Newmarket and Aurora from the driver's seat
Newmarket and Aurora — the two towns at the top of York Region on Yonge Street and the 404, north of Richmond Hill and the Oak Ridges Moraine, from Aurora's Bloomington Road border to Newmarket's Green Lane and East Gwillimbury — are 45 to 60 minutes from Pearson via the 404 south to the 407 and west to the 427 (at almost any hour, with the toll shown) or 55 to 75 via the 404 and 401 (80 to 110 at the peaks), and 50 to 70 from downtown Toronto via the 404 and DVP. Their black car trade is the airport, Southlake Regional Health Centre, Magna and the 404 corridor's head offices, the private schools, the moraine's estates and golf clubs, the towns' main streets and the Toronto run.
Newmarket and Aurora share a highway, a hospital, a school system and a market, and we treat them as one service area with two main streets: Newmarket's Main Street South along the Holland River, with its Victorian shops, the Old Town Hall and the Riverwalk Commons; and Aurora's Yonge Street downtown at Wellington, with its own heritage strip, the Aurora Cultural Centre and the Town Park. Around them: Southlake Regional Health Centre (the region's northern hospital, with a cardiac centre and a cancer centre), Upper Canada Mall, the 404 corridor's head offices (Magna International's global headquarters is in Aurora), the private schools (St. Andrew's College, Pickering College, the Country Day School and Villanova), the moraine's estates and golf clubs, and the countryside that begins at Green Lane. For a black car it is a market whose airport run has an almost peak-proof route via the 407, whose households are among the region's most affluent, and whose hospital and head offices generate the corporate and medical work. This page covers the towns and their pickups, the airport and the 404-407 route, Southlake, the corporate corridor, the schools, the estates and clubs, the Toronto run, the countryside, and a day worked through.
The towns and their pickups
Downtown Newmarket (Main Street South from Davis Drive to Water Street, the Old Town Hall, the Riverwalk Commons, the Newmarket GO station on Davis, the Farmers' Market on Saturdays): the shops and restaurants with pickups on the side streets (Park, Timothy, Botsford, Millard), the Riverwalk's lot, the GO's kiss-and-ride. Upper Canada Mall and the Yonge–Davis node (Yonge at Davis Drive, the mall, the Newmarket bus terminal, the towers): the mall's entrances, the towers' porte-cochères. Southlake Regional Health Centre (Davis Drive at Roxborough Road): the entrance loops. Newmarket's subdivisions (Stonehaven, Glenway, Woodland Hill, Summerhill, Copper Hills — the streets between Bathurst and Leslie, Mulock and Green Lane): the door. Downtown Aurora (Yonge Street from Wellington to Mosley, the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Town Park, the Aurora GO station on Wellington): the side streets (Mosley, Tyler, Temperance, Victoria), the park's lot, the GO's kiss-and-ride. Aurora's estates and the moraine (Aurora Highlands, the Bathurst and Yonge estates south of Wellington, the St. Andrew's College and Country Day School campuses, the Beacon Hall and Magna golf clubs, the Bloomington Road concessions): long driveways and gated entrances, the schools' loops, the clubs' gates. The 404 corridor (Wellington Street East to Leslie, Magna's campus, the State Farm/Desjardins tower, the business parks of Aurora and Newmarket along Leslie and Harry Walker): the campuses' lay-bys. The Newmarket guide covers the routes; the street notes are on dispatch's map.
The airport: the 404 and the 407, or the 404 and the 401
Newmarket and Aurora to Pearson have a route the rest of York Region envies: the 404 south to the 407 interchange at Highway 7 (twenty minutes from Aurora, twenty-five from Newmarket), then the 407 west across Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan to the 427 and south to the airport — 45 to 60 minutes at almost any hour, with a distance-based toll the engine shows. The alternative — the 404 to the 401 and west across North York — is 55 to 65 off-peak and 80 to 110 at the peaks, and the 400 via Highway 9 or Davis Drive west is a third option for Newmarket's west side that avoids both. Our practice: the 407 recommended on almost every airport booking from here (the toll is modest against the time saved), the 401 overnight when it is empty, offered as a line item and approved at booking; the 407 article explains the toll and the Newmarket and Aurora guide works the decision by neighbourhood. The Pearson page has the procedure at Door A; the early-morning guide the 4 a.m. routine.
Southlake Regional Health Centre and healthcare
Southlake Regional Health Centre on Davis Drive — York Region's northern hospital, with a regional cardiac centre, the Stronach Regional Cancer Centre and a catchment that reaches to Lake Simcoe and beyond — draws patients and families from across the region's north and the counties beyond, and its transport is a large part of our Newmarket work: standing orders for older residents' appointments, weekly cars for cardiac and cancer treatment from Aurora, King, Bradford and Keswick, a family from Barrie or Orillia in a Newmarket hotel for a week of treatment booking the car each morning, and visiting physicians from Pearson with meet and greet via the 407. The medical appointments and seniors' guide articles describe the standing arrangements, the healthcare executive transport article the visiting-physician pattern, and the hospital's entrance loops are on the chauffeur's map.
Magna, the 404 corridor and corporate Newmarket–Aurora
Magna International's global headquarters on Wellington Street East in Aurora — one of the world's largest auto-parts companies — and the corridor's other head offices (the insurance towers, the technology and manufacturing companies of Aurora's and Newmarket's business parks along Leslie Street and Harry Walker Parkway, the professional firms of both downtowns) generate corporate black car work that is disproportionate to the towns' size: the Pearson run with the 407 approved on the account, client and executive pickups with meet and greet, hourly days for visiting executives from Europe and Detroit, the Sprinter to a downtown Toronto client dinner or a plant tour, and the roadshow pattern when an Aurora company's investors visit. Corporate accounts hold the campus's lay-by and the 407 policy; the roadshow guide and the expense reports article cover the rest.
