User:UmpireRay/Public transportation in Canada

Public transportation in the Canada refers to publicly financed mass transit services in Canada. This includes various forms of rail, bus, and ferry services.

Inter-city rail


Inter-city rail service within Canada is provided by Via Rail, a federal Crown corporation. The frequency of Via Rail services varies between its four categories of service. The Québec City–Windsor Corridor provides service in Ontario and Quebec including four of Canada's seven largest metropolitan areas – Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City. The Corridor accounted for 95 percent of Via's ridership in 2017, with over 400 trains a week operating. The Ocean provides service between Montreal and Halifax. The Canadian provides service between Toronto and Vancouver. Both are long-distance trains with two to three departures per week. Via's adventure routes provide essential rail services to rural northern areas with infrequent departures.

Amtrak operates service connecting Canadian cities with the United States. The Amtrak Cascades between Vancouver and various cities in the states of Washington and Oregon. New York City is connected to Montreal and Toronto with the Adirondack and Maple Leaf trains respectively.

Commuter rail


Commuter rail services exist in Canada's three largest metropolitan areas – Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Toronto's GO Transit and Montreal's Exo both operate extensive commuter rail networks with multiple lines connecting their downtowns to multiple suburbs. GO Transit's daily ridership is 215,500 and Exo's is 77,210. Vancouver's West Coast Express operates a single line with limited peak service. Its daily ridership is 9,900.

Toronto also has an airport rail link, the Union Pearson Express, running between Union Station and Toronto Pearson International Airport. It shares a parent agency and most of its route with GO Transit. It currently provides commuter rail service for at the two intermediate stations on its route, and it is planned to be further integrated with the GO Transit system in the future.

Rapid transit


Canada's three largest metropolitan areas also each have a rapid transit system. Toronto's subway, Montreal's metro, and Vancouver's SkyTrain all provide frequent high or medium capacity transit along an exclusive right-of-way. These rapid transit systems are the backbone of their local transit systems, connecting and funnelling passengers between commuter rail, streetcar, express and local buses, and ferry services. Toronto is Canada's busiest, with 1,603,300 daily riders. The three systems rank the top nine busiest in North America, with Toronto and Montreal at third and fourth respectively. Montreal is also building a second rapid transit system, the Réseau express métropolitain. While integrated to some extend with the existing metro system, it will use different technology and be owned separately, making it the only city with two rapid transit systems.

Toronto Pearson International Airport operated the Link Train, connecting the train station and parking garages with the airport terminals. While on a much smaller scale, it uses similar technology to the SkyTrain and Line 3 of the Toronto subway.

Light rail


Four Canadian mid-sized urban centres have light rail systems – the CTrain in Calgary, Edmonton LRT, Ion in the Waterloo Region, and the O-Train in Ottawa. These systems are the backbone of their local transit systems, similar to the role of rapid transit in Canada's larger cities. Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa each have two lines with expansions planned or under construction. In these systems, light rail vehicles have dedicated rights-of-way resembling a light metro system. Edmonton and Ottawa have underground sections through their downtown, while Calgary's CTrain runs along the Downtown Transit Mall, shared with buses and emergency vehicles. The Ion system has one line, running on-road in dedicated lanes particularly in downtown sections and some off-road portions.

Multiple medium-sized Canadian cities are planning light rail systems, including Peel Region, Quebec City, and Gatineau. Toronto is also building two light rail lines that will form a part of its subway system.

The Toronto streetcar system operates light rail vehicles along ten streetcar routes. The majority of the system operates in mixed traffic and makes frequent stops. However, the system does include some reserved lanes and tunnels.