Ajax from the driver's seat
Ajax — on the lake between Pickering and Whitby, from the Duffins Creek to the Carruthers Creek and north to Taunton Road — is 50 to 65 minutes from Pearson via the 401 across Toronto (75 to 105 at the peaks) or 55 to 70 via the 407 (at almost any hour, with the toll shown), and 40 to 55 from downtown Toronto. Its black car trade is the airport, the Toronto commute and evening, Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering hospital, the Ajax Convention Centre's and the banquet halls' celebrations, and the waterfront's occasions.
Ajax is the town the war built — a munitions plant's workers' housing in 1941, named for HMS Ajax and with its streets named for the ship's crew — and today a lakeshore town of 130,000 between Pickering and Whitby, among the most diverse in Canada: South Asian, Caribbean, Filipino, Chinese and West African communities whose celebrations fill the town's banquet halls and the Ajax Convention Centre most weekends. For a black car it is a town whose airport run is long and whose residents fly to Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, India, the Philippines and Nigeria on flights that leave early and land late, whose commuters ride the GO to Union and book the car for what the GO cannot do, and whose waterfront is Durham's best. This page covers the neighbourhoods and their pickups, the airport and the 407, the hospital, the convention centre and the celebrations, the waterfront, the Toronto run, the neighbours, and a day worked through.
The neighbourhoods and their pickups
Downtown Ajax (Harwood Avenue from Bayly to Kingston Road, the Ajax Plaza, the Town Hall, the Ajax GO station on Westney, the McLean Community Centre): the plaza's entrances, the town hall's loop, the GO's kiss-and-ride, the Harwood strip's side streets. The waterfront (Lake Driveway, Rotary Park, Paradise Park, the Ajax Waterfront Park, the Veterans' Point Gardens): the parks' lots, the waterfront trail's heads. Pickering Village (Kingston Road at Church Street on the Pickering border — the historic village, its shops and restaurants): the village's side streets. South Ajax (Bayly Street's residential streets, the older wartime houses, Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering on Harwood): the hospital's entrance loop, the door. Central and north Ajax (Westney Heights, Nottingham, the Applecroft and Hermitage subdivisions, the Audley Road corridor, the Ajax Convention Centre on Achilles Road, the Durham Live lands): the subdivisions' streets, the convention centre's porte-cochère, the Ajax Community Centre's loop. The 401 corridor (Salem, Harwood and Westney interchanges, the Ajax Business Park): the industrial parks' lay-bys. The Durham guide covers the routes; the street notes are on dispatch's map.
The airport, the 401 and the 407
Ajax to Pearson is the 401 west across all of Toronto to the 427 (50 to 60 minutes at 4 a.m., 75 to 105 at the peaks) or the 407 — north on Salem, Westney or Brock Road to the 407's eastern extension, west across the top of the city to the 427 — at 55 to 70 at almost any hour, with a distance-based toll the engine shows. Our practice: the 401 overnight and midday, the 407 at the peaks and on the 401's bad days, offered as a line item and approved at booking; the 407 article explains the toll and the Durham guide works the decision by neighbourhood. Ajax's travellers fly to the Caribbean, South Asia, the Philippines and West Africa on early departures and late arrivals, and the 4 a.m. pickup and the midnight meet and greet with a chauffeur who speaks the family's language — Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi, Tagalog, Yoruba, Patois-fluent English — are the town's most common bookings; the family transfers guide covers the luggage and the early-morning guide the routine.
Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering and healthcare
Lakeridge Health's Ajax Pickering hospital on Harwood Avenue South is the town's and Pickering's hospital, with an entrance loop and the standing-order pattern for older residents' appointments; the Scarborough hospitals are 20 to 30 minutes west, Lakeridge Health Oshawa and its cancer centre 25 minutes east, and the Toronto hospitals 45 to 70 west. The seniors' guide and the medical appointments article describe the weekly arrangements.
