IXpress

iXpress

iXpress buses (such as 2417 seen here at the Charles Street Terminal in Kitchener) are painted in a distinctive livery.
Founded	2005
Service area	Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge
Service type	express bus service
Routes	5
Operator	Grand River Transit
Website	iXpress

iXpress (/ˈaɪɛksprɛs/ eye-ek-spress) is a express bus service in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. As of September 2015, Grand River Transit operates five iXpress routes.

The "i" in iXpress stands for "intelligent", due to the implementation of intelligent transportation system.

As part of its autumn service expansion, on September 6, 2005, GRT launched iXpress along a central transit corridor through Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge.

Buses serving this route stop only at twenty designated stops along the route:

iXpress uses the same fare and ticketing structure as GRT’s other bus routes, and passengers pay at the farebox on the bus (contrast with the Viva service in York Region, where fares are paid before boarding the vehicle). Buses that serve iXpress normally have a special livery which prominently displays a large iXpress logo on each side. All buses with iXpress livery are Nova LFS models purchased in 2004, 2009 and 2010, numbered from 2408–2409, 20901-20913, and 21001-21006. (However, GRT is sometimes forced to use a bus with the "wrong" livery on any route.) In autumn 2009, new Nova LFS models were purchased to replace the existing iXpress fleet. As these become equipped to service the route, the older 2004-era buses are reverting to regular GRT livery. Only two of the 2004-era buses retain the iXpress livery.

The bus route, which is supported in part by funding from the federal government, runs 7 days a week, approximately every 10 minutes between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays, every 15 minutes weekday evenings and Saturdays, and every half-hour on Sundays. GRT reports that the buses are given priority at seventeen intersections, although this is accomplished by extending red/green signal times en route rather than through the installation of "white bar" transit priority signals. All stations provide real-time passenger information, while lockers, and bicycle racks are only found at major stops.