As a Windsor native now living abroad, I'm glad to hear the tunnel bus is running again. It was shut down during the pandemic, when the border was closed

Yup, a place in Canada is SOUTH of somewhere in the contiguous US...gotta love geography and its anomalies! This means that the "South Detroit" mentioned in Don't Stop Believin' is really just Windsor! Steve Perry has said, "I tried north Detroit, I tried east and west and it didn't sing, but South Detroit sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada." The lyric "streetlight people living just to find emotion" came from Perry watching people walking in the streets of Detroit at night after a concert in 1980! That aside, as weird as it is to see an ordinary city bus service cross the US-Canada border, this bus is very much a lifeline for the people of these two cities, so it's nice that it exists! The Detroit-Windsor tunnel is the second-busiest crossing between the United States and Canada after the Ambassador Bridge (also in Michigan). The tunnel was completed in 1930 at a total cost of approximately $25 million (around $460 million in 2023 dollars). It was built by the Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff and Douglas firm, the same firm behind the Holland Tunnel! It was the third underwater vehicular tunnel constructed in the US following the Holland Tunnel and the Posey Tube (between Oakland and Alameda). It was also the world's third tunnel between two nations, and the first international vehicle tunnel! The other two were rail tunnels, the St. Clair and Michigan Central tunnels, both Michigan as well!

i love how when you get asked by the border guard what you plan on doing in the us you can just respond "oh i'm going to go to target" and they'll be fine with it

I've lived in Metro Detroit for 27 years, and always drive when I need to go to Windsor. I've always wondered what the Tunnel Bus is like and now I know. Thanks, Miles!!

As someone born and raised in Windsor, I’ve never heard someone sound so excited to be there lol. As a sidenote, the new bridge being built will add a pedestrian and cycling route for crossing the border, something that these very car-centric cities have needed for a long time.

As a European ... it's odd to see that bus or train services crossing borders is so rare or special in other places ...

Being an older guy, well before 9/11, passports weren't required and they rarely even asked for any kind of i.d. I have a friend who grew up in Windsor and he said that as a kid he would take the bus to Tigers games with nothing more than a library card. Now living near the WA-BC border, like most regular crossers along the border I carry a NEXUS card, which sort of makes it like the old days. Crossing the river between Detroit and Windsor is always a bottleneck even with a NEXUS lane, but between Vancouver and Seattle it's all freeway so on a busy summer weekend the border can get clogged up. But with a NEXUS car you bypass literally hundres of cars and barely come to a stop at the actual border post. The Europeans commenting are correct. I too have spent much time there and have been on many buses and trams that cross within the Schengen zone where there are no checks whatsoever. It's ironic that back in the day the Can-US border was more like the Euro borders are now, and we're supposed to be good buddies her in N. America. However, I also remember driving across borders in Europe in the past when it was a slog, especially across the old "Iron Curtain.

You can also go from Chicago to Detroit on Amtrak # 350 transfer with Q-line,Tunnel bus,Crosstown 2 then continue on to Toronto on VIA rail # 79 in one day. And in opposite direction to the same day.

A transit-oriented indoor water park...you love to see it! The Detroit waterfront skyline does look wonderful! This reminds me of the fact that you can go all the way to San Ysidro on the US-Mexico border on the San Diego Trolley, which makes it possible to get to Tijuana by just light-rail and walking. This also reminds me of how El Paso once had an international trolley system! Historically, the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez relied on a unified streetcar system across the Rio Grande which initially consisted of horse and mule-drawn trolleys and were replaced by the first electrified street cars in 1902. In the 1920s, the streetcar system was made up of 52 miles (or 83 km), with over two million using the service! However, the increasing availability of cars led them to abandon most of its streetcar infrastructure in the 1940s, with the exception of the international line, which was renewed with 20 PCC streetcars from San Diego in 1950. In May 1974, the last remaining cars in use made their final trips. They were taken to a desert area by the airport, where they eventually rusted and decayed. A new El Paso streetcar system was built in 2018, with two loops, 27 stops, and refurbishing PCCs from the previous system.

