Richmond Hill from the driver's seat
Richmond Hill — north of Toronto between Vaughan and Markham, along Yonge Street from Highway 7 to Bloomington Road — is 35 to 50 minutes from Pearson via the 407 and the 427 (55 to 90 via the 401 at the peaks), and 40 to 60 minutes from downtown Toronto via the 404 or Yonge. Its black car trade is the airport, the 404 corridor's head offices, Mackenzie Health's hospital, the Chinese, Persian, Russian and Jewish communities' celebrations and the downtown Toronto run.
Richmond Hill is the middle of York Region — the Yonge Street corridor's older village downtown at Major Mackenzie, the towers and plazas of the Yonge and Highway 7 intersection, the Bayview Hill and Rouge Woods subdivisions, the estates of Bayview and Leslie north of Elgin Mills, the Oak Ridges village on the moraine with Lake Wilcox, the 404 corridor's office parks shared with Markham — and it shares Markham's airport logic: the 407 across the top of the city is the road, and the 401 is the road you avoid at the peaks. This page covers the neighbourhoods and their pickups, the 407 decision, the hospital, the corporate parks, the communities' celebrations and the languages our chauffeurs speak, the downtown run, the moraine and the north, and a day worked through.
The neighbourhoods and their pickups
The Yonge and Highway 7 node (the towers and plazas, the Richmond Hill Centre bus terminal, the Hillcrest Mall at Yonge and Carrville): the towers' porte-cochères on the side streets, the plazas' entrances, the terminal's transit-only lanes. Downtown Richmond Hill (Yonge at Major Mackenzie, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, the village's shops): pickups on the side streets (Arnold, Lorne, Centre), the theatre's Yonge Street lay-by, the Richmond Hill GO station's loop. Bayview Hill and Rouge Woods (Bayview and Leslie between Highway 7 and Major Mackenzie): the subdivisions' streets, pickups at the door; the Bayview Hill Community Centre. The Bayview and Leslie estates north of Elgin Mills: long driveways and gated entrances. Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox (Yonge north of King Road on the moraine): the village's streets, the lake's park, the Oak Ridges Trail's heads. The 404 corridor (Highway 7 to Major Mackenzie, Leslie to the 404): the office campuses' lay-bys, shared with Markham. Jefferson and the west (Bathurst and Yonge north): the newer subdivisions. The Richmond Hill guide covers the 407 routes; the street notes are on dispatch's map.
The 407 decision
Richmond Hill to Pearson has the same two routes as Markham with a shorter 407 leg: the toll road from the Yonge, Bathurst or Leslie interchanges west to the 427 and south to the airport (35 to 45 minutes at almost any hour), or Yonge or the 404 south to the 401 and west across North York (45 to 55 off-peak, 70 to 90 at the peaks). Our practice is Markham's: the 407 offered on every airport booking as a line item, recommended at the peaks and on any day the 401 is broken, skipped overnight and midday when the 401 is fine; our vehicles carry transponders so the toll only is charged. The 407 article explains the structure; the Pearson to York Region guide works the decision by neighbourhood; the Pearson page has the procedure at Door A.
Mackenzie Health and healthcare
Mackenzie Health's Richmond Hill hospital on Major Mackenzie at Trench Street is the city's hospital, with an entrance loop and the standing-order pattern for older residents' appointments; the Cortellucci Vaughan site is fifteen minutes west, Markham Stouffville fifteen east, Sunnybrook and the Toronto hospitals 35 to 60 south. The seniors' guide and the medical appointments article describe the weekly arrangements, and a Cantonese-, Mandarin-, Farsi- or Russian-speaking chauffeur is the usual request.
Corporate Richmond Hill
The 404 corridor's office parks between Highway 7 and Major Mackenzie — shared with Markham and covered in the Markham guide — and the Yonge and Highway 7 towers house head offices, technology companies, the pharmaceutical firms of the Leslie Street corridor and professional services; their black car work is the Pearson run with the 407 approved, client pickups with meet and greet, hourly days for visiting executives and the Sprinter to a downtown client dinner. Corporate accounts hold the campus's lay-by and the 407 policy.
