Orangeville-area commuters who travel south to Brampton and beyond by car are to be offered a public transit alternative that's hard to beat.

Starting next Monday, June 30, Orangeville Transit buses will start servicing the town's new GO Transit bus terminal, and next fall the local transit service will offer free rides to anyone having a valid GO Transit ticket or pass.

On Monday, the GO Bus Terminal and Park & Ride lot will go into operation beside the new train station at the foot of Mill Street.

GO Transit has provided the town with $263,800 to construct the bus terminal, Park & Ride lot and a shelter at the railway station, plus two additional shelters on the Town's and GO Transit's bus routes. The parking lot, with 55 spaces (four of them for the handicapped) was constructed as part of the project, and an overflow parking area for Credit Valley Explorer tourist excursions will also be provided south of the Park & Ride lot.

"The construction of a GO Transit Bus Terminal is great news for the entire region and I am pleased to see GO Transit make this investment in Orangeville and to offer this service to area residents," Orangeville Mayor Rob Adams said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday. "This Park & Ride lot will provide a safe and convenient place for area residents to park and leave their vehicles during the day."

The Town will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the Park & Ride lot and the bus shelters. And as part of the arrangement with GO Transit, the Town will conduct a pilot project for up to three months in the fall, offering free Orangeville Transit rides to GO Transit passengers holding a valid GO Transit ticket or pass.

The Town will also arrange to have Orangeville Transit begin its service earlier in the morning and to end its service later in the evening each day there is GO service in order to complement the GO Transit service schedule, and arrange to have Orangeville Transit review its schedule and confer with passengers to determine whether to blend the Orangeville Transit schedule with GO Transit's schedule, which currently involves six trips each way between Orangeville and Brampton Monday through Friday (excluding statutory holidays).

Single-ride tickets and day passes may be purchased from the driver, or tickets can be purchased from Total Video at 41 Broadway.

Area commuters bound for Brampton or downtown Toronto will find the GO Transit service fully competitive with travel by car.

For example, a day pass costing $18 will provide a round trip to Toronto's Union Station, and the southbound trip will take only about 90 minutes.

Parking at the lot will be prohibited between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and no stopping will be permitted in the bus turning loop.

Tuesday's ceremony included the presentation of gifts to the town from two former CPR employees, Deb Reed and Tom Kelly.

Perhaps the most interesting was an 1884 timetable showing the then-current operations of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce (TG&B) and Credit Valley railways, which both were later purchased by the CPR.

In 1884, the Credit Valley line didn't yet go up the Credit Valley, the main CVR line being between Toronto and St. Thomas.

The TG&B schedule showed that it took a little more than six hours for the passenger trains to make it from Toronto to Owen Sound. The morning train left a Toronto Union Station (not the present one) at 7:20 and didn't reach Orangeville, via Woodbridge and Bolton, until 9:55, reaching Owen Sound at 1:30 p.m. The return trip on the narrowgauge line took just as long, the trains leaving Owen Sound at 4:50 p.m., reaching Orangeville at 7:20 and Toronto at 10:30.

Over the years, the passenger service was a lot faster, the steam trains making the trips in about four hours and the Dayliners that replaced them in the 1950s trimming another hour off the schedule.