Coming Attractions: False Creek streetcar
May 15, 2009
They’re laying down the tracks along the South Shore of False Creek, to be ready for the new streetcars that will provide service between Granville Island and Science World in time for the Olympics.
Bombardier will be providing two contemporary Belgian streetcars for what will be, at least during the Games, the Olympic Line. More here.
And that’s just the beginning. Hopefully, the success of the Olympic Line will be the impetus to move forward quickly to extend the tracks and fulfil the vision of a streetcar loop from Stanley Park to Vanier Park.
Although I like this idea as a fun way to get about the city, I do wonder if this will be used by anyone more than tourists. Couldn’t the $5-10 million (or however much it was) have been better spent on more and better buses?
While this line would be very popular with tourists it would also be immensely popular with locals it connects Stanley Park, to the Waterfront hub, to Gastown, to Chinatown, to SEFC, to Granville Island, to Vanier Park. While some of those areas are well serviced by transit, it’s pretty hard to get between them now. I’m not the biggest streetcar fan (perfer trolleys) but since a good portion on this is along a ROW I think it’s a great idea long overdue. Don’t forget this will also connect to the Expo line and to the Canada Line which will help out many locals trying to get to onto the backbone.
Andrew, rail attracts riders that a bus simply cannot do. However, I am not exactly holding my breath on this keeping running post Olympics.
this has to happen. that means you could take a train from stanley park to granville island. i love that. yeah, it’ll be expensive. but so it the bus. and apparently the bus is about to get even more expensive. woopie! it probably wouldn’t be that far off from the raised fares of translink, but you get all the charm of a streetcar! bob’s your uncle! chip-chop!
10 million for a street car that stretches from Granville Island to Stanley Park? I’m sold.
I mean, 10 million is chump change. 1 street car = 18 Vancouver houses.
This is a fantastic idea and should be taken full advantage off. It would be great to see Street cars travel into Vancouvers West side and other areas, enableing people who might other wise not to get out of their cars and appreciate the value of our public transit systems.
To create an attractive alternative to single passanger vehicles a continued effort is needed to build reliable and timely links between our communities and districts. Whithout this alternative more land will needed to be alocated for traffic making less available for our existing and future parks and public use spaces.