Communities, celebrations and languages
Richmond Hill is among the most diverse cities in the region — Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Persian (one of the largest Iranian communities in Canada, along Yonge and Bayview), Russian and Jewish (the Bathurst corridor shared with Thornhill), Korean, South Asian and Italian communities — and its celebrations fill the banquet halls of Highway 7, Yonge and the 404 corridor and the Yonge Street restaurants that draw the whole GTA: Nowruz in March, Chinese New Year, the Jewish calendar's Saturday-night weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, the Persian community's weddings at the grand halls. Our chauffeur team speaks the city's languages — Cantonese, Mandarin, Farsi, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Punjabi, Italian — and a booking can request one; the wedding page and the venue notes cover the halls, and for relatives arriving at Pearson from Tehran, Shanghai or Moscow to visit family in Richmond Hill, meet and greet with a chauffeur who speaks their language and the 407 home is the booking we make most often for the city.
Downtown Toronto for the evening
Richmond Hill to the Financial District is the 404 to the DVP and the Gardiner (40 to 55 minutes off-peak, 65 to 95 at the peaks) or Yonge Street south through North York and midtown for Yorkville (40 to 55 off-peak, the arterial a fair alternative when the 404 is bad); 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. Richmond Hill's own evenings — the Yonge Street Persian and Chinese restaurants, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts' season, the Hillcrest Mall's rooms — are short hops with pickups on the side streets and at the plazas' entrances.
The moraine and the north
North of Elgin Mills the city climbs the Oak Ridges Moraine — the village of Oak Ridges, Lake Wilcox's park and the Oak Ridges Trail, the estates and hobby farms of the Bayview and Leslie concessions, the golf clubs (the Summit, the Richmond Hill and Bloomington clubs) and the wedding venues of the countryside — and beyond it King City, Aurora and Newmarket. A black car booking on the moraine is a driveway pickup with a chauffeur who knows the concession roads; the golf days article covers the clubs, and the Newmarket and Aurora guide the towns north.
Students and the university's edge
York University's Keele campus is twenty minutes south-west, Seneca's King campus fifteen minutes north on the moraine and its Markham campus fifteen east, and Richmond Hill's international students arrive at Pearson to family or residence with meet and greet and a chauffeur who speaks their language; the unaccompanied minors guide describes the handover a parent abroad books, and the convocation article the June days.
Vaughan, Markham and the neighbours
Vaughan's Thornhill and the Metropolitan Centre are ten to twenty minutes west along Highway 7 (the Vaughan guide), Markham Centre and Unionville ten to twenty minutes east (the Markham guide), Aurora and Newmarket fifteen to twenty-five north up Yonge or the 404 (the Newmarket and Aurora guide), and North York twenty minutes south. A Richmond Hill family's trip to a Vaughan Mills shopping day, a Unionville dinner or a Newmarket hockey tournament is a short fixed fare.
A Richmond Hill day, in cars
5:00 a.m. — a Farsi-speaking chauffeur in a sedan from a Bayview Hill home to Terminal 1 via the 407 (approved at booking), thirty-six minutes. 8:30 — a 404 corridor executive to a King West meeting via the 404 and DVP, waiting on an hourly clock. 11:00 — an Oak Ridges couple's standing car to Mackenzie Health and the pharmacy. 2:30 p.m. — a Mandarin-speaking chauffeur meets grandparents at Door A with a name board and delivers them to a Rouge Woods address via the 407 in forty minutes while the 401 is stopped at the 404. 6:00 — a stretch SUV from a Yonge Street tower to a Highway 7 banquet hall for a Persian wedding's evening, hourly, the last drop at 1 a.m. 7:00 — a downtown Richmond Hill couple to a Mirvish show via Yonge and the DVP, hourly, home at 11:30. Every trip a fixed fare, three via the 407.
