Where’s the bus?
Lindsay has no transportation service to connect it with communities outside Kawartha Lakes
By David Rapaport
The map of the GO bus service in our region is a surreal portrait of public transit dysfunction for Kawartha Lakes. The 88 GO bus departs Peterborough to the Oshawa GO train station 12 times daily. The 81 GO bus has two return trips every day between Beaverton and the Whitby GO train station. The five most northern towns on that bus route: Port Perry, Greenbank, Sunderland, Cannington and Beaverton have a combined population of about 18,000. Poor old Lindsay, with a population of just over 20,000, has no regular regional public transit to connect it to other centres.
We should not be forced to jump into our cars to access the GO and Via Rail systems that hug Lake Ontario between Kingston and Toronto. It is possible to make the 35-kilometre trip (one-way) to the 35/115 GO bus drop-off station to pick up the 88 GO bus. But how prudent or efficient is that?
There are three persuasive reasons why our area should have better access to the GO bus system. First, driving is becoming more expensive. This is evident to any driver who recently filled up. Nonetheless, here’s one relevant example. Assuming (generously) that your car gets 100 kilometers per six litres and that the price of petrol is $1.50 a litre; a round trip to the 35/115 GO bus drop-off from Lindsay is about $9. Making matters worse, the maximum park time is two days.
–Second, Lindsay is getting older. Not just the city, but the population. Our beautiful town and its surrounding areas are a popular retirement destination for seniors fleeing Toronto (including yours truly). According to census data from Statistics Canada, 36.5 per cent of Lindsay residents are over 60 as opposed to 25 per cent for all of Ontario. That discrepancy is heightened for the 80-plus demographic; 10 per cent for Lindsay, 4.5 per cent for Ontario. Once we reach 80, driving becomes more difficult. Does that add to the immobility of our 80-plus neighbours? Do they become more dependent on the goodwill of others or on an expensive taxi ride to Peterborough or elsewhere? Yes, yes and yes.
–And third, there’s the Environment. The absence of regular regional public transit forces us to use automobiles to go anywhere. As I pointed out in a previous Advocate op-ed, climate change is a real existential threat to our lives, particularly to our children and their children. All of our economic and transportation strategies must include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show that public transit is far greener than the private use of cars.
This area is not an island. Many of us work, study, access health care, and visit family and friends elsewhere. For our less fortunate neighbours, those with lower incomes and fewer resources (i.e., no car) they are stuck. Lack of mobility is a major deterrent to exiting the poverty trap.
Fortunately, Kawartha Lakes is currently developing an Active Transportation Master Plan, scheduled to be complete by March 2023. Let us hope that it breathes new life into developing regional transit options. Let us hope that the new council and the new mayor finally bring those buses to Lindsay. That would be a significant legacy.
–David Rapaport is a Lindsay resident and instructor at Trent University.
I have been saying for years that Lindsay needs better public transportation to nearby towns. I use to go from Richmond Hill to Lindsay on Go bus to Oshawa and wait on a street corner (Bond and Centre) for one hour for Canar (now Tok) to take me into Lindsay. Due to aging I can no longer do this and therefore have minimized my visits to family and friends in Lindsay.
I’ve been waiting since 1970
I’m 70 now also older
I can’t go anywhere because pension so low no car and now Lindsay still no go bus
No life
Hopefully somebody is noticing this
A sad thing when you can’t go anywhere if you don’t have a car is this 1980
Anyway hope we get a go bus stop between peterbiro bobcaygeon Lindsay to Oshawa
We have mote population and the most old people in Kawartha
Canada burn here but I sure dislike their even care of us
Taxpayers
All of you will be old one day money it not you may need a bus
I launched a Rural Weekly Shopping Bus Service called White Lightning and very successful in CKL a few years ago. We picked up people every Tuesday and connected Lindsay, Omemee, Dunsford, Bobcaygeon, Oakwood, Fenelon Falls and Little Britain for shopping and medical. CKL and the Mayor and Council of the previous municipal government offered not one once of support financially, sponsorship or even a positive word. They did not understand prosperity and economic development happens when basic transportation needs are created for workers, adults, teens, seniors and for business in our entire city. That our youth permanently moves away without bus transportation to obtain employment in other towns. Connecting the community is vital and essential for any growing region. To this day wonderful friends, residents email or call , will I revive our free Rural Bus Service after COVID ?
My reply is simple that we lost our Sponsors due to the strain of the pandemic and the CKL has NO desire to connect it’s people in small towns with transit or look at any model like ours to support residents.
That is insane! Why rely on the Go Bus when you had the solution for them already? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that connecting our communities is vital for our development from not only a business perspective, but a community perspective. Need to vote accordingly to make it happen. If this council has no interest in their own community, then it’s time for a new council.
If enough people contact GO customer service and ask for bus service to lindsay…. They will listen. Contact your local councillors and ask for their assistance.
Completely agree!
The people of Fenelon Falls can no longer even get the TOK bus to Lindsay since it has changed to discharge only and only 3 times a week. We have no local bus and no taxis. I know of Seniors who have no choice but to drag their bundle buggy down the road (Hwy) with no sidewalks through the snow just to do their laundry.
We at Lindsay Cleaners have been agent for Tok for at least 3 years. I rarely see more than ten passengers on the bus when it has passed thru 5 stops. That works out to about $400 a trip. Would anyone pay a driver for a day of work and fuel a bus, maintain permits and insurance for $400? Yes there were more passengers before covid but they are not back yet. Go transit is a different story.
This public transportation problem is also affecting students, those mainly of Fleming College. Accommodation for students who come with their families is expensive and insufficient in Lindsay and students can’t even seek accommodation on the outskirts of Lindsay because there are no buses. Not even the school has a shuttle service, making it harder to leave Lindsay. Something seriously needs to be done.
All I can say is good luck
We can only build houses
If the ckl government don’t come up with the idea it won’t happen
They obviously are more interested in us going elsewhere to visit and shop as we have not much in larger stores and more specialty stores etc
Since forever they turn down any chances of growth, except housing and not necessarily affordable
We should definitely have a GoBus or Train coming to o Lindsay!
[…] isn’t just Trent Lakes citizens who are trying to get out of their cars. Check out this article from the Lindsay Advocate about how Kawartha Lakes wants to […]
Please bring back the bus that comes to and departs from Lindsay to other cities.
Or tell me how someone can travel if they do not have a vehicle or license.
Thank-you.
Email is:
Just found this article after discovering there is no bus from Toronto to Fenelon Falls. Not having a car, it was advised by google to take a bus to Peterborough then a $150.00 cab to Fenelon Falls. As a semi-retired person considering an eventual move to a smaller community, unfortunately the lack of transportion options will keep me on the Via Rail line. Surely this will have economic consequences. Is the province trying to turn these communities into ghost towns? Its so disappointing.
My friend lives in Fenelon Falls. I used to take the Can-Air bus from Toronto Union to visit her. There was at least one bus a day from Union at 5 pm. Now my friend is going to have to drive to Oshawa Go to pick me up which is a long drive for her back and forth. I was considering moving out to the Lindsay/Fenelon Falls area but definitely not now there is no transit from Toronto. It’s going to be a 4 plus hour trip for me as I actually live in Brampton.