The Ajax Convention Centre, the halls and the celebrations
The Ajax Convention Centre on Achilles Road, the banquet halls of Bayly Street and the 401 corridor, the Deer Creek golf club's ballrooms on Audley Road and the town's temples, churches and mosques host the celebrations of Ajax's communities — South Asian and Caribbean weddings that run for days, Filipino debuts, Nigerian and Ghanaian weddings and naming ceremonies, the Chinese and Tamil communities' banquets — and the transport is the wedding page's with the town's specifics: a baraat that closes a side street with the hall's cooperation, a Sprinter for the family between the temple and the hall, a stretch for the couple, a bus for guests from the hotels along the 401. The South Asian weddings guide covers the multi-day fleet plan, and the halls' porte-cochères are on the chauffeur's map.
The waterfront and Ajax's summer
Ajax's waterfront — seven kilometres of trail from the Duffins Creek to the Carruthers Creek, Rotary Park's beach and splash pad, Paradise Park, the Veterans' Point Gardens and the Ajax Waterfront Park's pavilion — is Durham's best, and its summer calendar (the Ajax Waterfront Festival, Canada Day's fireworks at Rotary Park, the Ajax Home Week in June) fills the lots and changes the pickups; dispatch has the dates. A summer evening on the waterfront from Toronto — the 401 forty minutes, dinner in Pickering Village or on Harwood, the sunset on the trail — is an hourly booking for a change of scene.
Downtown Toronto and the commute
Ajax to the Financial District is the 401 west and the DVP to the Gardiner (40 to 55 minutes off-peak, 65 to 95 at the peaks); a Leafs game, a Yorkville dinner or a Mirvish show is an hourly booking with the chauffeur waiting downtown and the arena or theatre guide's pickup, and the Lakeshore East GO from Ajax station is the honest single-passenger alternative for the commute (45 minutes to Union). Ajax's regulars ride the GO to work and book the car for the airport, the evening and the family; the UP Express comparison works the airport numbers, where GO plus UP Express is two hours and the car is one.
Pickering, Whitby and the neighbours
Pickering's City Centre and casino resort are ten minutes west (the Pickering guide), Whitby's downtown ten minutes east (the Whitby guide), Oshawa's downtown and university twenty (the Oshawa guide), and Scarborough's Town Centre twenty minutes west (the Scarborough guide). An Ajax family's trip to the Pickering casino, a Whitby banquet hall or an Oshawa Generals game is a short fixed fare.
An Ajax day, in cars
4:00 a.m. — a Tamil-speaking chauffeur in a Sprinter from a Westney Heights home to Terminal 1 via the 401, fifty-two minutes, a family of six bound for Colombo with eleven bags. 7:15 — a downtown Ajax executive to a King West meeting via the 401 and DVP, waiting on an hourly clock. 10:30 — a South Ajax couple's standing car to Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering and the pharmacy on Harwood. 2:00 p.m. — a stretch limousine and two Sprinters begin a Convention Centre wedding: the baraat from a Nottingham home, the temple on Bayly, the hall's porte-cochère, the last drop at 1 a.m. 6:00 — a Pickering Village couple to a Scotiabank Arena Leafs game via the 401 and DVP, hourly, home at 11:30. 11:45 p.m. — a Tagalog-speaking chauffeur meets a family at Door A with a name board and delivers them to an Applecroft address via the 407 in fifty-eight minutes. Every trip a fixed fare.
