Will Go Bus to London Ever Be A Thing?

[Dengler Avenue]

Along the 403 Corridor to Hamilton (extending the 15 even more?), along the 401 Corridor to KW (a new branch of 25?) or even along Highway 4 and 7 to KW via Stratford.

Today, as I was driving back from Mississauga to Waterloo, around Milton I saw crazy amount of EB traffic. Then it just occurred to me how people from Western <UWO> (the majority of which, I thought, would be from GTA, but what do I know...) are supposed to go home, if Grey Hound is expensive and carpool rare.

Also, why not connect all the universities/colleges (McMaster, Guelph, UW <including Stratford campus>, Laurier, Conestoga, UWO) together?

Ps: I made sure to look through all pages to avoid making a duplicate thread, and there was nothing about Go Transit to London here.

[Djeffery]

London already has pretty good Greyhound but I could see GO Bus eventually coming here. They have been gradually expanding this direction. My cousin drives for GO and recently relocated to London from Oshawa because she believes London will eventually get service and until then, she commutes to their Brantford location.

Of course, the government is pushing this rather pie in the sky idea that they are going to have high speed rail running from Toronto to London and Windsor within the next few years. I don't see it happening, but if it did, then I don't see GO coming here.

[Dengler Avenue]

I heard that the high speed rail will go through Kitchener (hence Stratford too) though. Even then, I can still see the 15 being extended from Brantford to London.
Lol, for any place west of (and including) Woodstock, there just happens to be 2 ways to reach Toronto.

[warpus]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Grey Hound is expensive

Greyhound is cheap, if you buy your ticket in advance and use a hostelling or student discount you can get to toronto and back for about $40 after everything.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by warpus

Greyhound is cheap, if you buy your ticket in advance and use a hostelling or student discount you can get to toronto and back for about $40 after everything.

I just looked up Greyhound between Toronto and London, what a surprise! There are trips every 2 hours.

Going from KW, on the other hand, there are only 2 trips per day. What a stark contrast. I think this is really where I got the idea that Greyhound is overpriced and infrequent. Perhaps a better topic would have been the possibility of expanding Go service between the universities and colleges.

Sorry folks I just wasn't too well-informed when it comes to greyhound.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I heard that the high speed rail will go through Kitchener (hence Stratford too) though. Even then, I can still see the 15 being extended from Brantford to London.
Lol, for any place west of (and including) Woodstock, there just happens to be 2 ways to reach Toronto.

Stratford isn't one of the proposed high speed rail cities. Toronto, Guelph, KW, London, Windsor (maybe Chatham, I don't recall off the top of my head). I think even Guelph is one stop too many. High speed isn't high speed if it has to stop too many times.

[GlassCity]

I think London is just too far out from the Greater Golden Horseshoe orbit to have commuter bus/train services serving it. While places like Hamilton and KWC seem to be getting brought into the Toronto sphere, I think London is largely immune to that for being too far away, and will remain an intercity transportation-connected independent metro in the future. GO is meant to be a daily commuter service - how many people commute regularly from London to the Toronto area? Until that number becomes high (which I doubt it will) I would guess Greyhound and VIA will suit the context much better.

[Dengler Avenue]

@GlassCity: True, London's too far out with respect to Toronto. However, during AM rush, there's so much traffic on 401 EB from Oxford County to Cambridge that adding a Go bus along the 401 corridor between at least Woodstock and Cambridge is probably justified. This is also the corridor where Grey Hound between Cambridge and London is the most infrequent, at 1 round-trip per day.

[jammer139]

Not going to happen.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

I think London is just too far out from the Greater Golden Horseshoe orbit to have commuter bus/train services serving it. While places like Hamilton and KWC seem to be getting brought into the Toronto sphere, I think London is largely immune to that for being too far away, and will remain an intercity transportation-connected independent metro in the future. GO is meant to be a daily commuter service - how many people commute regularly from London to the Toronto area? Until that number becomes high (which I doubt it will) I would guess Greyhound and VIA will suit the context much better.

