The VMC subway and the Highway 407 bus terminal: where a car meets you

The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and the Highway 407 bus terminal: where a car meets you

"Hwy 407 bus terminal Vaughan" is one of the most-searched phrases about the city, and most of the people typing it are trying to work out how to get from a GO bus to a Vaughan address, or how to get from a Vaughan address to the bus. This guide answers both, and the third question — where a chauffeur can meet you at either station — because a subway or a GO bus gets you to the VMC and no further. The TTC, GO Transit and York Region Transit sites have the schedules; this page has the geography.

The two stations

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station is the end of the line: the subway from Union Station takes about 45 minutes, and the station sits under the towers at Highway 7 and Jane with the SmartCentres Place bus terminal beside it for YRT local routes and the Viva rapidway along Highway 7. The station's passenger pickup lane is on the north side, and it is where the chauffeur waits for a passenger arriving by subway.

Highway 407 station is one stop south, at the south-west corner of Jane and the 407 interchange, built as a transit hub: a GO Transit bus terminal with routes to Hamilton, Kitchener–Waterloo, Barrie, York University and the northern GTA, a YRT bus loop, and a large commuter parking lot. The station's passenger pickup area is where the chauffeur meets a passenger arriving by GO bus.

Arriving by subway or GO bus, going to a Vaughan address

The subway brings visitors from downtown hotels and Union Station to the VMC; the GO buses bring them from Hamilton, Kitchener, Barrie and the university. From either station the last leg — to a Kleinburg estate, a Woodbridge house, the Highway 7 hotels, Canada's Wonderland or the Cortellucci hospital — is a chauffeured car booked against the train or bus time: the chauffeur waits at the pickup lane, texts the vehicle description, and the fare is fixed from the station to the door. For a GO bus, give us the route and the scheduled arrival; the chauffeur allows for the usual variance.

Going to the station from a Vaughan address

The reverse is a fixed-fare sedan from the door to the station's drop-off — useful for the Thornhill resident taking the subway downtown for a day without a car, or the Maple student taking the GO bus to Waterloo on Sunday evening with a term's luggage. For the airport, note that the subway does not serve Pearson; the Vaughan airport limo does, in twenty minutes.

The VMC's towers, condos and hotels

The stations sit in the middle of Vaughan's downtown — the KPMG and PwC towers, the condominium towers, the YMCA and library, and the Highway 7 hotel cluster a few minutes west. A visiting executive arriving by subway for a meeting in the towers, a delegate at a VMC hotel, a condo resident going to Pearson — all book from the VMC community page's pickup points, and corporate accounts fix the fares.

Parking at the stations

Highway 407 station has a large commuter lot; the VMC station has little public parking, which is the reason a pickup at the VMC is worth booking rather than improvising. For visitors who searched "VMC parking", the honest answer is that the towers' garages are for their tenants and the streets are metered; a chauffeur is the alternative to circling.

Transit connections the chauffeur completes

• GO bus from Hamilton to Highway 407 station → chauffeur to a Woodbridge wedding hotel.
• Subway from Union to the VMC → chauffeur to Wonderland with the family's bags.
• Viva from Markham along Highway 7 to the VMC → chauffeur to the Cortellucci hospital.
• GO bus from York University → chauffeur to a Kleinburg estate.
• Subway from downtown after a late show → chauffeur home to Maple.

Which vehicle

An Executive Sedan for one or two; a Luxury SUV for a family or luggage; a Sprinter for a group arriving on one bus.

Booking a station pickup

In the reservation engine: "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station — passenger pickup lane" or "Highway 407 station — pickup area" as the address, the train or bus time, the passenger count, and the destination. The fare is fixed; the chauffeur texts the vehicle.

The subway extension, briefly

The Toronto–York Spadina Subway Extension added six stations to Line 1 north of Sheppard West — Downsview Park, Finch West, York University, Pioneer Village, Highway 407 and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre — and opened on 17 December 2017. Two of them, Highway 407 and the VMC, are in Vaughan, the only TTC subway stations outside Toronto. The VMC station was designed as the centrepiece of a new downtown and the Highway 407 station as an intermodal hub for regional buses and commuter parking; a decade on, both do what they were built for, and the towers around the VMC station have arrived on schedule. The ride from Union to the VMC is about 45 minutes; from York University about ten.

