Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo: the tech corridor by chauffeur

Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo, in one paragraph

Kitchener-Waterloo is the Toronto black car's most-driven out-of-town corporate run — the tech corridor's investors and recruiters go weekly, the insurers' executives monthly, the universities' families each September and April and June — because seventy-five minutes on the 401 is the distance at which a chauffeured car beats every alternative on the door-to-door and the working time: the GO train is two hours to a station, the passenger's own car is seventy-five minutes of driving and a parking lot, and the car is seventy-five minutes of the back seat and a door on King Street. This guide covers the drive and its exits, the tech corridor's case, the universities, the insurers, the airport, Oktoberfest and the Aud, the add-ons and the neighbours, the winter, the GO train, the corporate shuttle, the vehicle, the rate, and a worked investor's day.

The drive

The 401 west from the city — the Mississauga airport stretch, the Milton exits and the escarpment's grade (the 401's steepest — the trucks in the right lane), the Guelph Line and the Cambridge exits (the 24 for Cambridge and the 8 for the Kitchener–Cambridge boundary), and the Kitchener exits: Homer Watson Boulevard (the 275) for the south end and the Conestoga College Doon campus, King Street East and Highway 8 (the 278) for the downtown and the Waterloo route via the 85 (the Conestoga Parkway — Waterloo's University Avenue and Northfield exits for the universities, the tech park and the airport road); 110 kilometres, seventy minutes of driving, seventy-five with the Milton grade's trucks; the rush hour article's 4 p.m. westbound through the airport and the 401's own K-W rush at 5 (the corridor's growth has made it real) are the slow hours, and the 407 to the 401 at Milton bypasses the airport stretch for twenty minutes saved on a weekday afternoon.

The tech corridor's case

The Toronto-Waterloo corridor — the "Silicon Valley North" of the venture funds' decks — sends the black car west with the investors (the Bay Street venture and growth funds' partners for the board meetings and the pitch days), the recruiters and the executives of the Toronto companies with Waterloo engineering offices, the acquirers' teams (the roadshow article's diligence week), and the founders going the other way; the destinations: Google's Kitchener office (the Breithaupt Block on Breithaupt Street — the former tannery, the largest Google office in Canada), OpenText (the Waterloo headquarters on Frank Tompa Drive in the north campus tech park), the Communitech hub (the Tannery on Charles Street — the corridor's front door and its events), the Velocity incubator (the University's — the founders' pitches), D2L (Desire2Learn's Kitchener headquarters), Shopify's former Waterloo office and the start-ups that took the space, the Accelerator Centre in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (Caroline Street — the public lectures and the visiting physicists), the BlackBerry buildings' successors on Phillip Street, and the downtown Kitchener core's rebuilt King Street with the ION light rail; the corporate car service page's day trip (the 7:30 departure, the 9 a.m. board meeting at the Tannery, the noon founders' lunch, the 3 p.m. at OpenText, the 5:30 return, the 7 p.m. door — the hourly for eleven hours or the flat K-W day rate) and the visiting clients itinerary article's reverse (the Waterloo founder's day in Toronto).

The universities

The University of Waterloo (the co-op system's four-month cycles move the students in and out in January, May and September — the Kingston article's move-in logic three times a year, the residences on Ring Road (Village 1, Ron Eydt, Mackenzie King, Claudette Millar) and the off-campus towers on Phillip and Lester Streets; the June and October convocations at the Physical Activities Complex — the graduation article; the engineering and the math faculties' Toronto families), Wilfrid Laurier University (the Waterloo campus on University Avenue — the residences, the Hawks' football at University Stadium, the convocation at the Lazaridis Hall), and Conestoga College (the Doon campus off Homer Watson — the largest of the three by headcount, the international students' families); the Sprinter with the boxes and the unaccompanied minors article's eighteen-year-old home for the co-op break.

The insurers, the airport and the Aud

The insurance headquarters — Manulife's Waterloo campus on King Street North (the former Mutual Life), Sun Life's Waterloo office on King Street South (the former Clarica), Equitable Life on Westmount Road — the Toronto executives' monthly runs and the actuaries' recruits. The Waterloo airport (YKF — the Waterloo airport page's Flair flights to the West and the sun, the corporate aviation at the FBOs, the private aviation page's logic; the Breslau location fifteen minutes east of Kitchener on the 7). The Kitchener Memorial Auditorium ("the Aud" — the Rangers' OHL games and the concerts; the East Avenue drop) and Centre in the Square (Kitchener's concert hall — the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the touring acts).

Oktoberfest

The Thanksgiving weekend's nine days — the second-largest Oktoberfest in the world after Munich's, the festhallen (the Concordia Club, the Schwaben Club, the Transylvania Club, the Alpine Club, the Queensmount, the Bingemans), the Thanksgiving Monday parade down King and Weber (the only Thanksgiving Day parade broadcast nationally), the Willkommen Platz, the barrel races, the Miss Oktoberfest — and the black car's Saturday: the Sprinter for eight from Toronto to a festhalle (the tickets bought in August), the stag and bachelorette article's rules (the beer is the hall's; nothing in the vehicle), the midnight pickup at the hall's door, the 1:30 a.m. Toronto doors; the limo bus article's mini-coach for a group of twenty-four; the hotels (the Delta, the Crowne Plaza, the Walper — booked in the spring) for the multi-day hire's weekend with the parade on the Monday.