GO buses do go to Peterborough; are there really that many people commuting from Peterborough to Toronto? I could see some commuting to Oshawa though.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

GO buses do go to Peterborough; are there really that many people commuting from Peterborough to Toronto? I could see some commuting to Oshawa though.

Are there very many other options for getting to TO from Peterborough though?

[ssiguy]

Greyhound provides a very good service in London and I don't see GO trying to challenge it anytime soon. For me the question is not when GO bus service will extend from Toronto but rather when a London commuter GO service will start.

It patantly ridiculous that the City of London and St.Thomas border each other but there is not even one bus that connects to the other city. St.Thomas is obviously the best first step and it greatly needed but routes to Dor/Ing/Wood and Kom/MtB/Strath are also viable.

[Innsertnamehere]

Ontario's regional bus network is crap in general which is what makes everyone want GO service so badly. Coverage is crap, fares are high, and frequencies are low other than on a few key routes. GO offers affordable, easy to pay fares, high frequency, a solid brand name, and good coverage.

Ontario is reviewing it's regional bus network right now, we will see if they change anything. I think introducing a provincially run bus system for the entire province under the GO brand isn't a horrible idea, but doubt that will happen. And unless it does, don't ever expect GO service to London.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

It patantly ridiculous that the City of London and St.Thomas border each other but there is not even one bus that connects to the other city. St.Thomas is obviously the best first step and it greatly needed but routes to Dor/Ing/Wood and Kom/MtB/Strath are also viable.

Funny you mention that. Back in the 80's when I was in high school, my family moved to St Thomas. I kept my midnight job at Hasty Market in White Oaks but couldn't always use the family car to get there. I was able to take the Greyhound or Chatham Coach Lines bus between St Thomas and London. Greyhound was the highway 3 milk run to the east, and Cha-Co was the highway 3 to the west. They had several buses a day each that did this (sometimes the Cha-Co were the 24 seat van buses). St Thomas was the 4th stop lol, (Lambeth, Scottsville and Talbotville first). I pitied the people going all the way to Fort Erie lol. Crazy that there isn't anything like that now.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

GO buses do go to Peterborough; are there really that many people commuting from Peterborough to Toronto? I could see some commuting to Oshawa though.

Exactly, Peterborough can get tied into Oshawa and not necessarily Toronto, which is only an hour drive. Now it's just a bit longer than that from London to Hamilton or KWC, but my impression (having never been there) is that London would be more self sufficient to really need that.

Because if London's connected to GO, at what point does it stop? It's still a Toronto commuter service at its core. Cause then you could run GO from Sarnia to London, and from Belleville to Peterborough, and from Kingston to Belleville, etc. The Greater Golden Horseshoe can only become so great haha.

[Dengler Avenue]

Lol I think Go transit should just be expanded to the entire province, some more frequent, others not so much. (Yes, that implies taking over Northland Transit.)

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Lol I think Go transit should just be expanded to the entire province, some more frequent, others not so much. (Yes, that implies taking over Northland Transit.)

I’d be in favour of GO merging with Ontario Northland, and expanding it into other areas.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I’d be in favour of GO merging with Ontario Northland, and expanding it into other areas.

Ideally, it will be something like this:
Go transit
- Greater Golden Horseshoe Subdivision
- SW Ontario Subdivision
- Central Ontario Subdivision
- Eastern Ontario Subdivision
- NE Ontario Subdivision
- NW Ontario Subdivision.

[Spicol]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I just looked up Greyhound between Toronto and London, what a surprise! There are trips every 2 hours.

Going from KW, on the other hand, there are only 2 trips per day.

Is it possible you were only looking at Waterloo? If you look at the schedule from Kitchener, there are 14 buses per day leaving from the Charles St terminal.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Spicol

Is it possible you were only looking at Waterloo? If you look at the schedule from Kitchener, there are 14 buses per day leaving from the Charles St terminal.

Interesting. That's all I can say for now.