Toronto to London, Ontario by chauffeur: Western, the hospitals, the Forest City

London, two hours west

London sits on the Thames a hundred and ninety kilometres west of Toronto on the 401, two hours and five minutes off-peak, and Toronto goes there for four reasons a car service handles every week: Western University and its Ivey business school - move-in, convocation, Homecoming, the recruiting visits, the parents' weekend; the London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's, the region's referral hospitals; Budweiser Gardens' concerts and the London Knights; and the business of a city of half a million with insurance, tech, manufacturing and the food industry. There is no useful flight; the train is two hours to a station a taxi from anywhere. A Toronto-to-London booking is a one-way flat fare fixed by route and class, or an eight- to ten-hour hourly day, and the city-to-city page explains when each is the better number.

The drive

The 401 west past Milton, Cambridge, Kitchener and Woodstock to London's Highbury Avenue, Wellington Road or Wonderland Road exits: two hours five off-peak, two and a half on a Friday afternoon leaving Toronto, with the stretch between Milton and Cambridge the slow one and the 401 past Woodstock the emptiest road in southern Ontario. No tolls unless the 407 is chosen across the top of Toronto, which from Markham or Scarborough is worth it. In winter the 401 between Woodstock and London is snow-belt and closes in a squall a few days a year; the dispatcher watches Ontario 511, the SUV has winter tyres, and a drive leaves early or waits. Stratford is forty minutes north of the 401 at Kitchener and St. Thomas twenty minutes south of London; both are stops on an hourly day.

Western and Ivey

Western's campus on the Thames north of the city, Ivey's building on Western Road, the residences along Sarnia Road and Western Road, the University Community Centre, Alumni Hall for convocation, TD Stadium for Homecoming and the Mustangs: Toronto families drive west four times a year, and the SUV with the student's things as a one-way flat fare to the residence loading zone on move-in day is the calm version of the Kingston page's routine, which is the same at every campus. Ivey's MBA and EMBA programs bring executives from Toronto for weekend modules - a flat fare on Friday evening, a flat fare home on Sunday, on the corporate account - and the Ivey recruiting season brings the banks' teams in a Sprinter. Fanshawe College on Oxford Street is the same booking; Western's academic calendar sets the dates.

The hospitals

London Health Sciences Centre - University Hospital on the Western campus and Victoria Hospital on Commissioners Road - and St. Joseph's Health Care on Grosvenor Street are south-western Ontario's referral hospitals, and Toronto patients are sent west for specialties as Londoners are sent east; a consultation day is an hourly booking with the chauffeur waiting through it, a family's visits to a patient are flat fares each way, and the medical chauffeur page has the patience and the discretion that apply. The Children's Hospital at Victoria and the Ivey Eye Institute at St. Joseph's are the two most-booked.

Budweiser Gardens and the Knights

Budweiser Gardens on Dundas Street downtown seats nine thousand for the London Knights - the OHL's best-supported team, with a Toronto following that drives west for the Memorial Cup runs - and for the touring concerts that skip Toronto's arenas or sell out in them. A concert night is a ten-hour hourly booking with dinner on Richmond Row first and the car on Dundas or King when the encore starts; a Knights game is the same with a 7 pm face-off. The sports page has the venue-exit rules; a Sprinter of twelve for a concert is the group booking.

The business day

London's insurance sector - Canada Life's head office, the brokers and the actuaries - the tech firms in the downtown core and the Innovation Park, the food processors and the manufacturers along the 401, and the Western research parks bring Toronto executives west for a day: a one-way at 7 am, a local chauffeur or the same car waiting for the hourly day, and a one-way home at 5, on the corporate account. The roadshow page plans a multi-stop day and the desk arranges a local chauffeur through the network where the client wants one.

The London airport

London International Airport on Crumlin Road is a small terminal with Air Canada and WestJet flights to Toronto, Calgary and the sun destinations, and a Toronto-to-YXU one-way is rare but exists for a connection; more often the airport is the Detroit run's alternative, with DTW two hours further west for the traveller in London who wants a Delta hub.

A London day, timed (book 9)

7:30 Leaside, the SUV, a student and two parents, the boot full. 9:40 Western's Saugeen-Maitland Hall loading zone at the allotted slot; the chauffeur carries the boxes to the lift. 11:00 the parents' coffee on Richmond Row while the student unpacks alone, as they should. 12:30 lunch at the Tasting Room, the student summoned. 2:00 the campus bookstore, the residence again, the goodbye. 2:30 the 401. 4:40 Leaside, the parents quiet. Nine hours and ten minutes; ten billed; the desk has done this drive every September for years and it is always the same.

Stratford and St. Thomas, on the way

A London day that leaves at 8 can stop in Stratford for the swans and a coffee on Ontario Street at 10, or come home through St. Thomas for the Elgin County Railway Museum and the Jumbo memorial; the Thames Valley's small towns - Ingersoll's cheese, Woodstock's Old Stage Road - are the stops for the visitor. The chauffeur adds any of them to an hourly block.

The car

The Luxury SUV for a move-in (the desk lamp, the duvet, the box of books), a family and the 401 in winter. The Executive Sedan for a hospital referral, a business day or an Ivey weekend at the lower rate. The Mercedes S-Class for the executive who will work for two hours each way. The Executive Sprinter for a Knights or concert group of seven to twelve, a Homecoming party, or a bank's Ivey recruiting team. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

A one-way flat fare by route and class with the car's return built in, or the class hourly rate times the hours, plus HST and the gratuity you set; no tolls unless the 407 is chosen; Western's and the hospitals' lots are the chauffeur's problem. The rates page explains the hourly number. Against the train - two hours, twice a day, a taxi at each end, no car at Western or the hospital - the chauffeured drive is door to door with the family and the boxes together.

London, in a table

Booking London

Route for a move-in, an Ivey weekend, a referral or a business trip, with the residence, the hospital or the address in the notes; By the hour, nine or ten hours, for a concert, a Knights game or a day of meetings. Move-in weekend and June convocation book a month ahead; a Tuesday hospital day, two days.

Where the car waits, in a table

Ivey's weekends, on the account

The EMBA's and MBA's weekend modules bring Toronto executives west on Friday evening and home on Sunday afternoon for two years, and a corporate account with a standing Friday-at-5 booking from Bay Street to the Ivey building's hotel partners - the Delta Armouries, the Park Hotel on Wellington - is the shape the desk sets up once and repeats; the same car and chauffeur when the account asks for it, the corporate account billing monthly, and the Ivey module calendar the desk's planning tool.

The referral day, in detail

A Toronto patient sent to LHSC's University Hospital for a specialist is a nine-hour day: 7 am from the door, the 401, the hospital by 9:15, the chauffeur waiting through a morning of appointments and imaging, lunch when the patient is able, the drive home in the afternoon with the seat reclined; the medical chauffeur page has the discretion and the patience that apply, and the account can book the return as a separate flat fare on a different day if the consultation becomes an admission.

Booking, in one line

Route for a move-in, an Ivey weekend, a referral or a business trip, with the residence, the hospital or the address in the notes; By the hour, nine or ten hours, for a concert, a Knights game or a day of meetings; a month ahead for move-in and June convocation.

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