The ending 😂😂😂😂

Having a system like this in San Diego/Tijuana would be awesome. I know that the Blue Line station at San Ysidro is right at the border and you can walk across but imagine how cool it would be to take transit across the border. I think that they are studying an extension from San Ysidro to Downtown Tijuana. It would be so cool to take the trolley there but the logistics would be weird

Back in my college days in the '70s I drove a cab in Buffalo and I'd get the occasional fare into Canada, usually Fort Erie right across the bridge but one time it was halfway to London, Ontario. I also one time had a pick up at the Fort Erie racetrack, and going into Canada the customs guy was skeptical, why didn't he just take a local cab back? I had to call my dispatcher on the radio to confirm it. The guy was waiting at the track just like he said he would and we went back to Buffalo. The agents on both sides were usually understanding. I should add that all of my fares to Canada were falling down drunk!

Back in the days when streetcars were everywhere, there was an international tramway between St. Stephen, NB and Calais, Maine.

My hometown of Rimini is the closest Italian city to the Republic of San Marino and there is an international bus line connecting it to the capital of the small country. However, until a few years ago, even a normal urban bus line, n°7, crossed the border to serve an industrial park. Sadly it has now been cut back and stops a few meters from the border. Another urban bus line, n°16, also stops a few meters from the main border crossing. Both line allow you to connect to San Marino's own internal bus network (lines 4 and 7 respectively) just by walking a few hundred meters across the border. It would cost less to go from Rimini to San Marino that way compared to the direct international line, however San Marino's bus lines are rather infrequent: outside the main historic centre the country is an undefined sprawl of warehouses and low density residential areas which makes it extremely car-centric. Also, being in Europe, the border is open, it's just a sign on the road, and international local public transport services are totally normal in most border regions of the continent.

Wow that was some pretty good Canadian behaviour at the end thanking the bus driver at the end of your trip.

Next time you're out in the PNW, you should do Seattle to Vancouver (BC) using only public transit (busses only if you really want to suffer). There's city busses that go to both sides of the I-5 border crossing so it should be possible, although much longer than greyhound/amtrak/flixbus

Quite a few people live in Windsor and work in Detroit. When I worked in Detroit, I had many colleagues that commuted on this bus daily.

As a native Detroiter, it’s nice to see a transit KZfaqr say some nice things about the city.

The executive engineer of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel was Burnside A. Value, the engineer of design was Norwegian-American engineer Søren Anton Thoresen, while fellow Norwegian-American Ole Singstad consulted, and designed the ventilation. Ole designed the Holland Tunnel's ventilation, the world's first mechanically ventilated tunnel. When Thomas Edison thought it was impossible to ventilate the Holland Tunnel, Ole said "Hold my beer". His idea was to design a circular tunnel with an automatic ventilation system where four ventilation buildings, two on each side of the Hudson River would house 84 immense fans that would provide a change of air every 90 seconds, keeping air quality well within established safety limits. The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel has three main levels. The bottom level brings in fresh air under pressure, which is forced into the mid-level, where the traffic lanes are located. The ventilation system forces vehicle exhaust into the third level, which is then vented at each end of the tunnel. Ole also designed the Lincoln Tunnel, Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. In 1946, the Triborough Bridge Authority under Robert Moses took over tunnel construction and Ole was sidelined as Moses favored bridges over tunnels.

Singapore to Johor Bahru (Malaysia) have a number of such cross border buses. That use ordinary metro buses. But these routes are very high frequency of every 1 to 2 minutes. So you normally don't get back on same bus after clearing immigration and these routes have 2 separate immigration stops.

It's funny how this bus appears to be just your average commute bus.

I used to ride this bus very frequently (except for the COVID years) as a university student from 2018-2022. Don't use it as much now that I've purchased my own car but its still very convenient when I want to just spend time over only in Detroit for a couple hours. Basically, I remember the prices going from 5 CAD to 7.50 CAD when they resumed service in Fall of 2022, and then the price went up again in July 2023. In addition, the schedule also got downgraded, service used to run very late at night, and every 30 minutes a bus would depart the Transit Centre for the US. Now, the amount of buses servicing the route has been cut in half (buses leave hourly instead of 30-min basis) and the service ends at 9:40 PM (when the last bus leaves Mariner's Church in Detroit to return to Canada)

The Loop L in Chicago offers the best service for passengers to just about every part of the city. Canadians have talked about it since it was completed in 1897! 😊

I rode that bus around 50 years ago. I was visiting my sister in Windsor and decided to take the bus to Detroit. That was my first time in Detroit. My 2nd and last time was when I changed planes in the Detroit airport almost 12 years ago.

I was just wondering a few days ago if there were any buses that went between US and Canada or US and Mexico 😂

"The US, Canada's neighbour to the north." Love it!

