From Point A to "Point B"

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An easier way to travel to special events is coming to McMaster, which could serve as an alternative to HSR and GO Transit services.

Two entrepreneurs have started a crowd-funded shuttle service that will connect students at McMaster to Toronto and other regions in Ontario.

“We want people to be able to explore different areas and see where the best places to eat, or the best places to go out for a night, or where the best events are in the city […] and then we want to help people get there,” said Brett Chang, co-founder of the new service called Point B.

Chang and his partner Taylor Scollon, both graduates from the University of Toronto, founded this service in order to fill a need for affordable and convenient transit.

“It will be crowd-funded transit, so every week we will put up a new event or a new place to go, and if we can get enough people to ride the bus we will run the bus,” said Chang.

The first bus, tentatively scheduled to leave from McMaster on Feb. 6, would take students to downtown Toronto and bring them back to campus the same night. The bus service will not only take students to the GTA – it is also going to be used to bring students to restaurants and events in Hamilton, or on day-trips to Blue Mountain or the Niagara region.

Although the first bus is scheduled for Feb. 6, not all of the details have been worked out yet. Point B still needs to discuss with the university to arrange an on-campus pickup.

“We are still working on the details around that, we are still working with the different stakeholders involved,” Chang said.

Chang and Scollon first began offering transit that brought people in Toronto to Liberty Village, a service that is currently on hiatus.

“We did realize that running an ongoing public transit service is difficult. You want to have a pretty big user base to do that so this is a good way for us to build up to there,” he said about beginning the service at McMaster.

Chang and Scollon will be focusing their efforts on expanding the service to McMaster, citing that there is a greater need for alternative transit in universities outside of Toronto.

“I think the problem is that there are a lot of universities in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area which are built with inadequate transportation,” he said.

The 48-person bus to Toronto will cost $20 round-trip, which is less than the adult fare for the GO service, and it will pick students up on or near campus. Prices will vary depending on the specific trip and the number of people who sign up for the bus.

“A lot of students struggle to really get outside, enjoy anywhere outside of campus,” said Chang. “I think that you can find new alterative transit methods to show people different parts of the region, different parts of the province and go to different places, discover new things.”

“The bus can really go anywhere.”

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