The Regional Municipality of York is offering transit passengers two months of free transit service on any York Region Transit or Viva bus in the region from Saturday, February 4 until Saturday, March 31.

Regional Council pledged to return to riders any savings the Region gained from not operating much of its transit service for three months. In a Thursday, December 15 media release, Region staff estimated the savings from not providing service during the recent strike to be about $5,169,000 — a figure that’s likely to be much higher, since the strike continued for another month and a half until this week.

You won’t need cash, tickets or passes to ride YRT and Viva in February and March. The free rides also apply to YRT’s Dial-a-Ride service, MobilityPlus accessible service, all TTC buses operating in York Region and GO Transit buses operating along the 69 Sutton / Newmarket route.

If you’ve already bought a monthly pass for February, YRT and Viva drivers will honour it throughout April or you can return it for a full refund.

Some YRT and Viva services resume this Saturday, February 4 with buses operating with their regular Saturday schedules. About 96 percent of YRT and Viva buses resume regular transit service — including buses providing special high school service— starting Monday, February 6.

All YRT and Viva services resume by Monday, February 27.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 and 1587 went on strike against three private companies that York Region contracted to provide transit services Monday, October 24. The strike impacted about 60 percent of YRT services, since no buses operated from YRT’s Southeast, North and Viva divisions.