This bus used to be awesome for attending concerts and events in downtown Detroit. Before covid we would always jump on the bus last minute and get off in front of St Andrews Hall. Never a concern getting home. Now since it stops so early we've had to start driving again. They have brought up the possibility of a passenger and cargo gondola a few times over the years but the plans never materialized.

every new video affirms my search through every miles in transit video to find the beginning of running editing jokes like CANADIAN DOLLARS one day I'll find that and POOR BID

You are my most favourite US transit youtuber. I just love the fact that these videos are more vlog styled and they actually show how the public transit works in practice. Also hello from Czechia!

That Was A Great Video. I Love Your Channel. Detroit looked better than I thought it would? Thanks

Cross-border city busses and even trams between neighbouring cities are quite common in Europe.

Thank you for making this video. The Tunnelbus was out of service for seemingly forever due to Covid, glad to see it’s back!

Never been to Detroit before looks beautiful

i thought that was an mbta bus in the thumbnail at first! i love these weird border crossings/transit oddities

Nice surprise at the end. Did NOT expecr that, and had to rewind to replay! ❤

THIS is the kind of edu-tainment I come to expect from this channel. You’re getting this NOWHERE else and I love it

So nostalgic. I used to take the tunnel bus to visit my canadian girlfriend while I was in college. Her mom actually gave me a bunch of bus money for my birthday once. I actually missed a math exam because the bus ran late on the way back 😭

I live in Windsor in 1997. Before the pandemic, the Tunnel Bus ran more frequently but you could not transfer to other Transit Windsor bus routes.

For other cross-border public buses, you should go to Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which has public buses to Singapore. You will have to disembark twice though, because Malaysia and Singapore both do exit checks when you leave. Another cross-border bus is the one from Hong Kong to Macau. Although both are part of China, their special autonomous statuses means you do have to go through passport control to enter either of them from the rest of China, and to travel between them.

I took that bus more than 50 years ago when I was in Detroit.

Great video, Miles!

Congrats Miles, this video was mentioned in the Tom Scott newsletter that was sent out today.

Can’t wait until the Gordon Howe bridge opens and we can walk across

I wish we had a city bus between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico.... There was a tram ( street car ) that use to go between El Paso and Juarez many years ago.. We still have got the old trams in downtown El Paso..

As a European who grew up in the Schengen Area and only encountered his first border control at the age 11 or so. I will never be able to understand why the US and Canada don’t have a customs Union. Until then an international border was simple a small sign on the road.

Awesome! I wanted to try the Tunnel Bus when I last went to Detroit, but I didn't have time to do so, especially with the limited schedule. I too was curious about how the border crossing would be handled!

This is really cool. I would love to check it out sometime. Thank you. Awesome video.

El Paso had a streetcar in to Juarez, San Diego had one in to TJ. The really interesting one was Washington, D.C. where parts of some lines in to Virginia were segregated. All the transit companies in the south actually hated enforcing segregation and they had their own legal battles against it, not brought up in history lessons.

If you lived in either Singapore or in the southern tip of peninsula Malaysia,ie, Johor Bahru you can ride city buses to and from each city, morning to midnight.

Hey, I just did this a week ago! Was so surprised at how normal of a bus it is

The only time I ever used the Tunnel Bus was back in the summer of 1984, and they were using full size GM Fishbowls at the time. A friend and I were in the middle of a 2 week vacation where we were riding Greyhound from NYC to Pittsburgh-Dayton-St Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee-Detroit. Then we took Grey Coach from Windsor to Toronto and from Toronto to Buffalo Airport, where we took People Express airlines to Newark Airport. This coming July will be the 40th anniversary of that trip!

I remember when the fares were 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. The bus stopped on the Woodward Avenue side of Campus Martius. From there is was just a couple of blocks to the JL Hudson department store. It used to be a weekly trip for my mom, aunt, cousin and me in the mid 50s and early 60s. All we needed was a birth certificate to cross the border. Once I was old enough to go on my own, if I didn't see anything of interest in downtown Windsor, I'd hop on the Tunnel Bus without giving it a second thought. The variety of stores was unlike anywhere outside of Toronto and the exchange rate was around 10 cents on the dollar. I did not recognize anything around the Transit Windsor Bus Station (left Windsor in 1999). The columns at the Detroit end of the tunnel brought back memories, as did the view of the Penobscot Building.

I live in Windsor and regularly take the tunnel bus to Tigers' games. It's cool that this is one of your most viewed videos.

