Vaughan to London, Ontario: Western's move-in, the arena nights and the Forest City

London, two hours down the 401

London is the largest city in south-western Ontario, on the Thames River with a downtown of a hundred-odd blocks, a university whose campus on the river's north branch is one of the country's prettiest, a hospital system that draws referrals from across the region, and an arena that brings every touring act between Toronto and Detroit. For Vaughan it is above all Western: the University of Western Ontario takes a large share of Vaughan's graduates every September, and the move-in — two hours each way with a residence load — is the Sprinter booking that this post begins with. The rest of the city follows from it: the parents' weekend, the concert, the hospital, the client visit.

The Western and Fanshawe move-ins

Western's residences move in over the Labour Day weekend with assigned windows and a campus plan that routes vehicles to each building's unloading zone; a family from Woodbridge with a first-year student books the Sprinter for it — the bins, the fridge, the bicycle, the mattress topper, the family — the 407 and 401 west, the Western Road entrance at the window, the unloading zone, the load up with the sophs' help, and the parents home by early evening or after a night in the city. Fanshawe College's residences on Oxford Street East and the downtown campus are the same booking; move-out in April reverses it; and the corporate account keeps the eight runs of a four-year degree on one invoice. The Kingston post describes the shape at Queen's; London is the same shape with a longer drive, which is the argument.

Budweiser Gardens and the arena night

Budweiser Gardens downtown is the London Knights' rink and the region's concert arena, and a Vaughan group books a concert or a Knights playoff night as a Sprinter or party bus hourly hire: the 401 at five, the arena's drop at seven thirty, the show, and the 401 home at midnight with the group asleep. Parents visiting a student book the Knights game as the Saturday evening of a parents' weekend in a Luxury SUV, with Richmond Row's restaurants before it.

The city for a parents' weekend

Western's parents' weekend in the fall and the Homecoming weekend fill the city's hotels, and a family in an SUV does the campus, the Thames Valley Parkway's river trails, the Covent Garden Market downtown for Saturday lunch, Richmond Row's shops and restaurants, the Museum London on the forks of the Thames, and, for younger siblings, Storybook Gardens in Springbank Park — the children's park with the rides and the splash pad — and the Fanshawe Pioneer Village's living-history village on the city's east side. The chauffeur moves the vehicle between them and the family's weekend is the student's city rather than its parking.

LHSC and the hospital run

London Health Sciences Centre — University Hospital on the Western campus and Victoria Hospital on the south side — and St. Joseph's take referrals from across the region, and a Vaughan family whose specialist is in London books the appointment as a Premium Sedan or SUV return with waiting: two hours down, the entrance's loop, the chauffeur in the visitor lot, two hours home, on a day the patient cannot drive. The black car page covers the point-to-point terms; the corporate-style account suits a family with a course of treatment.

The corporate run

London's employers — the insurers, the university and hospital research firms, the manufacturers on the city's east side, the 3M and the food plants — bring Vaughan's businesses down the 401, and a black car or a Sprinter from a Vaughan office with the vehicle waiting through the meeting is the corporate booking, invoiced as a line; the London Convention Centre's conferences are the Sprinter's delegation.

The route

The 407 west to the 401, the 401 west past Cambridge and Woodstock to London's exits — Highbury for the east side and Fanshawe, Wellington Road for downtown and Victoria Hospital, Wonderland Road for the west and Western — two hours from Kleinburg with the 407, two and a quarter from Thornhill. The routing estimate's two and a half is the no-toll version; the 401 west of Cambridge is a truck corridor whose Friday-afternoon crawl at Woodstock the chauffeur knows and, when asked, leaves early to beat.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for the move-in and the concert group; an SUV for the parents' weekend with younger siblings in boosters at $25 each; a Premium Sedan for the hospital and the corporate run; a party bus for a Knights playoff night with a birthday attached. The Sprinter's bay takes a residence load or a group's weekend.

What the chauffeur replaces

Four hours of the 401 in a day for the move-in, with a rented van; the concert's drive home at midnight; the hospital's drive on a day the patient cannot make; the corporate visit's rental. The fare is one number in the booking engine, and for the move-in and the concert group it undercuts the alternatives; for the hospital run it replaces a day off work and the site says so.

