If you’re like most York Region residents, your holiday shopping list is long and involves trips to multiple retail locations.
Leaving your car at home and taking transit instead is the best way to avoid traffic jams and parking problems. It’s also a lot less expensive since you don’t have to pay for things like gas, valets, tickets, and even towing.
With a YRT\Viva ticket, you can travel on any YRT or Viva vehicle in any direction for a two-hour period with just one fare. How convenient and inexpensive is that?! Simply remember to hang onto your ticket or transfer as proof-of-payment so you can hop on and hop off vehicles.
As great as transit already is for holiday shopping, it will get even better with vivaNext. The subway extensions, rapidways, and proposed light rail transit lines will make it even faster and easier to get around York Region’s busiest corridors and beyond.
In fact, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a certain somebody in a red and white suit using our transit system to do his holiday shopping in future!
Our goal is to ensure that you can quickly and easily find answers to all your vivaNext questions on our comprehensive and constantly updated website. However, we also recognize that there may be times when you need to speak directly to someone about a specific related matter.
That’s why we have a vivaNext Community Liaison, Andrea Witty. Whether you’re a property owner, business operator, tenant, or any other community member directly affected by vivaNext construction, Andrea is readily available to assist you with any question regarding rapidway planning and construction.
Here’s how to reach her:
Andrea Witty Community Liaison Telephone: 905-886-6767 Ext. 1022
1-877-464-9675 Cellphone: 416-554-1890 Email:andrea.witty@york.ca
Throughout vivaNext construction, you will also find Andrea out in the community providing York Region residents and businesses with ongoing project information.
An artist rendering of the Steeles West subway station.
Each of the six subway stations that will be built along the Spadina subway extension – a key part of the vivaNext plan – will have a unique design.
Above ground, the most striking feature of the Steeles West Station conceptual design is its very distinctive and futuristic profile. It looks like something right out of ‘The Jetsons’. Below ground, a central light cone will bring daylight all the way down to the platform levels – a solution that’s both illuminating and eco-friendly.
The Steeles West subway station will also feature a commuter parking lot with 1,900 parking spaces plus two bus terminals, including one for YRT and Viva.
Planned service frequency from Downsview Station to Steeles West Station is every two minutes, and from Steeles West Station to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station, every five minutes.
A key part of York Region’s vivaNext plan is the Spadina subway extension. Extending from Downsview Station in Toronto to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station in Vaughan, it will cover a total of 8.6 kilometres and include six stations.
This Tuesday, November 17, 2009, you are invited to attend a Public Open House to view the preliminary design concept for one of these stations – Sheppard West Station. It is the first of two public open houses for Sheppard West Station. The second one, scheduled for Spring 2010, will show detailed architectural concepts.
Sheppard West Subway Station Public Open House Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Location: The Crystal Room (2nd Floor) Montecassino Hotel & Event Venue
3710 Chesswood Drive, Toronto
Look for YRT\Viva staff walking near this bus at York Region holiday parades to donate mittens, hats and gloves for those in need.
Planning to attend one of York Region’s many holiday parades over the next few weeks? If so, you can help our operating partner, YRT\Viva, spread winter warmth to those in need by bringing new mittens, hats and gloves to be donated to charitable organizations in York Region.
YRT and Viva, York Region’s two great transit services, work together as one amazing system to provide seamless connections across all nine municipalities, and easy access to other transit systems operating in neighbouring regions including Toronto, Durham and Peel.
VivaNext, York Region’s plan for the next generation of Viva rapid transit service, will truly put the rapid into rapid transit and make it even faster and easier for you to travel to, from and within York Region.
Whichever holiday parade you go to, just look for YRT\Viva staff accepting donations from the crowds while proudly walking and waving alongside the beautifully decorated blue Viva vehicle – at 40-feet long, it’s hard to miss!
The holiday season kicks off this Sunday in York Region with the first of five Santa Claus parades to take place during the month of November.
To help the big guy in the red and white suit greet all of the thousands of people who will line the various parade routes to see him, vivaNext helpers have been invited to join him. They’ll be walking in front of our beautiful blue Viva vehicle specially decorated for the parades and impossible to miss.
Each helper will be wearing a 4-sided cube costume measuring 24” wide by 30” high that showcases the vivaNext changes coming to York Region. As they walk along and wave to the crowds, their cubes will rotate in formation to reveal four unique and colourful streetscapes in Newmarket, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham – each one representing the urban transformation that vivaNext rapid transit projects will help to create.
We hope they will be as much fun for you to watch, as they will be for our parade marshal to coordinate. We look forward to seeing you en route!
Parade Schedule:
November 8 - Vaughan - starts at 2:00pm
click here for a parade route map
November 15 - Richmond Hill - starts at 1:30pm
click here for a parade route map
November 21 - Newmarket - starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 - Markham - starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 - Aurora - starts at 6:00pm
click here for a route map
Take a peek at our short video and see for yourself what a hit they were with passing motorists and pedestrians alike.
BTW, this is the last day of our contest. If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time to do so by texting* the word “vivaNext” to the number 101010. Good luck!
A woman entering our contest at Markville Mall over Thanksgiving long weekend.
This is the last week of our vivaNext ‘text to win’ contest, which began October 9, 2009 and ends this Friday, October 30, 2009. So far, 17 lucky people have won great daily prizes. Plus, along with all other contestants, they still have a chance to win the Grand Prize – the new iPod nano.*
For a complete list of the prizes we are awarding, please visit our website. While on our website, you will also find out all of the latest project information, including rapidways and subway extensions up to Highway 7.
Remember…you can enter once every day during the contest period. The more days you enter, the more chances you have to win. To enter, simply text** the word “vivaNext” to the number 101010. Good luck!
* “iPod nano” is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, Inc. is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.
So far, over 4,000 people have signed-up to receive our regular vivaNext email updates. Perhaps you’re one of them. Recently, we made it possible for you to customize the updates you receive.
You can now choose to receive email updates for a specific vivaNext project – or all of them if you want.
Click on this button in the top right of our website and watch the video.
For the past few months, we’ve been showing futuristic computer renderings of key growth centres within York Region and what they could look like years down the road with the rapidways. These renderings are really just a small part of a longer video that we have been working on that includes time-lapse animation segments showing the transformation of Newmarket, Markham Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.
You can now watch the full version on our website or scroll down to the bottom of this post. When you are on the website, just click on the icon at the top-right of every page that says “the future of viva”.
The video follows one girl’s journey as she grows up taking transit around York Region and witnesses these three key areas transform. As rapidways are built along Davis Drive, the streetscape is revitalized, a pedestrian mall with mixed-use development is built at Markham Centre, and high-rise condos and offices are built at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. The video ends with the girl, now in her 20s, walking to a subway station at Richmond Hill Centre.
These changes won’t happen overnight, but if you wonder how our community could evolve with these transit improvements and development planning, you have to take a look at this video. The transformation is quite remarkable!
What do you think of the time-lapse animation segments? Can you picture yourself walking down the Markham Centre pedestrian mall or hopping on a subway at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre? Let me know your thoughts on the future of York Region.
Our goal is to ensure that you can quickly and easily find answers to all your vivaNext questions on our comprehensive and constantly updated 
