Vancouver Once Had Streetcars & Interurbans
Vancouver once had streetcars and interurbans, a photo essay.
A PCC on Hastings
A PCC on Main St.
Two PCC’s passing at a tram stop. Note passenger safety zone.
On Commercial Drive, above the ‘cut’.
A Central Park Line Interurban. Note the 10 second headways!!!!!
Marpole Station
Really, SkyTrain Craps Out Again!
For a transit system that is supposedly free of breakdowns and loss of service, the SkyTrain mini-metro seems to have all too many breakdowns.
I would ask the SkyTrain lobby to refrain from the claim that SkyTrain is more reliable than light rail, simply because it isn’t.
Millennium Line out of service in New Westminster
Some SkyTrain riders will experience delays this morning because the Millennium Line is out of service between Sapperton and Columbia stations.
Photograph by: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
METRO VANCOUVER – Some SkyTrain riders will experience delays this morning because the Millennium Line is out of service between Sapperton and Columbia stations.
TransLink says a bus route will be set up between New Westminster and Braid station.
Service on the Expo Line is not affected and running as normal.
Spokeswoman Jiana Ling says riders using the Millennium Line should plan for extra traveling time.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
A Letter In The Vancouver Sun
Ah “Road Pricing”, the next great tax grab by regional politicians and bureaucrats. When, oh when will they learn to make do with much cheaper and just as effective light rail?
The sad fact is, if regional politicians do get their wish and road pricing is approved, kiss goodbye to any sane and/or affordable transit planning for the peasants south of the Fraser and say hello to subways in Vancouver!
Wednesday, June 3: TransLinkai??i??s record canai??i??t justify road pricing
Re: TransLink mulls road pricing to generate $23 billion, June 20
For road pricing to succeed, one needs a comprehensive public transit network as an attractive alternative to the car. Metro Vancouver does not have this.
Stockholm, Sweden has a form of congestion charging or road pricing and a comparison with Metro Vancouver is revealing.
Metro Stockholm has an area of 6,488 square kilometres, with a population of just over two million (population density 320 per sq. km) By comparison, Metro Vancouver has an area of 2,877 sq. km, with a population of 2.5 million (pop. density 856.2 per sq.km.)
Stockholm has three heavy-rail metro lines, with a total length of 106 km; five suburban rail lines, with a total length of 300 km; and four LRT/tram lines with a total length of 30 km.
Vancouver, with a larger population and more than twice the density, has only 68 km of mini-metro; and a 69- km commuter rail line with service limited to five trains in and out each week day.
Vancouver has almost three times the population density Stockholm has but a fraction of rail transit options. We have not invested in affordable transit.
TransLink, as BC Transit before, has squandered tax monies on three (soon to be four) prestigious and ultra expensive mini-metro lines that have done little to alleviate congestion and gridlock. The well paid transit bureaucrats want even more money, through road pricing, and continue to do more of the same. I think not!
It is time for regional taxpayers to say adios to politicians who support this road pricing nonsense and maybe its time to say adios to TransLink as well.
MALCOLM JOHNSTON, Delta
Liz James asks important questions
Liz James, who writes opinion pieces for the North Shore News, asks some ‘striking’ questions of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, the question is; “are they willing to answer?“
The answer is no, as the regional mayors are afraid of a referendum and the reason is simple, they are afraid of a “none of the above” answer.
Why?
Again, the answer is simple, pie in the sky transit projects; grossly under performing transit lines; and questionable planning practices would halt as the transit authority would be forced (kicking and screaming) to cut its cloth to match its income. If a “none of the above” option wins, Translink would have to say goodbye to its reason d’etre to exist, as SkyTrain is the ‘bread and butter‘ of the transit authority and its employees.
Next, a few unequivocal words for the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation: Please, unless you are willing to include a “none of the above” option, no more surveys that ask taxpayers how they would like to remit the lint in their pockets to TransLink.
We’re on a sit-down strike – period.
On strike until you commission an ethical, unbiased cost-benefit comparison of SkyTrain versus light-rail transit – and not by Bombardier or SNC-Lavalin.
On strike, until an audit reveals the latest use-and-abuse costs of the U-Pass program.
