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Canadian Public Transportation

An interdisciplinary guide to finding, accessing, and learning about public transportation in Canada.

Travelling Between Towns

Scheduled transportation between regions generally consists of coach buses and (occasionally) long distance trains. Services of this type have decreased considerably over past decades on account of widespread adoption of cars. The services that remain are disjointed and primarily offered by private companies now (less commonly public entities and volunteer groups) operating with varying degrees of subsidies.

The frequency of these services are severely diminished with some being offered daily and others every few days. As such, connections often require overnight stays. Stops are often ill defined and usually identified by a landmark such as a hotel or gas station instead of specific signage. The towns and villages found on intercity routes rarely have local transit systems, with taxis being a common necessity upon arrival.

 

Scheduled Transportation in Canada

Intercity routes rarely show up on transit planning applications!
The best way to find regional services is to check the websites of local communities and transport companies for schedules and maps!

Although official inventories cataloguing intercity transport services exist, the nonprofit advocacy group Transportation Action Canada maintains a crowd-sourced inventory of scheduled transportation services.

This crowd-sourced widget tracks and links to all scheduled transportation offerings in Canada!