Viva Purple

Viva Purple or the HWY 7. Corridor Line is a line on the Viva bus rapid transit system in York Region, north of Toronto, Canada. It is operated by Tok Transit under contract from the Region of York.

Route description

There are twenty-six stations on the Viva Purple line. The route runs in a predominantly east-west direction.

The Viva purple line runs along primarily the Highway 7 corridor east of Keele Street, with the brief exception on Centre Street and on Bathurst Street. The Highway 7 corridor west of Keele Street is served by Viva Orange. Viva Purple connects with all other Viva lines except Viva Yellow and Viva Blue A.

Cornell Terminal

Since January 27, 2008, the Viva Purple line has been extended eastward to Markham Stouffville Hospital from the previous line terminus, which was McCowan. This extension involved adding three more stations to the line. Markham Stouffville Hospital currently acts as a temporary bus terminal for several YRT bus routes, including Viva. In 2014, York Region acquired land on Rose Way east of Ninth Line immediately south of Markham Stouffvile Hospital as the site for a new terminal hub. The new terminal will be named Cornell, construction is scheduled to begin in 2016 and is expected to open in 2017.^[1]

An intermediate stop named Bur Oak is also planned between Markham Stouffville Hospital and the new Cornell Terminal. ^[2] It is likely to be placed on Bur Oak Avenue between Church Street and Rose Way, serving the nearby Cornell Community Centre & Library.

List of stations

A Viva Purple bus stops at the Richmond Hill Centre Terminal.

There are 26 stations along the bus route. ^[3]

Name	Opening Date	Municipality	Major Connections
York University	September 4, 2005	North York	Orange
Keele		Vaughan
Dufferin
Promenade Terminal
Atkinson
Bathurst [4]	TBA
Richmond Hill Centre	September 4, 2005	Richmond Hill	Blue, Pink, Langstaff GO Station
Bayview		Markham/ Richmond Hill	Pink
Chalmers	August 19, 2013
Valleymede	September 4, 2005
West Beaver Creek
Leslie
East Beaver Creek
Allstate Parkway		Markham
Woodbine
Montgomery
Town Centre
Cedarland	December 28, 2014
Warden	November 20, 2005		Green, Pink
Birchmount [5]	TBA
Enterprise	November 20, 2005
Kennedy	October 16, 2005		Green
Bullock
McCowan
Galsworthy	September 5, 2010
Main Street Markham	January 27, 2008
Wootten Way
Markham Stouffville Hospital
Bur Oak	TBA
Cornell

• bold indicates a terminal, italics indicate a future stop

Service from York University to Town Centre Boulevard began on September 4, 2005. Service extending from Town Centre Boulevard east to McCowan Road began October 16, 2005. Peak-time service west of York University began November 20, 2005. Service east of McCowan Road to Markham Stouffville Hospital was to begin on July 1, 2007, but was postponed to January 27, 2008. Service east of McCowan Road to Cornell will replace the aforementioned service. Service west of York University was discontinued as of September 2, 2007.

To access the Unionville GO Station, passengers should get off the Enterprise VIVAStation and walk to the GO station.

VivaNext

Viva Purple using the new Warden Vivastation on the Enterprise Rapidway

Leslie Street Rapidway station under construction in May 2012

Rapidway stations feature heated shelters

Rapidways

As the Highway 7 transit corridor, the Viva Purple line will have a dedicated right of way dubbed "rapidway" for most of the route. This will enable Viva buses to quickly pass through traffic.

The first phase of VivaNext brings a rapidway along the portion of Viva Purple from Bayview to Birchmount. The rapidway will consist of bus lanes in the median of Highway 7 between Bayview Avenue and Town Centre Boulevard, and a new bus-only road parallel to Enterprise Drive, between Warden and Birchmount, extending to Kennedy in 2018. Stations along the rapidway will be longer than existing stations, and include heated shelters protected from the elements. On August 18, 2013, the rapidway along Highway 7 opened from Richmond Hill Centre to East Beaver Creek and the next year to Town Centre Blvd (and to Cedarland on December 28, 2014). Later phases will extend the rapidway west to Highway 50 and east to Cornell Terminal, potentially to the Durham Region border at the York-Durham Line.

2014-2017 changes

Viva Purple will undergo many changes between 2014 and 2017. Also, with the opening of the Spadina Subway extension, Viva Purple will terminate at Richmond Hill Centre,^[6] where passengers can connect to Viva Orange for service to Vaughan Corporate Centre. New stations will also be opened at Bur Oak and Cornell Terminal.^[6] Eventually, this corridor could be upgraded to light rail transit.

The stations of the restructured Viva Purple will be as follows, from west to east: ^[2]

• Richmond Hill Centre
• Bayview
• Chalmers Road
• West Beaver Creek
• Leslie
• East Beaver Creek
• Allstate Parkway
• Woodbine
• Montgomery
• Town Centre
• Cedarland
• Birchmount
• Warden
• Enterprise
• Kennedy
• Bullock
• McCowan
• Galsworthy Drive
• Main Street Markham
• Wooten Way
• Markham Stouffville Hospital
• Bur Oak
• Cornell Terminal

Future Viva stations are in italics

Security and safety

YRT/Viva offers security, customer assistance and fare enforcement services through the YRT/Viva Transit Enforcement Team.^[7]

Viva buses are patrolled by Special Constables that have been given the power of a Peace officer to enforce the Criminal Code of Canada. ^[8] Riders must present a valid proof-of-payment through a validated ticket or transfer from a YRT bus or purchased from the onsite-ticket machine. They can also enforce applicable York Region Municipal by-laws. They are given the power to issue offence notices, summonses or court appearance notices. They perform random checks and can issue violations, fines and warnings if the By-laws are not followed.

On site security is performed through the Transit Enforcement team. There are also technological securities such as security cameras and vehicle communication systems to create a safe environment.^[9]

References