Dale Laird’s dream of a historic railway in Vancouver became a reality through the contributions of four different groups: Seattle residents Byron Cole and Dick Thrash, who owned Car #1207 and wanted it to be used by the public; BC Transit, who acquired the restored interurban car but weren’t using it; the City of Vancouver, who wanted a streetcar demonstration project; and the Transit Museum Society (TRAMS), who had the members with the expertise to operate it.
After ten successful years, the Downtown Historic Railway (DHR) will probably have a delayed start this summer while the City of Vancouver replaces the railway track between Granville Island station and the new Canada Line Olympic Village station at 2nd Avenue. According to Laird, vice-president of TRAMS, the rebuild is necessary because the tracks were built for use by freight trains, not streetcars, which have narrower wheels, a shallower flange, and a different tread contour. Then, from January 21 to March 21, 2010, two Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcars will make free runs between Olympic Village Station and Granville Island Station, driven by members of TRAMS. After that, the modern streetcars will be shipped back to Belgium, and the historic streetcars will take over again in mid-May for their regular summer season. Then it’s up to Vancouver citizens and the new Vancouver city council to demand a return of the modern streetcars.
Laird says that people in Vancouver already support the streetcar concept: “The number one question we hear when we are running the DHR is: When is it going to go farther?” Laird notes that it will take financial support from some level of government to further develop the historic railway after the Olympics. While Laird would be happy if the streetcar line could be extended as far as the Chinatown Memorial Square at the corner of Keefer St. and Columbia St. in Chinatown, he thinks it will be a challenge to get the line as far as Waterfront station in the near future.
Unfortunately, TransLink seems lukewarm at best to the concept. A CBC report quoted a TransLink representative saying that there are concerns that the line will compete for funding from federal and provincial governments because it will duplicate service along Broadway. Laird says that TransLink could end up saving money with a streetcar service by taking pressure off other east-west routes. The savings from running fewer buses could be given to TRAMS to fund the operation of the historic railway. A similar setup occurred in Dallas, Texas, where the non-profit McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) took over a money-losing bus route. Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the equivalent of TransLink, gave MATA the money they had previously spent running the bus route, enabling them to run the streetcar service 365 days a year, for free.
Many thanks to Dale Laird of TRAMS for his invaluable help with this series of articles. Check out the Transit Museum Society website for more information on the Society.John Calimente is the president of Rail Integrated Developments. He supports great mass transit, cycling, walking, transit integrated developments, and non-automobile urban life. Click here to follow TheTransitFan on Twitter.
