Two Months of Free Service Starts Today

Today buses are back on the road across most of York Region as service starts up again following the three-month strike. Routes operating today include

• Viva Blue and Purple,
• Most regular weekend routes in the southeast division, and
• Routes 98 and 55 in the north division.

School-special and express routes are back on Monday. To find out when your bus will be running, check the full list posted on YRT's service-resumption page.

It's great to have these buses rolling again, but the best part is that they're all free to board from now until March 31st, part of the Region's efforts to compensate us for the strike and to return the tax money not spent while the buses were off the road. For the next two months you'll be able to ride any YRT or Viva bus in the region without paying a fare. In fact this is true across the entire system, as YRT notes:

Remember, free rides also apply to Dial-a-Ride, Mobility Plus, TTC routes in York Region, GO Route 69 – Sutton GO Bus and YRT routes that were still operating in the Southwest Division throughout the strike.

There's only one catch (that I'm aware of), and that is you'll still need to pay the TTC fare on any TTC bus heading south of Steeles.

These next two months will be a great time to introduce someone to transit, try using it instead of the car for more trips, or just take advantage of the free lifts everywhere to go exploring in the region.

Did you take one of the routes just starting up again today? Post a comment and let us know what it was like.