Always entertaining. Thanks.

It’s not the only bus. BC and WA have one too

Similar buses exist in the Igaucu Falls area (technically still America, but South America), with there being regular local buses (40 BRL if i remember correctly?) between Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, Puerto Iguacu in Argentina, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Trans-border city buses also exist in Singapore (and Hong Kong to some extent)

There are other buses that cross the international border between Canada and Québec (only folks in Canada will understand it!) OC Transpo has a number of Ottawa buses that cross into Québec and STO has a number of buses that cross from Gatineau/Hull into Canada at Ottawa ! No customs ... yet ! There are a number of rules that allow transfers from one to the other but I'd have to re-read the web site to get the actual conditions. (only for certain types of trips/transfers).

We have a similiar citybus running from Frankfurt(Oder)(Germany) to Slubice(Poland). Line 983 Starts at the train station in Frankfurt Oder has several stops in Frankfurt before crossing the border into poland has a loop with several stops in Slubice before crossing the bridge back into Germany, no border control thanks to the schengen agreement. (i dont know the ticketprice because i have a monthly pass for local transit within germany("Deutschlandticket") and even though the line leaves germany the ticket is still valid :) Sadly Germany introduced stationary border controls two days ago so this might change :(

That's cool to see that, thanks for sharing!

Two things I noticed: 1:09 - that schedule looks exactly like BC Transit, looks like they both used the same template. 2:27 - even the next stop voice is exactly the same as BC Transit NextRide 1.0, the voice is Microsoft Zira (US).

I've taken this bus before. As part of a big North American Road Trip. I had a GreyHound Discovery Pass and was gonna use it to go all around the US, especially the South cause it was Jan-Feb and the North is cold! But I was the only passenger on the bus with lots of luggage. Most of the other passengers were going to the Auto Show. Yes, I could have taken a Greyhound Bus into the US but, like you, I was a lil overly excited about crossing an international border in a City Busl. US CBP got sus and searched me. Almost didn't let me in. But did, eventually. Cause I wasn't doing anything wrong. Come to think of it, this would not have been the first time I took a city bus accross an international border. I previously took an SBS bus back to Singapore from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Paid cash in Malaysian Ringgit instead of using my EZ-Link card cause it was cheaper! (I had taken a special private cross-border bus to JB, so I'd say that doesn't count.)

Nice to see stuff being covered on youtube about a place near me - while I've never taken the tunnel bus service Transit Windsor provides, I have rode it quite a bit 😀

That's our Miles in Transit. I can't a city bus can go to a international border. well played windsor.

I use the Tunnel Bus weekly to check on loved ones, and this beats having to worry about parking, and having to fill up the tank. I was unaware that they still sell those old school paper tickets these days. I thought they were phased out years ago.

4:41 That’s 3 of the 5 Detroit transit operators. Still missing D2A2 (Detroit to Ann Arbor, by RTA) and the QLine (streetcar by non-profit M1 Rail). Because regional cooperation, you know?

Nice video never saw Detroit across the river from Canada cool!

Glad you made it! I got stuck on the wrong side of the border thanks to the tunnel bus once because they closed the tunnel for repairs.

I heard about the Windsor bus to Detroit. Thanks for the video. Usually, I take the train to Niagara Falls and cross the border on foot. Last time I took the train one way across the border into Canada. The border guard looked through all my belongings like he was searching for drugs or something. Very embarrassing. I haven't been back to the States since they started requiring passports.

4:40 to answer your question, that is two companies... DDOT (Detroit Department Of Transportation) is the green sign, and SMART is the red sign and FAST routes. The LTD sign is for SMART as well

That zoom in on Tim Hortons made this video so Canadian!

Man I love that seamless ADR ;-)

hah nice timing! i just came back from a train trip from Windsor to Quebec and was thinking of taking the Tunnel Bus to Windsor to cut out cars completely but i was skeptical of the timeliness/if people really used it (i'm too jaded with poor US public transit). good to know it's an option in the future though! it was fascinating that when we drove back from Windsor to Detroit the border patrol x-rayed our whole car as part of the customs procedure. it was never there pre-pandemic and it felt like overkill for sure (i mean everything about US border patrol feels like overkill) but it was an interesting piece of technology.

cool! you should try the cross border public buses between Singapore and Malaysia (Johor Bahru) Its an experience during rush hour. People traveling for work and school.