St. Andrew's, Pickering College and the private schools
St. Andrew's College in Aurora (a boys' boarding and day school with a 126-acre campus on Yonge Street), Pickering College in Newmarket (co-educational boarding and day, on Bayview Avenue), the Country Day School in King (fifteen minutes west) and Villanova College in King City bring boarders who arrive at Pearson from around the world and day students whose parents set up the school run; a parent in Beijing, Mexico City or Riyadh booking a Pearson pickup with meet and greet for a child landing alone, the chauffeur holding the name board at Door A, the 407 to the school's front office with a text at each step, is a booking we make from abroad for Aurora and Newmarket every September and January. The unaccompanied minors guide describes the handover, the standing orders article the school run, and the schools' drop-off loops are on the chauffeur's map.
The moraine's estates, the golf clubs and the weddings
Aurora's estates south of Wellington and along Bathurst and Yonge, the Bloomington Road concessions, the Beacon Hall, Magna, St. Andrew's Valley and Silver Lakes golf clubs, the Newmarket estates of Stonehaven and the Bayview corridor, and the King Township estates fifteen minutes west are among the region's most expensive addresses, and their households book the airport, the school run, the gala nights downtown and the golf days; pickups are at the gate or the door as the household prefers, the privacy and discretion standard applies, and the golf days article covers the clubs' loops. The towns' weddings — at the golf clubs' ballrooms, the Aurora Cultural Centre, the Old Town Hall, the Newmarket Riverwalk, the Madsen's Greenhouse in Newmarket and the countryside barns toward Sharon and Mount Albert — are the wedding page's with the towns' specifics, and the venue notes cover the clubs.
Downtown Toronto and the commute
Newmarket and Aurora to the Financial District are the 404 south to the DVP and the Gardiner (50 to 65 minutes off-peak from Aurora, 55 to 70 from Newmarket, 80 to 120 at the peaks) or Yonge Street south through Richmond Hill and North York for Yorkville; 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 Barrie GO line from Newmarket and Aurora stations is the honest single-passenger alternative for the commute (55 to 65 minutes to Union). The towns' own evenings — Main Street Newmarket's restaurants and the Riverwalk's summer concerts, Aurora's Yonge Street rooms and the Cultural Centre's season — are short hops with pickups on the side streets, and the Newmarket Farmers' Market on Saturdays and Aurora's Street Festival in June close the main streets.
Lake Simcoe, King and the countryside
North of Green Lane the countryside begins — East Gwillimbury's Sharon Temple, Holland Landing, the Holland Marsh's farms, Bradford, and Lake Simcoe's Keswick and Jackson's Point thirty minutes north; west is King Township's estates, King City's village, the Country Day School and the Kingbridge Centre's conference resort; east is Mount Albert, Uxbridge and the moraine's trails. A black car booking there is a driveway pickup with a chauffeur who knows the concession roads, and the fall colours drives article covers the moraine and the Holland Marsh in October; the Richmond Hill guide covers the town to the south and the Vaughan guide King's neighbour to the south-west.
A Newmarket–Aurora day, in cars
4:15 a.m. — a sedan from an Aurora Highlands estate to Terminal 1 via the 404 and 407 (approved at booking), forty-nine minutes. 7:00 — a Magna executive from a Wellington Street East hotel to Pearson for a Detroit flight via the 407, fifty-two minutes. 9:00 — a Keswick patient's weekly car to Southlake's cancer centre and home. 11:30 — a Mandarin-speaking chauffeur meets a St. Andrew's boarder at Door A with a name board and makes the handover at the school's front office at 1 p.m., a text to Beijing at each step. 4:00 p.m. — a Stonehaven couple's standing car to Southlake and the pharmacy on Davis. 6:30 — a Sprinter from a Newmarket business park to a King West client dinner via the 404 and DVP, waiting, back at 11. 7:00 — a downtown Aurora couple to a Mirvish show via the 404 and DVP, hourly, home at 11:45. Every trip a fixed fare, three via the 407.
Newmarket and Aurora to everywhere
| From | To | Route | Off-peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora (Yonge & Wellington) | Pearson | 404 → 407 → 427 | 45–55 min | 50–65 (401: 80–110) |
| Newmarket (Yonge & Davis) | Pearson | 404 → 407 → 427 | 50–60 | 55–70 (401: 85–115) |
| Aurora | Financial District | 404 → DVP → Gardiner | 50–65 | 80–115 |
| Newmarket | Financial District | 404 → DVP → Gardiner | 55–70 | 85–120 |
| Either | Yorkville | 404 → 401 → Bayview, or Yonge | 50–70 | 75–110 |
| Aurora | Newmarket (Main Street) | Yonge north | 10–15 | 15–25 |
| Newmarket | Southlake | Davis Drive | 5–8 | 8–12 |
| Either | Richmond Hill (Yonge & Major Mackenzie) | Yonge south / 404 | 15–25 | 20–35 |
| Newmarket | Keswick (Lake Simcoe) | Woodbine north | 25–35 | 30–40 |
Booking a car in Newmarket or Aurora
The engine prices any Newmarket or Aurora address and shows the 407 option for Pearson; the notes field takes the estate's gate, the hospital's entrance, the school or the campus, and any language request. Corporate accounts set a 407 policy once; standing orders cover the school run and the weekly treatment trips.
Booking notes for Newmarket and Aurora
Three small things. Approve the 407 on every airport booking; from here it is the route, not the alternative, and the engine shows the toll. For the schools' handovers, give the school's front office contact at booking so the chauffeur can confirm the arrival. And for the estates, record the gate code and the household's preference once on the account; the chauffeur will not ring twice.
