GTA school buses cancelled as region digs out from major winter storm

School buses are cancelled throughout the GTA as the region digs out from a major winter storm that hit Wednesday and continued overnight.

The cancellations include:

• Toronto public and Catholic boards.
• Peel public and Catholic boards.
• York public and Catholic boards.
• Halton public and Catholic boards.
• Durham public and Catholic boards.

Schools remain open, all of the boards said.

A major low-pressure system brought between 15 and 20 centimetres of snow, and at times freezing rain, to many parts of the GTA including Toronto.

Vincent Sferrazza, maintenance and operations director with Toronto transportation services, said he expects the city's plowing operation will last through to Friday.

"When you have 15 centimetres of snow, and it is such wet and heavy snow, it is going to require at minimum two rounds of plowing and then we're going to have to go out again to do another round of salting, at a minimum," he said.

Crews and contractors had been preparing for snow removal, but with less snow accumulation than originally forecast, Sferrazza said it is unlikely they will need to do so, with the possible exception of some bike lanes.

Environment Canada says some regions west of Toronto saw up to or just over 25 centimetres of snowfall, while eastern regions toward Prince Edward County and Kingston could also see accumulations around that amount.

The system also brought considerable winds, which made for especially dangerous travel conditions. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said early Thursday the force had responded to roughly 300 crashes across the region in the last 24 hours. 

He cautioned the morning commute would be messy for many drivers.

Meanwhile Pearson airport was forced to cancel more than 26 per cent of its departures and more than 27 per cent of its arrivals yesterday. By Thursday morning, the number of delayed or cancelled departures had dropped significantly, although there were still dozens of affected arrivals.