And on strike until the province shoulders its responsibility for decision-making by filling its voting seats on the TransLink Board.
Until those conditions are met, taxpayers are no longer willing to be prey to TransLink’s version of the Stockholm syndrome – prey under its spendthrift thumb despite the comforting clichAi??s about sustainability and the greater good.
.Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/technology/Take+risk+difficult+questions/8579905/story.html#ixzz2XLiUA0wU
Old interurban sparks interest in rail for the Fraser Valley | News1130
Old interurban sparks interest in rail for the Fraser Valley
Light rail transit proponents want to bring it back
Mike Lloyd June 27, 2013 8:12 am
NEWS1130 ai??i?? In Surrey, the resurrection of a section transit line from the first half of the last century is rekindling a debate over light rail service in the Fraser Valley.
Last weekend, the old interurban electric started rolling the rails again between Cloverdale and Sullivan in Surrey, a heritage project with service on weekends that aims to expand to Scott Road and possibly east into the Valley.
The original BC Electric Railway interurban trains ran from the early 1900s to the 1950s from Chilliwack to Vancouver and proponents of light rail transit say itai??i??s high time bring it back.
ai???Itai??i??s something weai??i??ve been talking about for years now,ai??? says John Vissers with Rail for the Valley. ai???Thereai??i??s no question; weai??i??re excited about it. Some of us went out to take a ride on this service and what a wonderful experience.ai???
ai???Iai??i??m optimistic. I believe our transit future will unquestionably include this sort of train system right through the Fraser Valley right out to Chilliwack. It is inevitable and weai??i??re hoping it will happen sooner rather than later. Thereai??i??s no question in my mind it needs happen and, ideally, we would be able to restoreAi?? the electric system that served the Valley 100 years ago,ai??? he tells News1130.
Vissers believes there is a lot of support for restoring light rail service south of the Fraser River.
ai???We have the West Coast Express on the north side of the river and itai??i??s doing a great job of moving commuters in and out of Metro areas, however we have no real, viable transit options south of the Fraser other than getting in our cars and driving down the freeway. This is simply not sustainable in a growing region.ai???
A 2010 strategic government review of transit in the Fraser Valley concluded light rail transit was not a viable, cost-effective option for the Fraser Valley.
A subsequent independent review commissioned by Rail for the Valley found the Ministry of Transportation report was biased and suggested there was a clear agenda dismissing light rail.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts is also in favour of expanding light rail service south of the Fraser, pushing for a Surrey LRT system rather than expanding SkyTrain.
via Old interurban sparks interest in rail for the Fraser Valley | News1130.
Zwei Told Ya So…………Despite massive investment in public transit, most Metro Vancouver residents favour commuting by car
In the 21st century, public transit is seen as a product and if the product is good, people will use it.
In Metro Vancouver, public transit is seen as an experiment of sorts, combining extremely dated transit operation, land development and social welfare into a hodge-podge local transit philosophy which, despite a now over $8 billion investment in three light-metro lines to date, has all but failed.
TransLink doesn’t have transit experts planning for transit, rather an arcane mixture of career bureaucrats and accountants, who only follow previous guidelines and diktats from the provincial government.
Sadly, those calling for even more money to be spent on doing the same failed transit practices are ignoring the old adage that; “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a sign of madness.“
And transit madness it is; the now under construction Evergreen SkyTrain light-metro line will do little to improve things and in the end, will become a very expensive financial sink-hole as is the rest of the SkyTrain and Canada Line mini-metros. Ever notice no one builds with SkyTrain before? Ever wonder why no one has copied the Canada line, building a heavy rail metro as a light-metro?
Bad planning from incompetent planners, on orders from photo-op demandingAi?? politicians, overseen by a complacent media have left us with a very expensive transit system, that has seemingly failed to attract ridership.
Zwei predicted this over 20 years ago and his prediction has come true.
Despite massive investment in public transit, most Metro Vancouver residents favour commuting in their vehicles
In the Vancouver Census Metropolitan area, 70.8 per cent of commuters rode in private vehicles in 2011 to get to work, while 19.7 per cent used public transit
METRO VANCOUVER – On a good day, Paul Sparrow can make it to work in an hour.
