York Region Transit Markham-Stouffville Hospital

Markham-Stouffville Hospital
Blue	Purple	Pink	Orange	Green
Local Routes		1, 9, 16, 401, 402, 406, 411, 416, 417, 522
Style		Regular
MultiRide Available		No
Opening Date		1991
Next Station		Wootten Way (West)

Markham-Stouffville Hospital is a transit terminal in Markham, ON. It is located on Church Street east of 9th Line, adjacent to Markham-Stouffville Hospital. It is the easternmost transit terminal in York Region.

Inside the hospital building, tickets may be purchased, as well as snacks from a kiosk and vending machines.

History

In 1991, Markham-Stouffville Hospital opened, becoming the 3rd hospital in York Region. Markham Transit extended routes 1 and 7 into the hospital, looping via Butternut Lane in front of the hospital. The only development east of 9th Line was the hospital itself, so there was no ridership attraction other than hospital visitors.

Starting in 1998, the Cornell subdivision was created, starting just north of the hospital grounds. This provided more potential riders, and as more houses were built, demand increased. YRT took over operations from Markham Transit in 2001, and by this time routes 1, 2A, 85, and 201 were operating through Markham-Stouffville Hospital. Ridership started to increase rapidly through 2004 and 2005, with the addition of 3 more routes: 9/9A, 18 and 303. With these routes, Markham-Stouffville Hospital started to take on it's terminal functionality.

By now, the small driveway that had been used as the terminal was starting to get overcrowded, with 5 full-time routes and 2 rush hour shuttles all sharing the stopping area. The schedules were made for routes to connect to each other, so 4 of the 5 routes all arrived and departed at the same time. This caused problems, since the driveway only allowed room for three buses at a time. As well, Viva was to be introduced to the hospital on January 2, 2006, with Viva Purple and Viva Green to be extended. Hospital administration opposed Viva's extension, as the bus stop was already overcrowded, and the frequent service Viva would bring would push it past the safe (and possible) limit.

YRT's solution was to build a new terminal just north of the hospital, as empty land had been put aside for such a use. However, Cornell residents opposed the terminal's construction, as they did not want the sound and pollution from buses laying over to decrease the value of their homes. The land was eventually used as a parking lot for hospital employees.

A temporary stop for Viva was built on Church Street near the hospital, and Viva Purple buses started serving it on January 27, 2008. YRT also relocated many buses to the Church Street and Country Glen Road intersection, in order to move them closer to the Viva stop. Routes 1 and 85 stopped on the southwest corner, while route 2A was moved to the northwest corner stop. Viva uses its vivastation on the southeast corner (farside), while routes 9 and 18 use the southeast corner stop since they still served the hospital stop. These changes were unpopular, as there were no shelters (besides the standard vivastation only serving Viva Purple) and little protection from the elements at the new stops on Church Street. The lack of concrete pads up to the curb meant that the (often heavy) loads of passengers had to walk across grass, which had quickly turned to muddy ground after a few weeks.

New stop pads were poured in mid-2008, with the westbound stop receiving a pad in August and the eastbound stop in October. Shelters were installed in November 2008, to provide passengers some protection from the elements during winter.

Long-term hospital expansion on Butternut Lane eventually forced routes 9, 18, and 522 out of the loop, and these routes now serve the eastbound stop on Church Street as well. Routes 9 and 18 initially continued to loop through Butternut Lane, albeit in a clockwise direction, until November 2011 when they changed to a large on-street loop via Bur Oak, Highway 7, and 9th Line.

June 30, 2013 brought another round of route changes around the hospital vicinity. With the successful lobbying from the Cornell Rate Payers Association to minimize transit routes serving there, route 1 was extended east to serve the Box Grove Walmart. Route 2A (now route 14) was removed from the hospital and now serve Box Grove Walmart directly via Copper Creek Drive. Route 9 was extended south to the Box Grove Plaza at Copper Creek Drive, and now serve new northbound and southbound bus stops on 9th Line.

After many years of being simply a hub, Markham-Stouffville Hospital was finally added to the transit terminals list in the October 2013 transit information guide update, and was added in the Winter 2014 system map.

On September 4, 2022, Cornell Terminal opened, with most routes serving Markham-Stouffville Hospital moved to the nearby terminal. Some routes continued to serve Church Street in order to provide service to the hospital.

Routes

Current stop layout.

All routes serve one of the six stops in the hospital vicinity on Church St. or 9th Line.

• Eastbound stop: YRT 1 eastbound, 16, 303 afternoon, 401 morning, 406 morning, 416 morning, 417 morning
• Westbound stop: YRT 1 westbound, 303 morning, 401 afternoon, 402 afternoon, 406 morning, 411 morning, 416 morning
• Northbound stop: YRT 9 northbound
• Southbound stop: YRT 9 southbound
• Vivastation: Located on Church Street east of Country Glen Road, the station consists of a full-sized shelter. Its stop number is 9810. Aside from Viva Purple, route 522 also stops here.