APTA-2048
Senior Member
They went to Downtown Oshawa and then to Yorkdale.
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- Thread starter Jonny5
- Start date
Bordercollie
Senior Member
Actually this is how most InterCity bus service should run. But why downtown Oshawa and not the GO station?
ShonTron
Moderator
Historical reasons. The Oshawa bus terminal opened in the 1970s and was originally managed by Gray Coach. There wasn’t even any GO train service to Oshawa until much later, and even then, it wasn’t until the 1990s that GO trains made off-peak service there.
The Oshawa GO Station is in the middle of nowhere, and it’s only recently that there’s useful DRT and onward GO bus connections there.
Garuda
Active Member
Whoever operates the Oshawa - Lindsay - Haliburton bus service should take a page out of GOST and don't even bother with going anywhere near Toronto. Too much traffic and not enough turn around. GOST is smart because they start/end at Guelph Central Station and avoid all of the GTA traffic. Start the trip at Oshawa GO station, then the bus terminal in downtown Oshawa and head north. Like GOST, this bus service should be operated by a municipal government City of Kawartha Lakes.
ShonTron
Moderator
Not a bad idea. You could even start it at Durham College and rely on GO and DRT routes there for onward connections to the GO stations, downtown, and even to York Region.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
At the current cost of housing in the GTA it wouldn't surprise me that students are going to Lindsay for housing and commuting to Durham College.
nfitz
Superstar
Are the bus times in and out of downtown really that bad? When I'm on the DVP the buses go ripping past me in the bus lane. Some kind of bus-only lanes into the Union bus-terminal would solve a lot.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
Take into consideration the time to get to the DVP and then to the terminal.
nfitz
Superstar
The 407 and then the HOV lane from the north works well. And once they open the HOV lanes on the 401.
Downtown is an issue. Gosh, I wonder if they could build a terminal at East Harbour.
lenaitch
Senior Member
It would be pretty hard to convince municipal taxpayers to fund a bus service that serves other municipalities. Connecting your taxpayers to other areas is one thing but I'm guessing more Haliburton residents would want to connect to Lindsay than the other way around.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
The bus lanes on the DVP are specifically reserved for GO Transit and the TTC. Private bus lines an Ontario Northland need to sit in traffic. The lanes also don't cover a very large portion of the DVP so even GO and (former) TTC buses need to sit in traffic for a fairly substantial portion of the route.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Several of the bus companies that arrived in Ontario following deregulation were from Alberta (Red Arrow and Rider Express), and now Flixbus is heading west to return the favour:
From an email I received that doesn't seem to be reproduced on their website:
From an email I received that doesn't seem to be reproduced on their website:
nfitz
Superstar
I've seen a lot more "private" buses pass me there than GO, this year.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
And I would hope so! Seems extremely wasteful to limit such use to just buses which happen to be red or green…
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Here is the sign according to Streetview:
I guess it's possible that GO had 'authorized' other companies to use the lanes.
It's not a matter of being red or green, it's a matter of being trained to use those specific bus lanes.
Only specifically authorized vehicles are permitted because that the lanes are severely substandard and therefore have additional rules for operation. If I recall correctly from my TTC training, you can only drive in those bus lanes when traffic is moving slowly, and you are not allowed to exceed 80 (?) in the lanes.
If they just allowed any random charter bus in the lanes, you'd end up with some out-of-town bus driver trying to go full speed in the lane and crashing.
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