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Vancouver Transit Lines Trips 2/7/2010

Bob, Elizabeth and I got up and had breakfast before we drove down to the Edmonds Amtrak Station where Bob dropped us off. He would then drive to Vancouver and meet us at the Pacific Central Station there. Elizabeth and I waited for the morning Talgo Train to Vancouver.

A BNSF freight passed through Edmonds prior to our trains arrival.

Cascade Talgo 510 came into Edmonds and we boarded Car 5 for our trip to Vancouver BC.

Our train crossed the Skykomish River.

Scene just before the new stop of Stanwood. The movie was the same one "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" so I skipped watching it again.

A point along the Puget Sound.

Scenes of a bay just before Bellingham.

We passed the Peace Arch and entered Canada before crossing a branch of Boundary Bay.

Later we crossed the Fraser River into New Westminster.

VIA F-unit 6300 acts as the shop switcher at Vancouver.

VIA 6421 waits for its next trip. The Talgo pulled into Vancouver and we were let off car by car to go through Canadian Customs. I got asked the most questions by Canadian Customs ever. Elizabeth took a little longer but soon was reunited with Bob and we all walked out to his car.

We drove into downtown having to detour because of the Winter Olympics that begins next week. We drove south down Howe Street to the Quality Inn and checked in. I had Room 516 with a great view out of my window. I checked E-Mails and uploaded yesterday's story. Soon Bob and Elizabeth knocked on my door and we then walked six blocks to the Yaletown/ Roundhouse Station of the Canada Line.

We bought Day Passes and went down the stairs to wait for the first train going outbound.

The Canada Line uses a fleet of dedicated trains built by Rotem, a division of Hyundai Motor Group and have a maintenance base near the Bridgeport Station. These trains are powered by conventional electric motors and run on an automated third-rail technology. The fleet consists of 20 fully-automated 2 car articulated trains and have a capacity of 334 passengers per train. Top speed of the trains are 50 MPH and the line opened on August 17, 2009. The routes making up the Canada Line are 11.8 miles long. South of Bridgeport the line has two branches, one that goes to the Vancouver International Airport and the other that goes to Richmond. Cost of building this line was 2 Billion Canadian Dollars.

We boarded the first train which happened to be going to the Vancouver Airport. The Canada Line is in a tunnel from the Waterfront Station all the way to just before the Marine Drive Station. This whole line will be new mileage for me.

In the tunnel we stopped at the Olympic Village, Broadway-City Hall, Oakridge/43rd Avenue and the Langara-49th Avenue Stations.

The route exited the tunnel just before the Marine Drive Station.

The Marine Drive Station.

An inbound Canada Line Train.

The Canada Line Bridge across the Fraser River.

A stored Canada Line Train.

An inbound Canada Line Train.

The Bridgeport Station.

The junction with the Canada Line to Richmond.

The Templeton Station.

An inbound Canada Line Train.

The Sea Island Centre Station.

A stored Canada Line Train.

We head for the last stop on this line at the YVR-Airport Station.

Our train at the YVR-Airport Station. We took this train back to the Bridgeport Station.

Our train heads north to the Waterfront Station.

Station Monitor.

Our train to Richmond comes into the Bridgeport Station.

The Bridgeport Station.

The junction of the line that heads west to the Vancouver Airport.

The Aberdeen Station

View along the Canada Line.

The Lansdowne Station.

An inbound Canada Line Train.

View along the Canada Line before we reached the south end station at Richmond-Brighouse.

Our train ready to take us back to Vancouver at Richmond-Brighouse Station the south end of the Canada Line. We took the Canada Line back north to the Olympic Village Station where we detrained. We followed the signs to our next ride of the day.

The City of Vancouver will host a transportation showcase project during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and reintroduce the streetcar to Vancouver streets. From January 21 to March 21, 2010, a demonstration streetcar project - The Olympic Line - Vancouver's 2010 Streetcar - will run between Granville Island and the new Canada Line Olympic Village Station at West 2nd Avenue and Cambie Street. State-of-the-art Flexity Outlook streetcars will be provided and operated by Bombardier Transportation for the 60-day demonstration project (on loan from Brussels, Belgium). Bombardier is a highly respected Canadian company and is recognized as a world leader in rail and mass transit solutions. The Olympic Line will be free for all riders and operate between 6:30 am and 12:30 am, seven days a week. It will provide reliable and sustainable transportation for athletes, visitors and residents alike - as often as every seven minutes between stations.

This transportation showcase project will be an important first step in realizing an overall Downtown Streetcar line. It also signals a commitment to return the streetcar to Vancouver, which once had an extensive network. Actual ridership and success of the Olympic Line project will help determine the feasibility and future timing of building additional rail infrastructure to complete the Downtown Streetcar. This demonstration line already has a dedicated right-of-way, with 1.8 kilometres of track used for a restored heritage streetcar that presently runs on weekends during tourist season. This track is being replaced prior to the demonstration, so that both heritage and modern streetcars would be able to use it after March 2010.

A sign about the Olympic Streetcar Line.

The Streetcar comes into view. Once most people got off, we all boarded and we took a place at the rear of the car so we could take pictures along our route.

We left the boarding area near the Canada Line Olympic Village Station.

We passed the streetcar barn of the historic trolley that normally runs here.

Looking back at the Car Barn.

Scene along the Olympic Line.

At a midway point there is a siding and we passed the other streetcar.

View of the siding.

Scenes along the Olympic Line. We reached the other end station at Granville Island and we detrained only to reboard for the trip back to the Olympic Village Station.

The east end of the Streetcar.

The west end of the Streetcar.

Streetcar 3050 heads out on another run.

A historic streetcar behind the Car Barn.

Streetcar 3051 comes back in from its trip to the Granville Island. From here we walked back to the Olympic Village Canada Line Station.