York Region Transit Canada's Wonderland Terminal
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| [[Image:|250px|York Region Transit Canada's Wonderland Terminal]] | |||||||||||||||||||
| Local Routes | YRT 4/4A, 20, 165, 720, 760 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Opening Date | 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||
Canada's Wonderland Terminal is a seasonal transit terminal located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada and serves Canada's Wonderland theme park. The bus terminal is located within the employee parking lot on the north side of the park. It is only used during the summer months when the park is in operation.
The terminal is a small bus loop, with five "platforms". No automated ticket machines are available, mainly due to the fact no Viva routes serve the terminal.
History
York Region Transit has been serving Canada's Wonderland since inauguration via the old Vaughan Transit's route 4, which provided service when the park was open during the summer. MiWay and Brampton Transit also offered express service from their respective city centres to Canada's Wonderland at a premium fare, and GO Transit provided service from Yorkdale and York Mills Bus Terminal.
2005 saw the introduction of TTC route 165A and YRT route 20 into the park, connecting the northern reaches of Vaughan and North Toronto. 2006 saw new express routes 318 and 319 operated by YRT, connecting the park from Markham/Richmond Hill and Aurora/Newmarket. However, the express routes proved unsuccessful due to the infrequent service and high costs and were eliminated after 2007. 2009 saw the elimination of YRT route 4 from the terminal, instead serving Canada's Wonderland from Jane St., which actually provides passengers with a closer entrance to the park compared to the terminal.
In 2011, to make way for the construction of Leviathan, the terminal was shifted about 25 metres north.
In 2012, Brampton Transit withdrew and discontinued their route 66 Wonderland Express and York Region Transit introduced route 760, providing direct service between Wonderland, Vaughan Mills Terminal, Richmond Hill Centre Terminal and Finch GO Bus Terminal. Also, with the completion of Leviathan, the GO Transit bay was separated about 40 metres from the rest of the bays.
Route 20 was moved away from the terminal on June 30, 2013, also now serving Canada's Wonderland from Jane St.
MiWay route 88 Wonderland was discontinued in September 2015 due to low demand.
The Spadina Subway Transit Strategy proposed the elimination of route 760, however the route remained in operation.
At the request of York Region Transit, TTC-contracted route 165C was replaced with YRT route 165 operating from Pioneer Village Terminal.
With the proximity of TTC's Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station and the option of using other local routes to connect to the park, service on GO Transit route 60 Wonderland was eliminated for the 2019 season.
GO Transit again briefly served the terminal during the Spring-Summer 2022 season with extensions of its Route 47 and 52 routes. YRT also introduced a 720 Highway 407 Terminal/Wonderland route serving the terminal around that time.
Effective November 6th 2022, YRT operations were moved from the old terminal to the new Major Mackenzie West Terminal at the north end of the park.
Routes
Four bus routes provided service Canada's Wonderland (buses serviced the terminal from May-October only):
- YRT 4/4A Major Mackenzie (connect from Jane Street or Major Mackenzie)
- YRT 20 Jane (connect from Jane Street)
- YRT 720 Highway 407 Terminal/Wonderland
- YRT 760 Vaughan Mills/Wonderland
Previous routes:
- YRT 165 Weston (discontinued branch)
- GO Transit 60 Wonderland
- Brampton Transit 66 Wonderland Express
- MiWay 88 Wonderland
All remaining routes moved to the new Major Mackenzie West Terminal effective November 6th 2022, with the 4 and 20 rerouted from street-loading to directly entering the terminal.
