York Region Transit BRT Division

YRT BRT Division is one of four YRT operational divisions. The BRT division handles operation of the 5 Viva routes, operating in Aurora, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Toronto and Vaughan.

BRT Division is operated under contract by Miller Transit.

History

The first contract to operate and maintain the Viva bus rapid transit system was awarded on March 30, 2005 to 4286847 Canada LP and Connex Canada. Connex was later purchased by Veolia Transportation(Now Transdev), with the numbered company also eventually changing its name to York BRT Services LP. The original contract was for a 5-year term, expiring September 5, 2010, and containing a provision to be extended for another five years. Negotiations for a contract extension began in July 2009, with a 3-year extension being awarded until September 7, 2013 with a provision to negotiate two additional years. On April 11, 2014, York Region approved a 7-year contract for operations of the BRT Division to TOK Transit effective September 6, 2015. This was pushed up to June 28, 2015, in order to coincide with the summer service changes.

Originally, the division consisted of two separate facilities. The Newmarket facility, located at 18106 Yonge St., was owned by the region and opened in 2005 in accordance with Viva operation. It was used for storage and maintenance of the AG300 fleet for operation on Viva Blue. A second cluster of facilities, located at 22, 51A and 91 Caldari Rd., provided vehicle fuelling, washing and maintenance (located at S&N Diesel), administrative facilities, and storage for the A330 fleet, operating on Viva Purple, Viva Orange, Viva Pink and Viva Green. The Caldari cluster was later consolidated into the 91 Caldari Rd. property. The Newmarket facility was given to North Division upon the termination of the contract with First Student on January 16, 2012, and Viva Blue operations were temporarily run out of the YRT Southwest Division.

The lease for the 91 Caldari Rd. property expired on September 30, 2012, and a new temporary property at 8301 Keele St. (across from YRT Southwest Division) housed operations for all of BRT division in one property. A new permanent region-owned facility near Leslie Street and 16th Avenue began construction on December 21, 2012, and opened on March 31, 2015. Viva began operating from the new Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility (OMSF) on June 28, 2015, concurrent with the beginning of the new operations contract with TOK Transit. One conventional route (90/90B Leslie) was transferred to operate out of BRT Division beginning in July 2018, in order to use articulated buses on it (as the existing Southeast Division garage was unable to maintain articulated buses).

Operations were awarded to Miller Transit effective July 1, 2023, as part of a new combined operations contract with Southeast Division.