I wonder how many other cross-border city bus routes there are. I know Singapore shares a few routes with Malaysia (there used to be just one route). There probably are some in Europe but I guess without customs control, it makes it so much easier.

Wow, interesting to see how the border crossing works on Transit Windsor! The Windsor transit terminal is a hub I travel through pretty often, and unfortunately I still don’t get the opportunity to cross that freaking border…

Saw a video from my town and had to click. I actually do some work in those 2 tall hotels behind the St. Clair building by the bus terminal.

Very helpful to know as a Canadian never been to Detroit

This video right here is very helpful whenever I'm considering covering Windsor Transit. All I need to get is a passport.

Reminds me of going from El Paso to Juarez and back though there you walk the bridge over the Rio Grande and you are right in downtown on the other side. I think it cost 50 cents bridge toll.

There's public bus service in the Iguazú falls tri-country borders where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet. It links the cities of Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil), and Puerto Iguazù (Argentina).

I took the tunnel bus back before COVID (when it cost about half what it does now) as part of a mostly train trip that took me round-trip from Chicago to Toronto (via Buffalo on Amtrak and via Windsor/Detroit on VIA/Amtrak). It is a really cool service. When I took it most of the passengers were commuters who lived in Canada and were going to work in Detroit. They could really use a similar service in Juarez/El Paso or Tijuana/San Diego.

Wow 😮 that's 8th wonder of this world. I have been living in Canada for more than 2 decades n never heard about it. Thanks for updating my knowledge.

I'm Canadian and I've never heard about this before. Thanks Miles :)

My favorite cross border bus connection is between Austria, Switzerland and Italy: At the swiss customs station Martina cunfin a swiss domestic bus and one each from Italy and Austria meet at the same parking lot every hour. So you can change between all three countries and depart with the next bus a few minutes later

The Detroit - Windsor Tunnel is like the Lincoln Tunnel, but with countries. Yeah, I literally just made that up lol. Great video!

The town I live in, Gorizia (Italy) has a hourly international bus to the neighbouring town of Nova Gorica (Slovenia)! It makes several stops in the centres and at the railway stations of both towns, and for some reason requires a special ticket - which likely limits its potential quite a bit. The buses used vary between Italian and Slovenian ones. There is a railway line between the two stations as well, but passenger trains haven't run since the 90s - right now it's only used for freight. However, sometimes special international heritage trains (using coaches from the 30s!) are organised. I posted a video recently about one of those trains - riding it was such a lovely experience!

I never realized that. Pretty neat geography trivia. 😀

Quite a lot of public transport does this in Europe. Dk Bus Dunkerque 20 runs from Dunkerque, Hauts du France [Duinkerke/ Dunkirk] to Adinkerke, Vlaams, Belgïe whilst the Strasbourg trams cross the River Rhine into Këhl, Germany.

This is NOT the only bus that crosses an international border. McAllen, TX, has a city bus that crosses the Rio Grande into Reynosa, Mexico, and returns. Likewise, a Matamoras Mexico city bus crosses into Brownsville, TX, and returns.

There is a similar commuter city bus at the Peru-Chile border, Tacna to Arica. I used that to get into Chile without paying visa fees as I would have had to do if I'd flown in (and probably if I'd taken a regional intercity bus). I must have been the only tourist on that packed commuter bus that day.

4:40 is only 3 bus companies on that sign... Transit Windsor (Canada bus) DDOT (Detroit buses) Smart/FAST (suburbs)

This is so fascinating

THE TUNNEL BUS!!!! i drive this route in omsi but i didnt know it still ran.

That border crossing for me was rough at 3 am

I used to live in Detroit and go to Windsor by bus all the time to play bingo and just to get away. Less stressful city. That the bus is running every 1 hour is ODD because of the casino. I wonder if that's why? Maybe Detroiters aren't going to Windsor to gamble anymore? Also the sports games, esp. hockey attract people from Windsor. It's very strange that the bus would run every 1 hour.

Detroit has such beautiful architecture

Its nice to see the TW buses around Downtown Detroit again .

I live in Denmark, which is a Schengen country. I have gone into Germany and Italy and Malta without a passport control check. It is a little uncertain to me but I believe that you do not technically need a passport but people are advised to take them....

That is an interesting Windsor fact, am from Toronto and I didn't know that!

I remember bein in Goerlitz/Zgorzelec on Nysa river. Before the war, it was 1 city. And they have only 1 bus between them.