If heai??i??s driving, that is.
On public transit, it would take Sparrow closer to two-and-a-half hours to make the trip from his Newton home to his job in North Vancouver ai??i?? and likely longer on the way home.
ai???Obviously itai??i??s not even close to being efficient,ai??? Sparrow said. ai???I would give up my car if it was more convenient.ai???
Despite a decade of big investment in public transit, most Metro Vancouver residents are clinging to their vehicles as the top commuting choice, according to Statistics Canadaai??i??s latest National Household survey, which replaces the long-form census.
Of the estimated 1.2 million Metro Vancouver residents who commute to and from work each day, the 2011 survey suggests about 66 per cent still get behind the wheel each morning and every night, compared with 20 per cent who take transit. And many, like Sparrow, are driving alone.
The reason?
ai???It takes half the time,ai??? said Prof. Larry Frank of the University of B.C.ai??i??s School of Community and Regional Planning. ai???Right now, as it stands, we still have a ways to go to make transit travel times faster and more convenient.ai???
Indeed, even with relentless gridlock on most routes during rush hour, the survey suggests Metro Vancouver commuters in private vehicles can get to work in an average 26.4 minutes, compared with 40.9 minutes for public transit and 23.8 minutes by bicycle.
But it all depends on where a person lives. Residents of Maple Ridge and Port Coquitlam, for instance, endure the longest commutes, at about 35 minutes each way, while those on the North Shore and in Richmond and Vancouver can get to work within 24 to 26 minutes.
Ken Peacock, chief economist and vice-president of the Business Council of B.C., said he hasnai??i??t crunched the numbers but noted the car is highly convenient for two-parent working families, or those working later shifts in retail.
And as the traffic patterns continue to change, from a traditional east-west line to a spider web across the region, there arenai??i??t always the proper transit connections to get people where they want to go, such as between Maple Ridge and White Rock.
Vancouver commuters, for instance, spend on average just five minutes less on the road than those in areas like Surrey and Langley.
ai???There are people going in all directions in the Lower Mainland; itai??i??s no longer the suburbs going into the downtown core,ai??? Peacock said. ai???People are coming from downtown Vancouver into places like Burnaby and that makes it more difficult for the transit system to deal with.
ai???In a lot of instances itai??i??s still faster even if thereai??i??s congestion and gridlock.ai???
Langleyai??i??s Jeannine Bornais can attest to that.
She starts her day at the crack of dawn, winding her way from Langley to Richmond ai??i?? where she drops off her husband ai??i?? to Vancouver. She can usually get to work or back home within an hour and a half, she said, but notes something as simple as a stalled car on the highway can trap her in traffic.
ai???Thereai??i??s been a couple of times when weai??i??ve been stopped in the tunnel, which is kind of a nightmare,ai??? said Bornais, 41, who works as a creative coordinator for Bell Media. ai???In the morning itai??i??s fine, but at night itai??i??s pretty bad. Getting into Richmond, at Alderbridge and Garden City, it gets really jammed up.
ai???I love Langley, I just wish we didnai??i??t have to do the commute. Itai??i??s just that three hours a day weai??i??re spending commuting, itai??i??s a drag.ai???
Itai??i??s also hard on the wallet, she said, noting that the couple has to gas up every four days and get an oil change every six weeks instead of six months. And thereai??i??s no way they can make an early dinner with friends or catch an early movie.
Sometimes itai??i??s even hard to get in a long run or walk the dogs before dinner.
But Bornais said itai??i??s better than the alternative: her husband once considered taking a bus to Surrey SkyTrain and then to Richmond during a snowstorm but it would have taken him three hours.
ai???The closest SkyTrain station is in Surrey at King George and itai??i??s a half-hour drive in perfect traffic,ai??? she said. ai???In the morning going down Fraser Highway to the Surrey station would take forever.ai???
Sparrow, too, said itai??i??s not worth the headache, especially when he can be alone in his car rather than ai???squishedai??? into transit.
UBCai??i??s Frank maintains the Stats Can numbers arenai??i??t surprising, noting they directly correlate to the investments made in various transit modes, like roads, transit and pedestrian and bicycle connections. ai???What it shows is you get what you pay for,ai??? he said. ai???The more you provide supply, the more demand you have.ai???
