BWG Transit is a public transit service managed by the town of

Bradford West Gwillimbury Bradford West Gwillimbury is a town in south-central Ontario, in the County of Simcoe in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area on the Holland River. West Gwillimbury takes its name from the family of Elizabeth Simcoe, née ''Gwillim''. The former ...

Simcoe County Simcoe County is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. The county is just north of the Greater Toronto Area, stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west. Simcoe County forms part of the ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is operated by Switzer-Carty Transportation. It functions as the local and lowest tier of public transit in the area, and connects to higher-order transit in the form of Simcoe County LINX, the county's regional inter-community bus service, as well as

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

train and bus service at the Bradford GO Station.

History

BWG Transit service began on 1 May 2014. Annual boarding's in the first year of service was 19,009. For the second year (2015–16), this had only slightly increased, to 19,291. By the third year of service (2016–17), however, boarding's had jumped sharply to 24,409, and increased significantly again to 27,888 in 2017–18. The town of Bradford West Gwillimbury received $76,387 in funding in 2017 from the federal Public Transit Infrastructure Funding program, which supported the purchase of a new bus. In late 2017, transit planners conducted a public consultation process regarding the expansion of service. The most requested service improvements were (in order from most to least): the introduction of Saturday service, introduction of weekday evening service, introduction of Sunday service, a new connection to Newmarket, a third local bus route, and a connection to Barrie. A shuttle was also proposed to service the Reagens industrial area. Following this process, planners recommended introduction of Saturday daytime (9am to 5pm) and weekday evening (5pm to 7pm) service, a pilot Newmarket connection, and the Reagens industrial shuttle. On 4 September 2018, Bradford West Gwillimbury Town Council voted for a transit funding increase of $192,200 to pay for these improvements, but rejected the $40,000 Newmarket pilot, which would have connected the Bradford GO Station with the Newmarket Bus Terminal, allowing BWG Transit riders to connect to YRT and Viva buses and enhancing east–west mobility within the region. City councilors criticized the potential for the plan to encourage out-of-town shopping, such as at the

Upper Canada Mall Upper Canada Mall is the 25th largest shopping mall in Canada, located in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. The mall is situated on the northwest corner of the Davis Drive West and Yonge Street intersection. The mall is owned and operated by Oxford Pro ...

. As an alternative, Mayor Rob Keffer suggested that a cross-jurisdiction route would be best achieved through the regional governments of

and

York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional M ...

and their respective transit services, rather than the town's local BWG Transit.

Fares

BWG Transit uses a flat $3 cash fare for adults, while children under 5 ride for free. Riders can also purchase a reloadable electronic fare card, ''easy''PASS, for $2. ''easy''PASS fares are $1, with children under the age of 5 riding for free. The system uses 90-minute transfers, which are available as a paper slip for riders who pay the cash fare, or which are stored on the ''easy''PASS card for ''easy''PASS riders.

Routes

BWG Transit currently has two routes, the 1 Crosstown and 2 Around-Town. Route 2 Around-Town is further broken down into routes 2A (clockwise) and 2B (counter-clockwise), which run along roughly the same path in opposing fashion. Route 2B (Around-Town: Counter-clockwise) does not operate on Saturdays, and the entire system does not operate on Sundays. All other routes operate a Monday–Friday schedule, with a reduced Saturday schedule.

References

{{Public transit systems in Canada, state=autocollapse Transit agencies in Ontario Bus transport in Simcoe County Public transport in Simcoe County 2014 establishments in Ontario