Ottawa intercity bus terminal relocation

[roger1818]

The article smelled badyly of oportunism, where he knew the station had been demolished, so he planned this trip to see the vacent lot and then spun the article to make it sound like he was surprised.

[rocketphish]

Travelling by bus from Ottawa to a nearby city? Prepare to wait in a parking lot
"It kind of baffles me that Ottawa is the nation’s capital, but there’s so many indirect routes to travel. All roads really should lead to Ottawa," one public transit advocate says.

Sadeen Mohsen, Special to the Citizen
Published Jan 27, 2025 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 4 minute read

It’s -10 C on an early winter morning and Emma Bieler is looking for her bus stop.

She’s in a parking lot near the IKEA beside Highway 417. There are no easily visible signs to indicate where the bus pickup is located. There is no shelter. There are no bathrooms. Most nearby stores aren’t open before 9 a.m.

Bieler, a first-year political science student at the University of Ottawa, is heading home to Whitby, 55 kilometres east of Toronto, and this is the most economical way there since she doesn’t have her own car. She had to book an early Uber ride to get to this parking lot because she didn’t want to miss her bus.

“I usually try and get to the stop 30 minutes early,” she said.

Bieler finds the Flixbus pickup location because she sees a few others standing with luggage in tow in a makeshift line.

The advice on Flixbus website says the bus will stop “in the Pinecrest Mall Parking lot, near the blue yellow signs for zone E, on the other side of the lot from Michaels.”

<more>

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/travellin...by-city-prepare-to-wait-in-a-parking-lot

[roger1818]

Interesting article, but I will add the following comments/corrections:

1. While in theory you could get to Toronto on Ontario Northland, you would have to change busses in North Bay. The bus to/from Ottawa goes from/to Sudbury (via North Bay et.al.).
2. The root cause of this chaos is the the deregulation of intercity busses by the Ford government in 2021 (Bill 213 in 2020).

[zzptichka]

A Terminal at Tremblay road would've been ideal. Has this ship sailed?

[Uhuniau]

The "easily visible signs" problem is something that should probably be regulated if intercity bus carriers aren't going to step up to the challenge of providing a minimum basic service.

[VANRIDERFAN]

^^
If you think its bad to get a bus between Ottawa and Toronto, you should try to get anywhere on a bus west of Thunder Bay!!

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

A Terminal at Tremblay road would've been ideal. Has this ship sailed?

I think the problem is no one wants to pay for it. The bus companies stop where they get they can get the cheapest rate. There may also be some incentive to use a different stop than your competitor to ensure that people wait for them and not take the bus that comes first.

[DTcrawler]

Even if we still had a central bus terminal, would these companies use it? That’s the case in Toronto, where a terminal exists but most of these buses still stop in random, various locations (albeit at least more centrally located).

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Even if we still had a central bus terminal, would these companies use it? That’s the case in Toronto, where a terminal exists but most of these buses still stop in random, various locations (albeit at least more centrally located).

Here in London, there are 3 bus companies doing regular runs to Toronto now, Flix, Onex and Intercity. Flix and Onex stop on the side of the road in front of the Via station. Intercity bought the former Greyhound terminal a block west of Via and operates there. I was actually surprised how many buses were at the Intercity station when I went by around noon hour today. Back when I was a teen, I used to take the bus all over the place on various bus lines in the region and they all ran from the Greyhound station. I wonder if Intercity tried to get these other companies to operate from there, or if they refused to have them operate there. I can see ups and downs on either side of that argument but I know from a traffic standpoint that it would be cool to have the buses at Via to stop blocking a traffic lane for however long they sit there.

[Coho]

Is there room for an expanded bus parking area at the VIA station? While it's not exactly downtown at least all of the transportation options (train, intercity bus, LRT) would be centralized at a single location, and riders could hope on Line 1 to get downtown.

[Acajack]

On the Quebec side they use the Place d'accueil stops at Portage on Maissoneuve (under the pedestrian walkways) in Hull, and have a dedicated stop at Station de la Cité which is the main transit hub in the Gatineau sector.

I'd think they could negotiate the use of a bus stop at Hurdman or St-Laurent in east Ottawa. There is more room there than at Tremblay Station, and really the number of transfers from VIA Rail to intercity motorcoaches is probably quite minimal.

[OTSkyline]

A departure from Pinecrest/Ikea is quite bad. Most of the people taking the bus to Toronto effectively don't have a car (otherwise they would drive), so to ask them to bus all over the city to get to Ikea to take the intercity bus is ridiculous.

Agreed someplace more central, accessible and on LRT would make it much more desirable for all.

On the other end, imagine someone from Toronto taking the bus to come visit Ottawa for the weekend and gets dropped off in the Ikea Parking Lot at Pinecrest. What a great start to a weekend - good luck trying to navigate 2-3 buses + LRT to get anywhere remotely close to downtown haha.

[Acajack]

Lincoln Fields, Baseline Station or Bayshore would all make way more sense for the west end. My guess is that the bus companies are all super cheap and these parking lots are the best deal for them.

[zzptichka]

Flixbus used to stop on Commissioner street behind Queen Juliana apartments, but they were kicked out by the Library construction.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

On the Quebec side they use the Place d'accueil stops at Portage on Maissoneuve (under the pedestrian walkways) in Hull, and have a dedicated stop at Station de la Cité which is the main transit hub in the Gatineau sector.

Oh which bus company is that and where do they operate?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Oh which bus company is that and where do they operate?

Autobus Maheux and Orléans Express (Kéolis).

I think Orléans Express only goes to Montreal, and Maheux does Montreal too but also goes north to Maniwaki and on into the Abitibi region.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Lincoln Fields, Baseline Station or Bayshore would all make way more sense for the west end. My guess is that the bus companies are all super cheap and these parking lots are the best deal for them.

I think at least one of those companies start their Toronto-bound trips at Bayshore. I forget which one it was.

The Ikea parking lot sounds like a terrible option. The Queensview LRT station will be within walking distance when they open it in a few years, so there's that. But you'll still have to walk a significant distance from there to the bus stop.

Edit: just realized the Pinecrest station will be closer. But walking to/from there might end up being even more inconvenient.

[NOWINYOW]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Lincoln Fields, Baseline Station or Bayshore would all make way more sense for the west end. My guess is that the bus companies are all super cheap and these parking lots are the best deal for them.

Once the line is up and running Moodie would make a good pick up point.

1st stop Orleans -->417 -> 2nd stop Moodie --> 417-->416-->401 Toronto

Opposite for Montreal

[Dengler Avenue]

There really is an incentive to get the HSR done after all, so only Northern Ontarians coming to Ottawa have to deal with this mess.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by NOWINYOW

Once the line is up and running Moodie would make a good pick up point.

1st stop Orleans -->417 -> 2nd stop Moodie --> 417-->416-->401 Toronto

Opposite for Montreal

If you want to entirely skip downtown, which has to have a significant share of the bus-riding public.