Roads, for instance, often take about a third of the provinceai??i??s transportation budget, he said, compared with about 20 per cent for transit.
And while the new South Fraser Perimeter Road was touted to boost goods movement, it also increased reliance among commuters who prefer to drive.
For commuters like Surreyai??i??s Simon Cunningham, the driving time allows him to have a coffee, listen to music and make some work calls. ai???It takes me just as long to take a bus and SkyTrain as it does to drive to Metrotown,ai??? said Cunningham, a public relations officer at Metro Vancouver. ai???If it was easier and a shorter time, Iai??i??d do it for sure.ai???
TransLinkai??i??s officials say the system has gone through one of its most extensive transit and transportation expansions in the past decade, in which it added buses, SeaBuses, the Canada Line and the Golden Ears Bridge, although public affairs didnai??i??t know Wednesday how much money had been spent.
The Evergreen Line is the next major expansion.
Spokesman Derek Zabel noted that while transit ridership has increased by 84 per cent over the past decade ai??i?? with 109 million more trips in 2012 than in 2002 ai??i?? more work must be done.
Zabel said the transportation authority is in the midst of consulting the public on its long-range plan to determine where transit services need to go to meet the changing traffic patterns.
ai???Right now weai??i??re not in a position where we can expand the system, but we can go into service optimization ai??i?? to see where we can get more people on the transit system by offering better use of our resources,ai??? he said.
UBCai??i??s Frank suggests TransLink is on the right track in supporting the regional mayorsai??i?? council in pushing for road pricing measures, such as tolls on bridges and tunnels to a charge per distance travelled, to generate more money to pay for transit as well as bike and walking connections.
ai???We have to get into road pricing, not just on the bridges but the whole system,ai??? he said, ai???and to use those funds to make improvements for non-motorized infrastructure so we can have competitive alternatives to driving.ai???
COLUMN: Surrey had great transit ai??i?? 100 years ago
From the Surrey News leader.
The following link is for the Rail for the Valley/Leewood study for the return of the interurban!
COLUMN: Surrey had great transit ai??i?? 100 years ago
By Frank Bucholtz – Surrey North Delta Leader
Published: June 26, 2013
I never thought I would ever see a genuine B.C. Electric Railway interurban car in Surrey ai??i?? let alone see one in operation.
Itai??i??s been a long journey, but members of Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society (FVHRS) deserve to feel great about their efforts. They have taken a dream and made it reality, with a lot of hard work and some first-rate support from the City of Surrey, Southern Railway of B.C. and BC Hydro.
Ever since the interurban trains stopped running in Surrey in 1950, there have been some who felt a good transportation system was set aside too soon. The BCER interurban trains ran from Vancouver to Chilliwack from 1910 to 1950, three times a day each way, transporting mail, express and passengers. There was also a dedicated milk train, which had a lot to do with developing the dairy industry, a special market train and an owl train that ran late at night on weekends.
The interurbans were losing money by the late 1940s. The car were getting old and postwar boom times meant people wanted to travel with their own cars.
Municipalities agreed the service could be stopped. BCER paid a one-time payment to improve roads ai??i?? and that was that.
From 1950 to 1973, Surrey had no regular transit service other than Pacific Stage Lines, which ran a few buses each day. When the Dave Barrett NDP government was elected in 1972, it made transit service south of the Fraser a priority, but even today, service pales when compared to the service in otherAi?? parts of the Lower Mainland.
It was partially due to that frustration that Surrey council, almost 20 years ago, agreed to support efforts to restore interurban service. Former councillor Jim Wallace backed up the plan with a substantial personal donation.
An enthusiastic group of volunteers has been working since that time to try and get some of the original interurban cars here. Eventually, two were repatriated to Canada. One had been in California, and the other in Oregon.
Both needed substantial work, but car 1225 has now been completely restored and is running on weekends from the newly rebuilt Cloverdale station to Sullivan. Car 1304, which was regularly used on the Fraser Valley line, is being restored in the Cloverdale car barn.
