From Richmond Hill Centre to Toronto Pearson Airport

I was just reading the local paper today and discovered that Richmond Hill has a very useful service providing riders a way to get to the Toronto Pearson International Airport from the Richmond Centre located at Highway 7 and Yonge Street at a very low cost of $5.10 per ride. This is way cheaper than the $50.00 to $60.00 (including tip) to use an Airport Limousine to get from Southern Richmond Hill to the Airport. Return trips are available as well on an hourly basis. The reader who wrote in said it only took 20 minutes for a one-way trip.

The Richmond Centre is now a transportation hub with among many other bus routes, VIVA bus connections going as far north as Newmarket, east to Unionville & Markham, west to Martin Grove and south to Finch and Downsview Subway Stations, as well as York University Campus. With so many buses going in and out of this Hub, this Airport Express Route would be invaluable not only to Richmond Hill residents, but also residents of neighbouring municipalities.

I was vaguely aware of it when the VIVA buses I use in my daily commute started announcing an Airport Express Route which I thought only became available in recent months. But, after several diligent internet searches, I found to my surprise that this Airport Express connection had in fact, been available since May 2008. Yet, nearly a year later, a recent user of the Airport Express route found this route averages only 2 riders a day. Meanwhile there are 22 bus runs daily going each way for a total of 44 daily runs. What a shameful waste of taxpayers' money!

I am no political activist, but after this discovery, I felt compelled to write a letter to both the mayor and a councilor in Richmond Hill to ask why the town and various transit websites such as the YRT (York Region Transit, VIVA Transit and GO Transit) aren't actively promoting this Fantastic service. This kind of service is something I'm sure the city of Toronto would readily boast about, but sadly there is very little promotion of this service by the Town of Richmond Hill, This, I imagine is why ridership is so low.

I also wrote a letter to the Richmond Hill Liberal to spread the word. It is my hope that after voicing my concerns that the town of Richmond Hill and the various Transit commissions would get their act together to promote this wonderful service.