There has got to be a better way!

September 1, 2009 8:01 PM

Is there any vaguely reasonable way to get between Waterloo, Ontario and the University of Toronto at Mississauga by means other than private vehicle?

It seems overly ridiculous to turn this into a 6+ hour (round trip) commute by taking the Greyhound to the main campus and taking the shuttle to UTM, but connecting to the Go bus via Guelph looks like it will take almost as long (although I'm finding it difficult to figure out exactly which routes/connections are best, so if you have done it, I'm all ears).

posted by carmen to Travel & Transportation (15 answers total)

Hm. There's Via Rail between Kitchener and Malton, twice a day in each direction. Don't suppose that's useful?
posted by winston at 8:09 PM on September 1, 2009

winston, when I type "malton" or "mississauga" into the Via schedule finder, it doesn't recognize either. How are you finding this stop?
posted by carmen at 8:17 PM on September 1, 2009

Via Rail

Kitchener to Union Station Toronto.

Weekday trip time seems to be 1:45:00

About $20 plus whatever cab you need on both ends.
posted by swimbikerun at 8:41 PM on September 1, 2009

I just retraced my steps. From the trains page I chose Toronto-Sarnia and then clicked on schedules. But now I see that, although Malton is listed as a station on the route, it doesn't have arrival or departure times listed.
posted by winston at 8:46 PM on September 1, 2009

Via will go from Kitchener to Brampton. From there there must be buses to Erindale campus. But if you're planning on doing the trip with any regularity I'd suggest doing it by private vehicle.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 8:53 PM on September 1, 2009

Swimbikerun, a cab from Union Station to UTM would probably be about $60. Unfortunately, U of T's satellite campuses are not very transit-convenient. A 6-hour round trip from Waterloo seems believeable, given that it would probably be about 2 hours roundtrip from downtown TO.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:08 AM on September 2, 2009

Okay, at least I'm assured from these answers that there isn't something obvious that I'm missing. I'll look into the Via to Brampton leg.

Any other suggestions, I'll be happy to hear them.
posted by carmen at 5:27 AM on September 2, 2009

It's more of a long shot, but you could always try the rideshare section of the Kitchener Craigslist or Toronto Craigslist. Toronto seems to be a frequent destination, and you could try to work out a drop-off in Mississauga.
posted by heatherann at 6:03 AM on September 2, 2009

I think Winston means Milton, not Malton. There is actually supposed to be GO bus service introduced between Waterloo Region and Milton/Mississauga, but as far as I know that's not in service yet (although it is supposed to start "in the fall"). Also, the GO service is aimed at commuters, so the initial stops will be along the highway in Kitchener/Cambridge. (For some reason, even when they make steps towards improving transit in the Waterloo Region, it's aimed at people who already have cars - like moving the main Greyhound station out of downtown Kitchener to an industrial-ish area of Cambridge that is not easily accessible by public transit.)

So if you have a car, you may be able to get there somewhat faster or at least without doing all the driving, but if you don't have a car, you're still SOL. Looking for a ride share is probably your best bet. There are some specific websites that encourage carpooling in this area, I can't recommend any offhand but Google is your friend.
posted by Gortuk at 6:38 AM on September 2, 2009

Gortuk, I got all excited there for a minute! I called GO, though, and they said no (all of a sudden I feel like Dr. Seuss). *Maybe* there will be a bus between Guelph and Mississauga but not sooner than January.

I found Carpool Tool, so I'm going to try to find a ride.
posted by carmen at 7:09 AM on September 2, 2009

carmen - keep an eye on GOKW.org - looks like they're trying to collect information about the long overdue implementation of GO service in the area, but obviously it's proceeding more slowly than when originally announced. Not sure why it takes such an enormous amount of effort to run a BUS to a specific location, it's not like they need to lay tracks or anything.
posted by Gortuk at 8:27 AM on September 2, 2009

There are car-share boards in the student centre at uWaterloo. This may help for occasional trips.

I'm pretty sure there are regular (weekend) shuttle buses leaving from uWaterloo to Toronto, and while my mind tells me this is called the 'Magic Bus', Google is failing me on it.
posted by smitt at 8:58 AM on September 2, 2009

The "Magic Bus" only runs of Fridays and Sundays (unless there's a long weekend or something). Here's its info page.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 9:25 AM on September 2, 2009

Thanks guys. I need to go once a week, on a weekday, so occasional and weekend stuff won't work for me. I'm definitely bookmarking GOKW.org, though!
posted by carmen at 10:05 AM on September 2, 2009

On the off-chance anyone is still reading this thread - service from Kitchener-Mississauga was just announced today.

Also would like to apologize to Winston for blaming him for confusing Milton and Malton, since I just discovered the latter exists.
posted by Gortuk at 1:41 PM on October 8, 2009