Hammad Motiwala | Contributor
Featured Image: The fair favoured those students that spend various moments of their day in the hustle and bustle of commuting to and from school. | Basma Elbahnasawy
York hosted its Annual Transportation Fair on September 7 in Central Square and Campus Walk. The event featured representatives from all public transport agencies, such as GO Transit, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), Brampton Transit (Züm), and VIVA/York Region Transit (YRT), assisting students with their transit needs and inquiries. Students learned about the improvements that the agencies had worked on for the academic year of 2017-2018.
The fair favoured those students that spend various moments of their day in the hustle and bustle of commuting to and from school.
These are the students that need annual updates and have most of the questions. “We are here today to answer any questions people have,” says Dominik Simpson, student planner at TTC. Simpson was very thrilled for the future of public transit with TTC, due the opening of the new subway station on December 17 at York. TTC has two new upcoming stations: one at the north of campus near Black Creek Pioneer Village and one at the center of campus.
“It’s a great opportunity to not only connect a lot more students in residences to the downtown area, but also to connect more people to York,” he adds.
He also commented on the improvements that are being dealt with currently at TTC. He discussed the future of the TTC, and the implementation of automatic signals and drivers that will improve the frequency of incoming subway trains.
Moreover, planning is being done to connect more bus networks to the new subway stations. Simpson also noted that they’re planning to reroute the buses that will be reduced by the subway to other areas that are needed.
Sabrina Chirco, Marketing Coordinator for Brampton Transit, spoke on the purpose of attending the fair. “It is a good way to inform new students—or students who are already here—that Brampton Transit does indeed come into York.”
This year, Brampton Transit has a new service that they are promoting at the York Transportation Fair. The new 501C operates between the Bramalea terminal at York by Highway 407, and is an extra bus for York students.
“The more resources we get for us to deploy more buses, they are definitely going to where we see the demand and that is definitely York,” she adds.
Brampton Transit’s improvement in arrival times is now every 7.5 minutes.
The attendance of GO Transit at this event was very fruitful for students looking for free prizes at the ‘spin the wheel’ counter. GO Transit has been rather successful in opening two new Sunday 25F routes that depart from York at 2:25 p.m. and 6:25 p.m.
Moreover, a new hourly express 48F route, with stops at York, will now save up to 30 minutes of commute time compared to the regular 48 route.
