Is bus rapid transit expanding in Markham?

What Markham Actually Has Today

The Viva network is not one continuous busway. It is a set of disconnected segments, and only part of one of them is in Markham.

Viva Purple runs 18.2 kilometres with 27 stops between Richmond Hill Centre and Cornell Terminal, at roughly fifteen-minute headways. Only the western portion uses dedicated right-of-way.

Michael John Lau, a REALTOR® with the Kaizen Real Estate Team in Markham, Ontario and a two-time eXp ICON Agent, thinks this is the detail buyers most need corrected. A home marketed as "on the Viva rapidway" east of Birchmount is on a bus route in traffic, which is a different thing from a dedicated busway.

The Project That Would Change the East End

The Highway 7 East BRT is the live file. Its scope, as of 2026:

• Three segments, about 8 to 8.5 kilometres total. Markham Centre from Birchmount to Kennedy via YMCA Boulevard, roughly 1.5 km. Kennedy Road from YMCA Boulevard to Highway 7, about 1.2 km. Highway 7 East from Kennedy Road to Cornell Bus Terminal near Ninth Line, about 5.8 km.
• 15 June 2026: a $7.66 million preliminary design contract awarded to a CIMA Canada and GHD joint venture.
• Status: planning and preliminary engineering, plus a review of the existing environmental assessment. Not shovel-ready.
• No published construction start date. No published opening date.

One scope change worth knowing

An earlier York Region fact sheet described this project as approximately 13.5 kilometres, running from Birchmount Road all the way to the York-Durham Line. The current scope ends at Cornell Bus Terminal. The eastern five kilometres have been dropped from this phase.

If you are reading older coverage, or a developer's marketing material, and it says 13.5 kilometres to the Durham boundary, it is describing a scope that is no longer current.

The Funding Reality

This is where the timeline lives, and it deserves plain language.

Design is funded. Construction is not.

• The preliminary design contract is paid from York Region's own ten-year capital plan, supported by a 1% Rapid Transit and Infrastructure Levy that funds design work.
• York Region states that roughly $1.25 billion is needed to build the Highway 7 East and Jane Street corridors, and that federal and provincial investment is required.
• No federal or provincial construction commitment exists for either corridor.

Markham's Mayor, who chairs the rapid transit board, put it directly in June 2026: both senior levels of government "need to step up financially so that we can deliver this critical transit line."

That is a request, not a budget. Anyone quoting a Markham BRT opening year is inventing one.

The Corridors on the Long-Range Plan

York Region's Rapid Transit Network Plan lists nine future BRT corridors. Four cross Markham:

• Steeles Avenue, Highway 27 to the York-Durham Line
• Major Mackenzie Drive, Highway 50 to Donald Cousens Parkway
• Leslie Street, Major Mackenzie to Steeles
• McCowan Road, Major Mackenzie to Steeles

None of the four has an environmental assessment underway, design funding, a cost estimate or a date. They are network lines on a map. York Region's actual priority list contains two BRT projects: Highway 7 East and Jane Street.

A correction worth making

Markham Road is not a York Region BRT corridor. It does not appear on the plan. The north-south BRT corridor through central Markham is McCowan Road. Kennedy Road, Ninth Line and 16th Avenue are not BRT corridors either; Kennedy appears only as a short connector inside the Highway 7 East project.

Two more corrections, because both circulate locally:

• There is no BRT planned on Yonge Street through Thornhill. That corridor is the Yonge North Subway Extension, which includes two underground Markham stations at Clark Avenue and Royal Orchard Boulevard. The Yonge rapidway's southern end is Highway 7 and it was deliberately stopped there because the subway is coming.
• The Durham-Scarborough BRT does not touch Markham at any point. It runs on Ellesmere Road and Highway 2 through Toronto and Durham, roughly eight kilometres south of Steeles.

Where This Actually Matters for Property

York Region sets minimum density targets around transit stations by mode: 200 residents and jobs per hectare for subway, 160 for BRT or LRT, and 150 for GO rail. Markham has eleven Major Transit Station Areas, eight existing and three future.

The growth areas whose future rests on BRT rather than subway or GO:

• Cornell Centre is the clearest case. Cornell Bus Terminal is bus and BRT only. There is no GO rail and no subway coming, ever. Cornell's transit future is entirely the Highway 7 East project.
• Markham Centre and Downtown Markham have Unionville GO on the Stouffville line, but the Highway 7 and Enterprise spine is the BRT one, and the first segment of the Highway 7 East project exists specifically to serve it.
• The Highway 7 East corridor overall. York Region cites over 34,000 proposed new residential units in one document and over 45,000 on its current web page, along with 122,000 additional people and 30,000 jobs by 2051. Those two unit figures come from the Region's own sources and do not agree, which is worth knowing before anyone quotes one.

Langstaff Gateway and Yonge-Steeles are not BRT stories. They are subway stories, tied to the Yonge North Subway Extension.

What the Ridership Numbers Say

The Highway 7 East corridor currently carries about 6,700 daily passenger trips, projected to exceed 10,100 by 2035. That is York Region's own published figure and the only corridor-level number available.

System-wide, York Region Transit carried 23.7 million riders in 2024, up 12% over 2023, and reported 23.7 million again in 2025, roughly 85,000 daily. Viva on-time performance ran at 96% against 93% for conventional service.

How Michael Advises Buyers on This

• Distinguish the busway from the bus route. Dedicated rapidway west of Birchmount is a real, built asset. East of it, Viva sits in the same traffic as everyone else.
• Do not pay a premium today for the Highway 7 East BRT. It is at preliminary design with no construction funding and no date. Equally, do not discount a Cornell or Markham Centre property for the same reason.
• Watch for the funding announcement, not the design contract. Design work happens on many projects that wait years to be built. A federal or provincial construction commitment is the event that changes the timeline.
• Density is coming to the Highway 7 corridor regardless. The secondary plans and the development applications are already there. The transit is the question, not the growth.
• If a listing claims a BRT opening date, ask where it came from. None has been published.

The neighbourhoods along this corridor each live differently. Markham community profiles are a reasonable starting point, and the relocation guide covers commuting in practical terms.

Next Steps

• Explore Markham neighbourhoods — how each community along the corridor actually lives.
• See how buyer representation works — including how planning files get checked before an offer.
• Ask about a specific address — what is filed, approved or merely drawn near it.

Michael John Lau, REALTOR® · Markham, Ontario · (416) 700-0286
Disclaimer. Michael John Lau is a licensed REALTOR® serving buyers and sellers in Markham, Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. Transit details are current to September 2026 and reflect information published by York Region, the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation and Metrolinx. Project scopes, funding and schedules change, and nothing described as planned or unfunded is committed. Buyers should confirm current status directly with York Region.