Seasons

The Labour Day weekend and April for the campuses; the fall for parents' weekend and Homecoming; September to March for the Knights and the arena's concert calendar; the summer for Storybook Gardens and the river; all year for the hospital and the corporate run. Western's convocation in June is the Sprinter's graduation-day booking with the family and the grandparents.

Pairing it

London pairs with Stratford an hour north-east for a family with Festival tickets and a student, with Grand Bend an hour north-west for a beach day on a parents' weekend, and with Windsor and Point Pelee further down the 401 for a south-west Ontario loop.

The move-in, in order

A first-year student from Thornhill to a Western residence on the Labour Day weekend: the Sprinter at 6:30 with the family of four and the bay holding the bins, the fridge, the bicycle and a floor lamp; the 407 and 401 west with a stop at the Woodstock service centre; the Western Road entrance at 9:15 in the assigned window, the campus's move-in marshals routing the vehicle to the residence's unloading zone, the sophs carrying the bins, the load up in twenty minutes; the Sprinter to a campus lot; the family's residence tour, the orientation session, lunch on Richmond Row; the Sprinter at two and Thornhill by 4:30 — or the downtown hotel, the Knights' pre-season game and Sunday's Covent Garden brunch before the drive home. One fare, shown in the booking engine before booking; Fanshawe's Oxford Street residences are the same day.

The parents' weekend, in order

Two parents and a younger sibling from Kleinburg in a Luxury SUV in October: Friday at 3 p.m., the 401, the downtown hotel by 5:30, dinner with the student on Richmond Row. Saturday: the campus's Homecoming football at Western Alumni Stadium at one with the tailgate before, the Thames Valley Parkway's walk after, dinner, and the Knights at Budweiser Gardens at seven. Sunday: the Covent Garden Market's brunch, Storybook Gardens for the sibling, the student dropped at the residence, and the 401 home by five. Two days of daily hire; the travel desk holds the hotel in August, because Homecoming fills the city.

The Thames and the parks

London's river runs through the city's middle and the Thames Valley Parkway follows it for forty kilometres — the trail that a family walks from the forks downtown at the Museum London to Springbank Park and Storybook Gardens in the west end — and the city's parks along it, Harris Park for the summer's festivals, Gibbons Park's pool and the university's Elgin Hall lawn, are the parents' weekend's outdoors. The Tourism London site has the festivals — Sunfest in July, the Western Fair in September, Rock the Park in July — that a Vaughan group books a Sprinter for on their own account.

The hospital run, worked through

A patient from Woodbridge with a specialist at University Hospital: the Premium Sedan at 7 a.m., the 401, the hospital's main entrance at 9:15, the chauffeur in the visitor lot through a two-hour appointment, the sedan at the entrance at 11:30, lunch on the way if wanted, Woodbridge by two. A return with waiting, one number in the booking engine, and a family whose alternative is a day off work for a relative to drive four hours; the black car page covers the terms and a course of treatment goes on an account.

Pickup notes

The 407 and 401 from every Vaughan community; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst, and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects the difference. Give us the residence window and the loads, the hotel and the game, the appointment time, or the concert, the seats and the addresses in order, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Fanshawe Pioneer Village and the east side

Fanshawe Pioneer Village on the city's north-east edge is a living-history village of thirty buildings from the region's nineteenth century — a general store, a church, a print shop, farms — with costumed interpreters and a summer calendar of events, beside the Fanshawe Conservation Area's lake with its beach and its trails; it is the younger sibling's afternoon on a parents' weekend and the reason a family with a Fanshawe College student sees the college's namesake. The village's site has the season.

What the run costs, in shape

The move-in in a Sprinter is one number in the booking engine against a car and a rented van for four hours each way — the arithmetic that makes London the run Vaughan families book without a second thought once they have done it the other way; the concert night for a group of ten divides into a per-person figure below a downtown Toronto taxi; the hospital run replaces a relative's day off work; the corporate visit is an invoice line. For a parents' weekend the daily hire is a comfort purchase, and the site says so.

Booking it

Book a Sprinter for the move-in with the residence window, an hourly evening for the arena, a return with waiting for the hospital, or a black car for the corporate visit; tell us the seats, the loads and the addresses in order, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the London run