A GO-bus arrival, as it runs

A patient's daughter travelling from Hamilton to visit her father at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital takes the GO bus to Highway 407 station, scheduled to arrive at 14:20. She booked an Executive Sedan against that time with "Highway 407 station — pickup area, GO bus from Hamilton" in the notes. The chauffeur, tracking the route's typical variance, is at the pickup area at 14:15; the bus arrives at 14:32; she texts "here" and the chauffeur replies with the vehicle description; Jane north to Major Mackenzie and the hospital's main entrance by 14:50. A fixed fare, and no search for a taxi in a bus terminal.

A subway arrival, as it runs

A consultant from a downtown hotel takes the subway to the VMC for a meeting with a client in Kleinburg, arriving at 08:40. The chauffeur is at the passenger pickup lane on the station's north side at 08:35 with a Premium Sedan; the consultant emerges from the station, texts, and is aboard by 08:45; Highway 7 west to the 427 north to Major Mackenzie and the Kleinburg office by 09:10. On the corporate account, one line. The alternative — a rideshare hailed from the platform at the busiest hour — is the reason the booking was made.

The terminals' layouts, for the passenger

Highway 407 station's bus terminal is at ground level beside the station building, with the GO and YRT bays under a canopy and the passenger pickup area signed from the exits; the commuter lot is beyond. The VMC station has entrances on both sides of Highway 7 with the SmartCentres Place bus terminal on the south side for YRT local routes and the Viva rapidway stops in the median; the passenger pickup lane is on the north side by the main entrance. Neither station has a kerb on Highway 7 itself, and a chauffeur will never ask you to meet on the road. The TTC, GO Transit and YRT sites carry the maps and the schedules.

What the transit system does not do, and what the chauffeur does

The subway does not go to Pearson; the GO buses do not go to Kleinburg's estates, the Wonderland gate, the Cortellucci hospital's door or the Jane Street banquet halls at eleven at night; Viva runs along Highway 7 and nowhere else. The chauffeured car completes each of those journeys at a fixed fare from the station, which is why a transit arrival at the VMC or Highway 407 is one of the site's quieter but steadiest bookings, and why this page exists. The VMC community page has the district; the Vaughan airport limo page has the airport the subway does not reach.

Vaughan Mills and Maple GO, for completeness

Two other transit points in Vaughan draw station pickups: the Vaughan Mills terminal on the mall's ring road for YRT routes, and Maple GO on the Barrie line at Keele and Major Mackenzie — Ontario's oldest operating railway station — where the evening trains from Union bring commuters to Maple and a chauffeur completes the trip to Kleinburg or King City. Rutherford GO on the same line serves the south of Maple. Each is booked the same way: the station as the address, the train or bus time, and the destination. The GO Transit schedule is the reference; the Maple community page has the station's neighbourhood.

The subway to Pearson, honestly

There is no rail link from Vaughan to Pearson. The subway ends at Union; the UP Express leaves from there; the trip from the VMC to the terminal by transit is ninety minutes and a lot of stairs with luggage. The Vaughan airport limo does it in twenty minutes from the towers via the 407, and for a traveller arriving at the VMC by subway with a flight to catch, the station-to-terminal chauffeur is the connection the system leaves out.

The bus routes that matter most

GO's Highway 407 station routes include the Hamilton, Kitchener–Waterloo and Guelph services along the 407, the York University and Richmond Hill connections, and the Barrie and Bradford links; YRT's routes fan out across Vaughan from both stations, and Viva runs along Highway 7 to Markham and Richmond Hill. A passenger arriving on any of them books the chauffeur against the scheduled time, and the chauffeur allows for the route's typical variance. The GO Transit and YRT sites carry the current schedules, which change with the seasons.

Book a VMC or Highway 407 station pickup

The details

Highway 7 through the VMC has the Viva rapidway in the median and no kerbside stopping; the pickup lane is the only place a car can wait. The Highway 407 station's pickup area is signed from the bus terminal exit. GO buses on the Hamilton and Kitchener routes run late in the evening rush and the chauffeur tracks the schedule. And the last subway from Union reaches the VMC after one in the morning — a chauffeur home from there is a normal booking.