Kingston For the Day - Planning

I could catch a 6:40 from Toronto (quite late for me!) and be in Kingston in two and a half hours.

The early start is 6:40 and gives me up to eleven hours in town. That’s certainly enough time for a light brunch, stroll around town, supper and home before eleven.

The VIA train station is about FIVE kilometres from the downtown core, but the bus system has twenty routes, two of which (#18 and #16) pass by the train station every half-hour until nine o’clock. Route #18 is a direct route to the downtown core.

Transit runs Monday to Friday – roughly 6:30 to 21:00 although each route varies - so even if I elect to get the later (21:52) train I can spend a couple of hours over supper and wander the downtown core, ending up with a leisurely stroll back to the station.

As far as I can make out, routes move between and around a set of centres, the busiest centres being Downtown and Cataraqui.

The 5xx, 6xx and 7xx routes are express, which suggests a fast way to see a lot of the town quickly, but with less opportunities (bus stoppings) to take photographs.

Seniors pay $2.05 per trip, so a pocketful of coin is advisable. Tickets are available at the Robert E. Ladoucier Transit Centre, Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Each of the nine routes appears to be a half-hour round trip. In theory I could ride every route completely in 4½ hours, so if I took

8:30 as the start of my rides I’d be done by 1pm!

Leisurely would be to take the first bus to downtown, have breakfast, and then ride until 1, light lunch, ride some more and end up strolling the downtown core in the afternoon and early evening.

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