Private bus service opens door to `the other way'

The Toronto Star reports the launching of a "gypsy" bus service providing service to an upscale neighborhood that is served by Toronto streetcars that are overcrowded. From the article:

Is two-tier transit coming to Toronto? A private company plans to begin selling tickets today for a bus that would take people to Union Station from the condominiums along Lake Shore Blvd. west of the Humber River. The bus will be an alternative, the company says, to overcrowded streetcars that can't keep up with the demands of a booming lakefront condo population. The service is pegged to cost $199.99 for a month's pass.

There's just one potential problem with the proposed Humber Bay Express: The Toronto Transit Commission thinks it's illegal and one official says a move will be made to shut it down. "The City of Toronto Act says the only people who can run public transit is the TTC," Vince Rodo, the TTC's general secretary, said this week.

I haven't been able to find the Humber Bay Express website. The service seems to have been a response to a proposal for an express bus through the TTC. The TTC wanted commitments from at least 60 monthly pass buyers before launching the service. Apparently that hasn't been forthcoming, so they didn't move forward.

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