GO Transit commuters will have more buses to choose from on the Highway 407 and Stouffville routes north of Toronto, Minister of Transportation Glen Murray announced Wednesday.

Starting April 5, the regional transit operator will add 36 weekday buses to the 407 route, along with 31 buses to weekend service. The Stouffville line will get 24 additional weekend bus trips. The Barrie rail service will see one of the morning and afternoon trains extended to 12 cars from 10.

"What is the number one priority in the Big Move? It's GO transit, to turn GO into a higher-speed integrated system," Murray said at the Union Station GO Bus terminal in downtown Toronto. "This will be a very significant increase in our bus services."

Murray praised Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman for making changes to the city's transit system to integrate its bus service with GO's rail and bus operations. "Barrie has improved its transit service by 30 per cent, and made GO a transit hub for service in Barrie." Murray also said weekend rail service to Barrie will resume this summer from June 28 to Sept. 1.

(Lehman told QP Briefing about how Barrie was preparing for expanded GO rail service earlier this year, including the rapid growth of ridership for weekend service.)

Meantime, GO will also resume weekend service to Niagara Falls this summer.

The additional bus service announced today will be accommodated as part of GO's capital expansion plan, with the incremental costs of the added buses estimated at about $3 million.

Murray said Wednesday's announcement didn't include any measures to partner with private bus operators, a move the industry has been encouraging the government to consider.

He did say, however, the government is considering changing regulation of the bus industry in the province. "We've been working with the industry, they're quite divided on the issue — there's two distinct camps there. I've been trying to bring them together to look at new partnership models."

Greyhound, the main operator in Ontario, supports the current system of regulated routes, while rivals such as Coach Canada want more open competition.

Murray said the government's main concern with regulation changes is to ensure better and stable bus service for rural and Northern Ontario, which has seen coach services cut because of low ridership levels. But the issue of northern bus service is also linked to the future of Ontario Northland, a money-losing North Bay-based railway that the government wants to wind down.

"The premier has asked me to have a plan in place by the end of the calendar year," Murray said.

Murray touts ‘significant increase’ in GO service

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