All West Aurora Network Study (WANS) Options

WANS not an official study, it is entirely independent.

This page compiles all options I have considered for the West Aurora Network Study (WANS), published between June 16 and 22, 2025.

Infrastructure

Lucas Gaspari noted to me that the section of Wellington between Yonge and Aurora GO often has traffic problems due to it not being as wide as the rest of Wellington, a lack of turn lanes at Yonge, and the rail crossing activating when a GO Train is simply stopping at Aurora GO from the south. I do not believe fixing these traffic issues is within the study's scope, but the poor traffic on Wellington would increase the desirability of avoiding that section as well as alternate transport for the people who currently drive on Wellington.

Improving the transit experience for those commuting to Aurora GO is in scope and infrastructure solutions may be just as valuable (if not better) than non-infrastructure solutions. For example, the current routes 32, 33, and 54 stop on the north side of Wellington going westbound with no pedestrian crossing at the station, forcing people to go uphill from Industrial Parkway or cross where no crosswalk exists. As I brought up in a recent Linkedin post, the crossing pictured is an example of a potential infrastructure solution which would allow buses to stay on Wellington (providing a more direct Viva blue transfer) while providing good access to Aurora GO to GO passengers.

If you can not raise the budget

I fully expect YRT to be able to budget more for a change in this area. However, it may be appealing to implement an interim configuration until funding increases which will increase the usefulness of the service. This configuration is strictly for the interim, it will likely get worse with time. The map below shows one such configuration, which will allow most 32 trips to connect with GO Trains in the interim with the route running every 59 to 61 minutes. Black sections indicate sections the route would no longer serve.

Route 33

Presently, route 33 - Wellington-Leslie ends at a seemingly arbitrary location near Aurora HS, a kilometre east of Bathurst (where the suburbs end). The "no budget increase" alternative above would remedy this, but further extensions may improve connectivity. Extending the route via Bathusrt will give residents a faster route to Wellington and extending the route to Seneca King or combining it with a branch of route 88 - Bathurst may improve connectivity with destinations further south beyond just Seneca King.

An extension along Dufferin via Snowball would offer a more direct route to Seneca, but would miss neighbourhoods near Bathurst and make the 88 connection less direct.

An extension along Bathurst to Seneca King would still offer direct service to Seneca, but would also connect residental areas near Bathurst Street and provide a more direct connection with Route 88 - Bathurst, enabling an easier journey to destinations in Vaughan and Richmond Hill.

Combining route 33 and route 88 into a new branch of route 88 would allow for a seamless connection to destinations in Vaughan and Richmond Hill, but would reduce service to Seneca King on route 88 and the new branch will be very long (perhaps operationally challenging) with no natural layover spot known in Aurora.

Ending Route 88 at Aurora GO and running it alongside 33 for a short distance would prevent excess wait time due to an unnatural layover spot. However, it may be more costly due to an extra service running on the same section of Wellington.

Northwest Aurora Route

Northwest Aurora previously had a bus route. However, it was discontinued after the COVID-19 pandemic due to low ridership. Thus, we should try to avoid implementing a similar service (which may have had problems preventing people from using it). The old service ran in a one-way loop and required a long ride to Aurora GO in either direction, so no one-way loop services like it will be proposed. I note potential demand to St. Maximillian Kolbe CHS and other places along Wellington, which may make ending the route east of Aurora GO more attractive. Thus, I have included east end alternatives as well.

Much of the central alternatives came from problems with traffic congestion on Wellington or the narrow lanes on many important streets in the neighbourhood. In the west, Aurora Heights Drive was ruled out due to a section with narrow lanes, its lack of a Viva blue connection, and its proximity to Wellington Street (and route 33).

Routes 96 and 98

Presently, routes 96 and 98 duplicate each other and partly duplicate Viva blue service along Yonge. As a result, routes 96 and 98 are seldom busy in the area. A new niche must be found for them, including the possibility of ending the 96 further south. The aforementioned niche may include more local routing. This would work best on the 98 due to the 96's length, though alternatives which truncate the route at Aurora GO would work well with route 96. The alternatives are shown below. Some would replace proposed local routes in an Aurora network.

Rest of the network

After implementing the northwest route and 33 extension, the next area of interest is the southwest. With the data collected and lack of wide enough lanes on alternative routes, the need for service to remain on Henderson Drive is blatant and for Murray Drive it is near-certain. The existing network runs a single route on both streets. If the budget can only support two or three additional vehicles for this area and route 98 is not run on Murray Drive, I would advise continuing this. Otherwise, you can create a more direct routing to Aurora GO from Henderson Dr. via Allaura Blvd., Edward St., and Industrial Pkwy.

With the current GO schedule running generally every 30 minutes during peak hours, it is important for travellers to have a short transfer from the GO Train to their bus. A more direct route along Henderson take approximately 25 minutes round-trip, short enough for one vehicle to provide 30-minute service. Any bidirectional route along Murray Drive will require two, whether or not it includes Henderson Drive. If no local variant of route 96 or 98 runs along Murray Drive and a more direct route along Henderson is preferred, a Murray route would make sense. This route may operate in a loop or bidirectionally. You can see the Henderson and Murray route alternatives in the map below.

Where to go from here

With all alternatives established, I began work on evaluating them to determine the best possible route networks for Aurora. When a local route would be discontinued outside Aurora, a new one would take its place unless service is clearly duplicated (such as in the case of the 96 and 98).

Acknowledgements

I thank Lucas Gaspari and Justin Fan for their great feedback and insight.

Last updated: 07/05/2025