices along the route should operate every 20 minutes. Feeder routes that only operate through residential should operate every 30 minutes. Then routes that are not really feeder routes and don’t service major areas but are designed to get people to certain destinations that are not overly busy should operate hourly.

In those examples basically the majority of YRT buses should run at 10, 15 or 20 minute frequencies. I would bend that slightly to say that routes in Newmarket which are not busy, or runs that do not carry lots of riders would be better at 30 minute service. The only thing is if that route gets busier then it gets upgraded to 20 minute frequencies. The other part of the report said that buses should start their runs at times on 5 minute intervals. Meaning that instead of a bus leaving at 3:07pm from Richmond Hill centre and the next one at 3:22. Those trips those trips should be adjusted to leave at either 3:05 or 3:10 and then 3:20 or 3:25. That makes it easier for people to remember the times and making it easier in for scheduling purposes.

Having service like this, will boost ridership as it will make a persons trip more predictable and more reliable. Currently there are to many trips that take close to 2 hours one way throughout York region. I pulled up a search on Google Maps, of a trip starting at Finch Station and going to a shopping plaza in Aurora that is surrounded by residential.

Google maps has it being a 40 minute drive but an almost 2 hour bus trip. One of the suggestions was to take the subway south to Union to take a GO Train to Aurora, then transfer to the 68 GO Bus at Aurora station. Another is to take the Viva Blue to Newmarket, take the 55 bus, transfer to the 54. I know that is not a typical trip for some people. For those people that work in North York and live in Newmarket or Aurora, it makes more sense to drive.

I know for me, an hour on a bus isn’t a big deal but it is the transferring between buses that is the issue. Yonge Street has a bus running from Newmarket to Finch Station every 18 minutes or better all day. Now in those smaller areas, there needs to be better bus connections along the way. I would improve the Viva to operate every 15 minutes to Newmarket. Then at certain points along the way, I would have connecting routes that run every 30 minutes, 20 depending on the route. That way you may end up waiting for a bus from the Viva but not as long as you currently do.

This service is going to really need to change, in order to convince people to give up the car. Otherwise traffic is only going to get worse throughout the region and the GTA as a whole. If the region won’t be willing to add a bus to certain runs to allow them to run more often now, all that will happen down the road is the buses will have times cut and frequencies will continue to get worse because traffic will continue getting worse. What that will mean, eventually is the service will continue getting to get worse, all while the ridership drops. As ridership drops fares will keep going up to help fund the service.

Currently the fares are scheduled to go up on July 1 this year. They are also some of the highest in the GTA. Part of the reason why is because ridership has gone down over the years. But every time they raise fares it affects customers that can’t really afford to pay for the service they have. Especially when in some areas passengers may have to take 2 or 3 buses. That means they may pay a second fare because of how infrequent some of the routes are running.

Can YRT be saved as it is? Or is it needing a full overhaul? In my opinion routes need to change. Some shortened, some sections cut or replaced. Frequencies need to be upgraded to make it more convenient. I would say that YRT is a passable transit system, but barely. If you live on a major route you are fine. At the same time there is a lot of work that needs to be done, especially with the opening of the Finch west LRT, hopefully later this year. As well as the eventual extension of the Yonge Subway line to Richmond Hill Centre.

I hope that the service gets better even starting next year. But first thing that needs to be done? All the service needs to be amalgamated under one contractor or no contractors in general. That would be the first step into improving public transit in York Region.