Richmond Hill to everywhere
| From Yonge & Major Mackenzie to | Route | Off-peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson | 407 west → 427 | 35–45 min | 40–50 (401: 70–90) |
| Financial District | 404 → DVP → Gardiner | 40–55 | 65–95 |
| Yorkville | Yonge south or 404 → 401 → Bayview | 40–55 | 60–85 |
| Vaughan Metropolitan Centre | Highway 7 west | 15–20 | 20–35 |
| Markham Centre | Highway 7 east | 12–18 | 18–30 |
| Aurora / Newmarket | Yonge north or 404 | 15–25 | 20–35 |
| Oak Ridges | Yonge north | 10–15 | 12–20 |
| North York Centre | Yonge south | 20–25 | 30–45 |
Booking a car in Richmond Hill
The engine prices any Richmond Hill address and shows the 407 option and its toll; the notes field takes the tower, the estate's gate or the hall and any language request. Corporate accounts set a 407 policy once; standing orders cover the weekly trips.
Hillcrest Mall, the Yonge strip and Richmond Hill's retail
Hillcrest Mall at Yonge and Carrville, the Yonge Street strip's plazas from Highway 7 to Elgin Mills and the Times Square and Commerce Gate plazas on Highway 7 are the city's retail, and their restaurants — the Persian grills of Yonge, the Cantonese seafood rooms and the Shanghainese kitchens of the Highway 7 plazas, the Korean barbecue of Yonge north — draw diners from the whole GTA on Friday and Saturday nights; pickups are at the plazas' entrances (each has several, and the chauffeur names the one that is open) and on the side streets of the strip. A dinner run from downtown Toronto to a Yonge Street Persian restaurant — the 404 up, forty minutes, a Farsi-speaking chauffeur, the DVP home — is a booking our Toronto regulars make, and the Toronto restaurants article covers the pattern.
The GO stations and the airport alternative
The Richmond Hill GO line runs from the Richmond Hill station on Major Mackenzie (and the Gormley station north of Stouffville Road) to Union Station in about 55 minutes, with limited service; the Yonge Street buses and the Line 1 subway from Finch are the other transit options. For a single passenger heading downtown at rush hour the train is an honest alternative, and the UP Express comparison works the airport numbers from the north — there is no rail to Pearson from Richmond Hill, and the car via the 407 is the only route that does not involve two transfers and the 401. Our Richmond Hill regulars use the GO for the downtown commute and the car for the airport, the evening and the family.
Recurring rides and the household account
Richmond Hill households set up standing orders — the school run to the private schools of Bayview and Thornhill and to the Toronto schools, the weekly appointments, the Friday-night dinner, the parents' Sunday visits — with one chauffeur and one car, paused for holidays by text; the standing orders article has the mechanics, and a household account holds the gate code, the child seats and the preferred chauffeur so the booking is a line, not a conversation.
Group nights and Richmond Hill's celebrations
Richmond Hill's groups book the stretch SUV and the limo bus for the Yonge Street restaurants' birthday nights, for the run to Woodbine's casino thirty minutes south-west and Casino Rama ninety minutes north, for the concerts at Scotiabank Arena and Budweiser Stage, and for the banquet halls' celebrations that end at 1 a.m.; the limo bus vs Sprinter article covers the vehicle choice and the event limo page the pickups, and a group booking holds the hall's porte-cochère and the drop-off order so the last passenger is home before the first is asked twice.
Booking notes for Richmond Hill
Three small things. Approve the 407 on every airport booking; the engine shows the toll and the chauffeur uses it only when the 401 is broken. Request the language at booking — Farsi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian and Hebrew are all on the team and are assigned when asked. And for the Highway 7 and Yonge plazas, name the restaurant and the chauffeur names the entrance; the plazas' lots are not pickups.