Ajax to everywhere
| From downtown Ajax to | Route | Off-peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson | 401 west → 427 | 50–60 min | 75–105 (407: 55–70) |
| Billy Bishop | 401 → DVP → Gardiner | 45–60 | 70–100 |
| Financial District | 401 → DVP → Gardiner | 40–55 | 65–95 |
| Yorkville | 401 → DVP → Bloor | 40–55 | 65–90 |
| Pickering Casino Resort | Kingston Road / 401 west | 8–12 | 12–18 |
| Ajax Convention Centre | Westney → Achilles | 8–12 | 10–15 |
| Whitby (downtown) | Kingston Road / 401 east | 8–12 | 12–20 |
| Oshawa (downtown) | 401 east | 15–22 | 25–35 |
| Scarborough Town Centre | 401 west | 15–20 | 25–40 |
Booking a car in Ajax
The engine prices any Ajax address and shows the 407 option for Pearson; the notes field takes the hall, the hospital's entrance or the subdivision's street, and any language request. Corporate accounts set a 407 policy once; standing orders cover the weekly trips.
Durham Live, the Ajax business parks and the town's growth
The Durham Live lands at Church and Bayly on the Pickering border — the casino resort's development, with a hotel, a film studio and the entertainment district planned around it — and the Ajax business parks along Salem Road, Achilles Road and the 401 corridor (logistics, food processing, the Volkswagen parts centre) are the town's growth, and their black car work is the corporate pattern: the Pearson run with the 407 approved on the account, client pickups with meet and greet, hourly days for visiting executives and the Sprinter to a Toronto client dinner. Corporate accounts hold the building's lay-by and the 407 policy; the expense reports article covers the HST receipts.
The Ajax GO, the commute and Ajax's transit
The Ajax GO station on Westney Road is among the busiest on the Lakeshore East line, with a parking structure that fills by 7 a.m. and a kiss-and-ride loop that is the town's morning ritual; the Durham Region Transit buses and the Pulse route along Kingston Road are the other transit. For a single commuter the GO is the honest alternative (45 minutes to Union) and our Ajax regulars use it; for the family, the luggage, the evening and the airport — where there is no rail from Ajax and the UP Express comparison shows GO plus UP Express at two hours against the car's one — the car. The school run, the hockey run to the Ajax Community Centre's arenas and the weekly appointments are the standing orders the recurring rides article describes.
Deer Creek, the golf clubs and Ajax's golf days
Deer Creek Golf and Banquet Facility on Audley Road — 63 holes across four courses, with banquet halls that host the town's weddings and corporate events — and the Annandale and Riverside courses on Ajax's borders host the town's golf days and corporate tournaments, with the 6 a.m. tee-time pattern the golf days article covers and the banquet halls' porte-cochères on the chauffeur's map; a corporate tournament at Deer Creek with a Sprinter from the 401 corridor's hotels and a bus home from the dinner is a booking Ajax's companies make every summer.
Ajax's group nights and the casino next door
Ajax's groups book the stretch SUV and the Sprinter for the birthday nights at the Pickering Casino Resort ten minutes west, for the Toronto arena and theatre nights an hour west, for the Oshawa Generals' games twenty minutes east and for the Niagara wine tours that start two hours from here; the event limo page covers the pickups and the limo bus vs Sprinter article the vehicle choice, and Ajax's companies book the limo bus for holiday parties at the Convention Centre and Deer Creek with the holiday party article's two-stage plan.
Ajax's students and the campuses nearby
Durham College's and Ontario Tech's Oshawa campus is twenty minutes east, the University of Toronto Scarborough and Centennial College twenty-five west, and Ajax's students — and the international students whose families have settled in the town — arrive at Pearson to family or residence with meet and greet and a chauffeur who speaks their language; the convocation article covers the June days and the unaccompanied minors guide the handovers a parent abroad books, and the campuses' loops are on the chauffeur's map.
Booking notes for Ajax
Three small things. Confirm the luggage and the language at booking — a family of six bound for Colombo needs the Sprinter and a Tamil-speaking chauffeur, and both are assigned when asked. Approve the 407 as a contingency on every airport booking; the chauffeur uses it only when the 401 is broken. And for the Convention Centre and the halls, agree the porte-cochère and the baraat's route with the venue the week before; our Ajax chauffeurs will do it for you.