The add-ons and the neighbours

St. Jacobs (fifteen minutes north of Waterloo — the St. Jacobs and Elora article's Mennonite market on the Thursday and the Saturday, the village, the horse-drawn buggies on the 85's shoulder), Elora (forty minutes north — the gorge, the mill, the quarry), Cambridge (the Galt downtown's stone mills on the Grand — the Gaslight District), Guelph (twenty minutes east on the 7 — the University of Guelph's move-in and convocation on the same logic, the Sleeman brewery, the downtown), the Grand River's trail, and the London article's continuation an hour west for the passenger doing Waterloo in the morning and London in the afternoon.

The winter

The 401's Milton-to-Cambridge stretch — the escarpment's grade at Milton (the trucks stall in a storm and the OPP close the lanes), the open farmland from Guelph Line to Cambridge that takes the wind, and the edge of London's snow belt reaching Kitchener on a strong west wind — the winter driving article's protocols with Ontario 511's Milton and Cambridge cameras, the Escalade for a storm day, and the Highway 7 through Guelph as the alternative when the 401 is closed at Milton (it is, a few times a winter); Waterloo's own winter is Toronto's plus a third, and the co-op's January move-in is the season's test.

The GO train

Metrolinx's Kitchener line — the GO trains from Union to Kitchener station (the Victoria Street station downtown; two hours; the weekday service that has grown to hourly in the peaks and two-hourly between, the Bramalea-to-Kitchener extension's promise of more) and the GO buses from Union and Bramalea (ninety minutes to two hours) — is the corridor's transit spine and the solo commuter's option; the door-to-door is two and a half hours with the Union Station guide's and the Kitchener taxi's or the ION's legs, the fare a fraction of the car's, and the car's seventy-five minutes door to door with the working time and the two meetings' schedule is the investor's and the executive's choice; the long-distance article's logic at the short end.

The corporate shuttle

A Toronto firm with a Waterloo engineering office (or the reverse) runs the employee shuttle article's daily Sprinter — the 7 a.m. from a King West lobby to the Tannery and the 5:30 return, the Wi-Fi and the seats for the laptops, the corporate account's monthly rate — as the alternative to twelve staff on the GO or in twelve cars; the limo bus article's mini-coach for twenty-four, and the environment article's emissions case for one vehicle.

The vehicle and the rate

The S-Class or the executive sedan for the investor's day (the seventy-five minutes of calls each way), the Escalade for the diligence team of four or the family's convocation, the Sprinter for the move-in's boxes, the Oktoberfest eight or the corporate shuttle; the fleet's flat Kitchener-Waterloo rate (the engine shows it — the one-way with the return leg built in, by the city), the flat K-W day rate or the hourly for the day with the meetings, the corporate account's shuttle rate, the 407 at cost if used, the gratuity guide, and the how much does a black car cost article's comparison with the GO's fare plus the legs and the passenger's own car's parking at the Tannery; the hybrid and electric article's EV does K-W and back twice on a charge.

A worked investor's day

A Bay Street growth fund's partner and an associate, a Wednesday in March, an executive sedan on the flat K-W day rate. 7:30 a.m.: the King West pickup; 7:40 the Gardiner west and the 427 to the 401 (the westbound airport stretch at 7:50 moving); the partner's calls and the associate's model on the Wi-Fi; 8:35 the Milton grade; 8:55 the Highway 8 exit and King Street East; 9:05 the Tannery on Charles Street — the board meeting of a portfolio company at Communitech (the chauffeur to the Charles Street lot); 11:30 the pickup; 11:45 a Belmont Village lunch with the company's CEO (the chauffeur on the side street); 1:15 the 85 north to the David Johnston R+T Park — the Accelerator Centre's two pitches (the chauffeur in the lot; the a day in the life article's reset); 3:45 the pickup; 4:00 OpenText on Frank Tompa Drive — a partnership meeting; 5:15 the pickup, the 85 south, the 401 east; the K-W rush at 5:30 on the 401's first ten kilometres; the associate's notes drafted by Milton; the partner's call to the fund's other partner by the airport; 6:40 the King West door. Eleven hours on the day rate, four meetings, two hours and thirty minutes of highway used as an office, and a partner who had taken the GO once and never again.

Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo quick reference

Booking the run

The engine shows the Kitchener and Waterloo rates and the day rate; the corporate car service page's account books the investor's day and the shuttle; the Waterloo airport page the flights; dispatch takes the meetings' addresses and the residence's slot. Book Oktoberfest's Saturday in August.

Book Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo