In Canada, public transportation is widely available, with most cities and major towns having a system in place. The modes of public transport available in major cities include light-rail trains, streetcars (trams), trains, and subways. The dividing line between streetcars and light rail is not always clearly defined, as both modes use similar vehicles, and their corridors frequently fall somewhere between the respective stereotypes of each technology.
According to popular understanding, streetcars share their rights-of-way with cars, while light rail has its own reserved right-of-way. Trams can go just as fast as metro trains and can sometimes be faster and easier to use than metro, bus, and trolleybus lines.
If you are planning to use public transportation in Canada, it is recommended that you properly research the available alternatives before deciding where to book accommodation.
Using public buses in Canada
The bus is still one of the most popular types of urban transport in the country. Apart from buses, some Canadian cities also offer different modes of transport. In most instances, it’s fairly easy to transfer from one type of public transport to a different one.
To use the public transport system, you have to purchase either an individual ticket or a transit pass. The latter offers unlimited trips for a given period of time, e.g., a month. These typically work out a lot cheaper than purchasing individual tickets, particularly if you intend to use public transport regularly.
Other public transport options besides urban buses often include trams, trolleybuses, trains, underground trains (subway/metro), and ferries. Between cities, public transport options include coaches, airlines, and intercity trains.
Let us now look at the public transport options in a few individual Canadian cities.
Toronto
Buses and Streetcars
Public transport is the cheapest option for travelling around Toronto. The city has an impressive network of streetcars and buses. However, because of the city’s notorious traffic, these can often slow to a crawl, particularly during the rush hours of the morning and evening. For this reason, we highly recommend that you try to use streetcars and buses outside of peak times. They operate on the majority of the main routes every half an hour or so. During the small hours of the morning, the Blue Night Network operates from 1:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Stops are clearly marked with a reflective blue band. Toronto’s buses also provide a request stop service between the hours of 9 pm and 5 am, where the bus will allow passengers to get off as needed, not only at designated stops but also between TTC stops.
Pull the cord or push the button to request such a stop. Please note that while cash is accepted for the payment of fares on streetcars and buses, no change can be provided. A prepaid transport pass will offer better value for money.
The subway
Toronto’s subway system provides not only the fastest but also the best way to get around the city. With only 4 lines, however, it is not quite as connected as the above-ground options. The subway trains run daily and there there is normally a train every couple of minutes. From Monday to Saturday, the subway is open from around 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. On a Sunday, the system opens around 8 a.m.
Montreal
This city’s ITS or integrated public transportation system not only features a high-speed metro train network but also an extensive network of buses, plus a shared taxi-bus service. The latter is particularly useful if you want to visit more remote parts of the city. Each one of these services has its own benefits, depending on someone’s travel requirements:
Metro
The Metro system is reliable, clean, and fast, and covers nearly all of the city. Montreal has 4 Metro lines, distinguished by their colour:
The Orange Line: The orange line runs from east to north in an L-shape from Ville St-Laurent to Laval.
The Green Line: The green line runs from Angrignon metro in the city’s Sud-Ouest region the whole way to the popular Honoré-Beaugrand metro.
The Blue Line: This line runs north of downtown Montreal and connects Snowdon metro in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area to Saint Michel, and finally connects to the Orange line at Snowdon metro.
The Yellow Line: The yellow line runs from Berri-UQAM metro in Quartier Latin across the water to Longueuil, connecting to both the Green and Orange lines.
Bus
The STM bus provides transport from the city centre to the airport and various suburbs. Buses run around the clock, 24 hours a day, so they are an excellent option once the Metro system closes at midnight. Passengers can use either the exact change or an OPUS card on the bus.
Exo Train
The Exo public transit network comprises 6 commuter train lines that run across all of Greater Montreal, going to Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Candiac, Vaudreuil-Hudson, Saint-Jerome, Deux-Montagnes, and Mascouche. You can buy TRAIN fares if you will only be using the Exo train, or otherwise a TRAM fare if you would like to use various forms of transport. Both can be loaded onto an OPUS Card or a Solo card with 1 to 6 uses.
