What’s going on subway surfers, today we’re back on the surface taking a look around the
future Cornell Terminal. Located in Markham beside the Markham Stouffville Hospital, this
$37 million dollar bus terminal will become the eastern hub for York Region Transit and
VIVA buses, with future connections planned to Durham Region. We visited the station this
past week to check in on the construction, and get an understanding of the scope of this
project. I’m Zach with Vanishing Underground, and let’s take a look.
The Cornell bus terminal is located roughly 29 kilometres northeast of downtown Toronto,
at the eastern end of the municipality of Markham. The terminal will contain 11 bus
bays, two of which will be constructed to accommodate longer articulated buses. Inside
the terminal, public washrooms will be provided for customers, as well as heated waiting areas
and provisions for a future retail outlet. A passenger pick-up and drop-off will be located
on a new road on the east side of the terminal, connecting Highway 7 to Rustle Woods Avenue.
Five layover spaces will also be provided along the west edge of the terminal site,
given that most bus routes will end at the terminal. A crosswalk and pedestrian plaza
will also be provided from the terminal to access the adjacent Markham Stouffiville Hospital,
and cycling infrastructure will be incorporated into the design. Environmental features such
as a living wall and green roof are also expected to be incorporated into the terminal, with
provisions for solar panels on the roof. At opening, the terminal is expected to service
600 daily boarding, and 770 daily aligning passengers.
With the opening of the terminal, YRT buses currently ending at the Markham Stouffville
Hospital will be relocated to the terminal. Routes 1, 16, and 522 are expected to be diverted
into the terminal, but retain service along Church Street. Routes 18 and 25 will be revised
to end at the terminal as well, operating both ways via Highway 7. Route 9 will divert
into the terminal off of ninth line, while Viva Purple will be revised to end at the
terminal, no longer servicing the vivastation on Church Street. On weekends, YRT route 2
will also be extended from the SmartCentres Markham Box Grove along Donald Cousens and
Highway 7 to the terminal, further reducing the frequency on Saturday and Sunday to every
40 and 77 minutes respectively. No plans have been announced to divert routes 201, 303,
or nearby school specials into the terminal, however given its importance as a regional
transit hub, it is expected that these routes will be changed to enter the terminal. In
the future, Durham Region Transit has plans for a new route 930, running limited service
between the terminal and the Highway 407/Brock carpool lot, however a timeline for implementation
has not been announced. Space also exists for GO Transit to divert their Highway 407
East buses to the terminal, however once again no timeline has been announced.
Planning for the terminal has been ongoing for a number of years, with the location and
bus routes servicing it evolving over time. Originally, the terminal was supposed to be
located further east near the present day Donald Cousens Parkway, with a new intermediate
stop being added to Viva at Bur Oak, and the Markham Stouffville Hospital station retained.
The terminal was originally projected to be open in time for the Viva extension east of
McCowan in 2008, however delays in planning and acquiring land pushed the date back. As
a result, the current terminus at Markham Stouffville Hospital, which was originally
intended to be temporary, is not able to accommodate multiple buses laying over, which often results
in them extending into the intersection while waiting to depart. Additionally, route 14,
which services neighbourhoods south of the terminal parallel to Highway 407, was also
originally intended to extend to the terminal, however this plan was dropped due to the extension
of Route 9 south of the hospital. Viva Green was also proposed to extend east from its
terminus at McCowan to the hospital, however with frequency on Viva Purple being increased
in recent years, these plans have been removed from the system map. With construction almost
75% complete, the terminal is expected to open before the end of 2020.
Thanks for watching! We hope you enjoyed this video, and learned something new about the
future Cornell Terminal. Once construction of the terminal is complete, click the button
in the top-right corner of your screen for footage from the opening day. Feel free to
leave a like and a comment if you want to see more, and as for us here, we’ll be Vanishing
Underground, until the next one.