The service, which began Saturday, is strictly to promote heritage and tourism, but nonetheless it makes the point that the rail line is still in place. Used by Southern Railway for freight, most of the Surrey portion, which runs through Newton, Kennedy and South Westminster, could potentially handle commuter trains.
The new Cloverdale station, where passengers board the interurban, is marvellous. It is an accurate replica of the original station. FVRHS volunteer Alan Aubert, an architect, ensured that it was as close to authentic as possible.
One sad note: It is too bad that longtime BCER motorman Frank Horne and former tourism minister Bill Reid werenai??i??t here to see the project come to fruition. Both died in the past year, and were enthusiastic backers of the project.
Whether there is ever a commuter service on the former BCER tracks or not, it is wonderful to see restored interurban car 1225, in its bright colours, going along the track with a happy group of passengers. It is a reminder of just how good transit service was 100 years ago in Surrey.
TransLink Whinges for More Money
TransLink’s gold-plated transit planning needs funding and the the question is, which politicians are foolish enough to let Translink squander billions more taxpayer’s dollars?
A Broadway subway costing $3 billion?
Well if the proposed subway goes to UBC, the cost would be more like $4 billion.
LRT can’t operate on Broadway?
A LRT line on Broadway is certainly feasible an probably would have more capacity than a SkyTrain subway unless the subway, unlike the Canada line which has less capacity than a streetcar, has stations designed to handle 10 or 12 car trains. As well, a Broadway LRT would coat about one tenth to build than a Skytrain subway.
So Mr. Paddon, here is something to think about; ” for the cost of a $4 billion Broadway subway to UBC, one could build a BCIT to Broadway LRT/streetcar; a new combined road/rail bridge replacing both the Patullo and Fraser river Rail bridge; the ‘full build’ RftV/Leewood Chilliwack interurban and a White rock to Surrey Central and Vancouver LRT.
Which plan would attract more ridership?
Which plan would attract the taxpayers attention?
Which plan would be a better transit investment in the region?
Alas, TransLink Executive vice president Bob Paddon is an accountant and does not have any clue modern public transit, as universities tend not to include “Urban Transit” in the accountancy curriculum.
Translink and Metro Vancouver’s transit bureaucrats are little more than bookworms in the library, hiding their ineptitude with dated precedents. They have made the planning process a giant machine where the ossified central central bureaucracy reigns amid mountains of paper and woe to the taxpayer who will be forced to pay for their extravagance.
TransLink hopes government chips in for transit expansion
The transportation authority points out there are any number of projects on the horizon
Jason Howe June 22, 2013
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130 Radio) ai??i?? As the region considers how to pay for transit expansion, TransLink says provincial and federal governments are going to have to chip in.
The transportation authority says the money is needed to handle growth.
TransLink continues to make the rounds to debate a $23 billion wish list to cover the next three decades.
Executive Vice President Bob Paddon says there are all kinds of possible projects on the horizon.
ai???Broadway corridor, the estimate there is about $3 billion. You look south of the Fraser, probably $2 billion or more. Expo Line is going to have to have a lot of work on it. We got a Pattullo bridge thatai??i??s going to be at least $1 billion if we replace it.ai???
Paddon says it all adds up.
ai???We canai??i??t support that with the amount of revenue we have today. We also recognize weai??i??re going to need senior government partners. Weai??i??re going to need provincial and federal governments to invest.ai???
While thereai??i??s talk about introducing new revenue like road pricing, Paddon says governments will also need to invest.
Be a part of history – Interurban Heritage Rail starts THIS WEEKEND
Be a part of history.
Interurban Heritage Rail starts this Sunday
The Interurban will once again carry passengers, starting this Sunday!
Full throttle for rail revival in Cloverdale – Cloverdale Reporter
By Jennifer Lang – Cloverdale Reporter
Published: June 19, 2013 3:00 PM
Updated: June 19, 2013 3:48 PM
After more than half a century and thousands of hours of volunteer effort, the dream is about to become real.
The Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society is set to launch weekend runs on the original Interurban passenger rail line from Cloverdale to Sullivan return starting this Sunday.
Itai??i??s the culmination of years of effort and there have been many milestones along the way……………………
Read the full article:
via Full throttle for rail revival in Cloverdale – Cloverdale Reporter.
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