Taxibus
This is a special bus service for routes not regularly serviced by other public transit options. You must book your Taxibus 40-60 minutes before the time, and you will typically share a ride with other passengers. You should load your OPUS card with the appropriate Taxibus fares since the Taxibus doesn’t accept cash payments.
Vancouver
TransLink manages Vancouver’s public transit system, which includes rapid transit services, public buses, and a cross-harbour ferry. The city’s Automated Rapid Transit system is called SkyTrain and has three lines—Expo, Millennium, and Canada—radiating from the central peninsula. A fourth line, Evergreen, came into service around 2016.
West Coast Express is Vancouver’s commuter train service. It mostly runs during rush hour periods. The city’s passenger ferry service is called SeaBus and runs between the Waterfront Station and Lonsdale Quay in the northern part of Vancouver.
In all areas of Metro Vancouver except for West Vancouver, bus services are run by Coast Mountain Bus, which manages its own bus system called Blue Buses. The Blue Bus system offers a rapid service from Vancouver to BC Ferry’s Horseshoe Bay terminal.
Apart from Translink, other transport options in Metropolitan Vancouver include water taxis, passenger boats, harbour ferries to and from Granville Island, and the SkyRide located at the base of Grouse Mountain. The latter is an aerial tram that offers transport up Grouse Mountain, from where you will have a particularly fine view of the city and its metropolitan area.
Floatplanes based at the Vancouver Harbor Water Aerodrome, which lies at the foot of the Coal Harbor neighbourhood, provide longer-distance transportation for regional trips.
Calgary
The rapid transit system in Calgary is known as the C-Train and has 58.5 kilometers of track and 45 stations. It was one of the first such systems in North America, and until recently, Calgary and Edmonton were the only two North American cities with populations under two million to operate rapid mass transit systems.
The city’s Western, Northeastern, and downtown areas are serviced by Route 202, while the 201 line from Tuscany to Somerset to Bridlewood covers the Northwest and South Calgary. The good news is that traveling from one station to another from 7th Avenue to the city center is free of charge. What makes the C-Train system unique is that it runs exclusively on wind power so there are zero emissions.
The Route 202 line was extended in recent years to provide a service to areas located to the west of the city center.
Buses
Calgary Transit also runs a bus system with routes covering the whole city. It has already won various awards, not only for its environmental responsibility but also for its efficiency The system consists of more than 160 bus routes as well as 4 C-Train lines (2 routes).
Edmonton
LRT system
Edmonton became the first Canadian city with a population of less than 1 million to introduce an LRT system. The LRT is now one of the quickest ways to get around this city. It has 18 stations distributed over two train lines and constitutes the cornerstone of Edmonton’s public transport system.
The Capital Line is the biggest of the city’s 2 LRT lines and connects the northeastern part of Edmonton to the south. It features a total of 15 stations over a distance of 21 km, making it bigger than the other LRT line. The second line is known as the Metro Line and consists of 14 stations. The Capital Line and the Metro Line share a few stations and also some tracks, so the numbers won’t perfectly add up.
Buses
Buses remain the most important part of public transit in the city of Edmonton. Regardless of where you stay, you can rest assured that there will be a bus stop in the vicinity. In fact, you will most likely have more than one bus stop within a 5-minute walk. If you remain uncertain, you are free to use Google Maps and do a search for “bus stop”, for a list of all the bus stops in your area.
Edmonton has one of the top bus networks in all of Canada. With no less than 7456 bus stops and 191 routes, you will be able to get anywhere you want to go in the city by bus. Just remember that you might sometimes have to transfer to a different bus, particularly if your final destination is on the opposite side of the city. There is no need to worry, though, as you will not be required to pay an additional fee for such a transfer or wait long for a connecting bus.