York Region Transit Southwest Division

From CPTDB Wiki

YRT Southwest Division is one of four YRT operational divisions. This division covers routes primarily operating in Vaughan, but also some routes in Markham and Richmond Hill. Mobility Plus service is also part of Southwest Division, including all of the Community Bus routes.

The current contractor for Southwest is Veolia Transportation Services, which operates out of the region-owned facility at 8300 Keele Street. With construction on the new facility close to completion, YRT released a request for proposals in November 2009 for the operation of the Southwest Division of YRT.^[1] Coach Canada, First Canada, Miller Transit, Tokmakjian (Can-Ar), and Veolia Transportation all submitted bids, and in February 2010, it was announced Veolia had won the contract.^[2] The new division commenced operations on August 1, 2010.

The division was originally operated by Tokmakjian Inc, who operated Vaughan Transit prior to the formation of YRT in 2001. The division operated out of Tokmakjian's own facility located at 221 Caldari Road, east of Jane and south of Rutherford and shared with Can-ar Coach Service and SN Diesel. Additional storage space was located on Creditstone Road at Metro Canada Logistics. This location stored buses used on major routes such as 88, 91 and 99. The contract was renewed effective May 4, 2003, expiring April 29, 2006. On October 27, 2005, the contract was renewed again and would expire May 1, 2010. The expiry date was extended to July 31, 2010 to accommodate the construction of the new Keel Street facility. The Mobility Plus contract expired on February 28, 2011, at which time operations were moved to the Southwest Division.

Current operating fleet

Conventional

Fleet number range	Manufacturer	Model	Former operator
001-010, 225-229, 307-310	Orion	Orion 05.501	GO Transit 1150-1159, 1164-1169
311-335, 409-412, 579-581, 703-709, 713-717, 724-730, 801-812, 914-927	NFI	D40LF	First Student 713-717
545-548, 567-568, 619-621, 623	ElDorado	E-Z Rider II	First Student 619-621, 623
1020-1024, 1031-1038	NFI	D40LFR
1045-1046	Orion	Orion 06.501	Vaughan Transit 1045-1046