York Region Transit Markham-Stouffville Hospital

Markham-Stouffville Hospital is a transit terminal in Markham, ON. It is located on Church St. east of 9th Line, near the Markham-Stouffville Hospital property. It is the easternmost transit terminal in York Region.

Because the bus stop is on a fairly steep hill, it limits the ability for large concrete pads to be poured. Inside the hospital building, tickets may be purchased, as well as snacks from a kiosk and vending machines. Buses may either take a short layover at the stopping area, on Bur Oak Ave., or Highway 7 for extended layovers (so as to not block other buses from leaving).

History
In 1991, Markham-Stouffville Hospital opened its doors, becoming the 3rd hospital in York Region. Markham Transit extended its 1 and 7 routes into the hospital, looping via Butternut Lane into the front of the hospital. The only development east of 9th Line was the hospital itself, so there was no ridership attraction other than hospital visitors.

Starting in 1998, the Cornell subdivision was created, starting just north of the hospital grounds. This provided more potential riders, and as more houses were built, demand increased. YRT took over operations from Markham Transit in 2001, and by this time routes 1, 2A, 85, and 201 were operating through Markham-Stouffville Hospital. Ridership started to increase rapidly through 2004 and 2005, with the addition of 3 more routes: 9/9A, 18 and 303. With these routes, Markham-Stouffville Hospital started to take on it's terminal functionality.

By now, the small driveway that had been used as the terminal was starting to get overcrowded, with 5 full-time routes and 2 rush hour shuttles all sharing the stopping area. The schedules were made for routes to connect to each other, so 4 of the 5 routes all arrived and departed at the same time. This caused problems, since the driveway only allowed room for 3 40ft buses. As well, Viva was to be introduced to the hospital on January 2, 2006, with Viva Purple and Viva Green to be extended. Hospital administration opposed Viva's extension, as the bus stop was already overcrowded, and the frequent service Viva would bring would push it past the safe (and possible) limit. This caused Viva's extension to the hospital to be delayed until January 27, 2008.

YRT's solution was to build a new terminal just north of the hospital, as empty land had been put aside for such a use. Just as construction was about to start, however, Cornell residents stopped the terminal's construction, as they did not want the sound and pollution from buses laying over to decrease their home's values. The land was eventually converted to a parking lot for hospital employees.

However, Cornell Terminal was not out for the count. In 2007, plans were revived for Cornell Terminal. They are still in the works to find a suitable location for the terminal, but it is expected to be on Highway 7 between Bur Oak and Donald Cousens Pkwy. The terminal was expected to open in late 2008, but has been pushed back indefinitely. Viva isn't waiting, however, and a 'temporary' stop was built on Church St. near the hospital, and Viva Purple buses started serving it in late January 2008, with the buses looping via 9th, Church, Bur Oak and Highway 7.

During 2007, road reconstruction on 9th Line forced all buses to use a rather lengthy detour (for some routes) to get into the hospital via the newly opened Bur Oak Ave., as the turn at 9th Line and Church St. was too small for buses to safely make. Ironically, buses still used 9th Line during the first stage of construction, where it was much harder to navigate the smaller lanes and the Church St. intersection, but were not allowed to use it during the 2nd stage, which had wider lanes, a better Church St. intersection and new bus stop pads on the east side.

With Viva Purple finally being extended on January 27, 2008, YRT also majorly reconfigured the stopping locations by relocating many buses to the Church St. and Country Glen Rd. intersection. Routes 1 and 85 stopped on the southwest corner, while route 2A was moved to the northwest corner stop. Viva uses its vivastation on the southeast corner (farside), while routes 9 and 18 use the southeast corner stop since they still served the hospital stop. These changes were due to a complaint from hospital administration saying there were too many buses using the hospital loop. Routes 9 and 18 were likely unchanged because of the short layover times they have, so they would not have enough time to loop via Highway 7. These changes were unpopular, as there were no shelters (besides the standard vivastation only serving Viva Purple) and little protection from the elements at the new stops on Church St. The stops are also unlabelled as to which stop serves which route. The lack of concrete pads up to the curb meant that the (often heavy) loads of passengers had to walk across grass, which had quickly turned to muddy ground after a few weeks.

New stop pads were poured in mid-2008, with the westbound stop receiving a pad in August and the eastbound stop in October. Shelters were installed in November 2008, to provide passengers some warmth during winter, especially since Markham-Stouffville Hospital serves a lot of senior patients. Also, with the route 4A rush hour extension to the hospital, passenger loads are starting to increase in this hub.

Long-term hospital expansion on Butternut Lane eventually forced routes 9, 18, and 522 off the loop, and these routes now serve the eastbound stop on Church Street as well. However, the 9 and 18 still looped inside the hospital, albeit in a clockwise direction and the fact they do not stop there anymore, as well as various buses that still layover at the loop. Routes 9 and 18 were finally chased out of using the hospital loop as of November 2011 due to complaints and long term construction, hence the buses now use Bur Oak, Highway 7, and 9th Line to arrive at their designated platforms (in which route 9 was moved to the westbound platform).

June 30, 2013 brought another round of route changes around the hospital vicinity. With the successful lobbying from the Cornell Rate Payers Association to minimize transit routes serving there, route 1 was extended east to serve the Box Grove Walmart. Route 2A (now route 14) was removed from the hospital and now serve Box Grove Walmart directly via Copper Creek Dr. Route 9 was extended south to the Box Grove Plaza at Copper Creek Dr., and now serve the new northbound and southbound bus stops on 9th Line.

After many years of being simply a hub, Markham-Stouffville Hospital was finally added to the transit terminals list in the October 2013 transit information guide update, and was added in the Winter 2014 system map.

Cornell Terminal was brought up again in 2014 when York Region acquired land just south of the hospital property, adjacent to Rose Way east of 9th Line. The road is currently used for hospital employees not wanting to use Church St. to access the hospital facility, but has room for expansion to accommodate buses, as well as a regional transit terminal. The terminal is now scheduled to open in 2016, with long-term future connections with GO Transit and Durham Region Transit services.

Routes
All routes serve one of the five stops in the hospital vicinity on Church St. or 9th Line.


 * Eastbound stop: YRT 1 eastbound, 16, 201 afternoon, 303 afternoon
 * Westbound stop: YRT 1 westbound, 18, 25, 201 morning, 303 morning, 411
 * Northbound stop: YRT 9 northbound
 * Southbound stop: YRT 9 southbound
 * Vivastation: Located on Church St. east of Country Glen Rd., the station consists of a full-sized shelter. Its stop number is 9810. Aside from Viva Purple, route 522 also stops here.