Olympic Streetcar Line - Free Transportation to Granville Island (Jan 21 to Mar 21)
 

Open today
fyi: Swiss House, Coca-Cola, Atlantic Canada House and Place de la Francophonie 2010 will be taking over Granville Island.

What's the best site to know whats going down during the olympics in this city in terms of closure's during olympics?

road closures?
http://olympichostcity.vancouver.ca/...-restrictions/

I took a ride of this system during my lunch break. They're nice cars and are capable of decent speeds once they get going.

However, the full plan that the city has put together (i.e. the cars going from south False Creek to Stanley Park) has to be realized before the service is of any real value. And of course, Translink is basically broke so I'm not entirely optimistic that we'll see these cars back within the next 5-10 years.

agreed! it also has to have its own right of way (like the olympic line) The olympic village was actually designed for a streetcar with the boulevard being the row but because of security it had to be outside of the perimeter.

Actually from what I've heard Translink doesn't want anything to do with streetcars. This is pretty much a CoV, run thing that would hopefully be tied into the smartcard system Translink is introducing within the next 2 years. If the streetcar system actually gets going it will likely be at least 10 years out.

I love anything and everything that has to do with the infrastructure plans for Vancouver.

The Olympic line streetcar would be of value during the Olympic times - linking Granville Island - Olympic Village skytrain Station - Olympic Village.

But there are major problem with the so called "planned" route along the Village, False Creek, Gas town, Waterfront, West. There isn't enough population in the downtown / false creek area to currently justify the street car. Many people who work downtown live in the Greateer Vancouver area (taking their cars, car pooling, sky train or west coast express into downtown).

The street car while its pretty cool is quite gimmicky - it's more tailored to the locals who stay in the westend / dt /falsecreek area or for tourists who enjoys the novelty of a street car system. I can't really see the riderside for it if you compare against any of the sky train lines.

I think its another aspect to try to build tourism in vancouver. Tourists tend to respond positively when there are things to do and there are ways of getting around the city (even if it is the downtown core). Also this does connect some popular tourists spots (future plan; stanley park, yaletown, granville island).

reminds me of "Ding dings"

HK has those octopus cards like 10 years ago. once again, its about time Canada catchs up on modern technology.

FUCK THIS SHIT.

Instead of spending money right now to try to get more people on transit, do you know what they should do?

BUILD SOME MOTHER FUCKING TURNSTILES SO THAT NO ONE CAN GET IN OR OUR WITHOUT PAYING.

This isn't spending money on getting additional revenue, this is spending money to fucking recover lost revenue from all the fuckers that take the skytrain by just jumping on. It isn't even the fare they are avoiding, by their use, they cause additional wear and tare to our system. So instead of hiring more retarded translink people, get some turnstiles that will prevent fare evaders and to stop dumping money in stupid useless workers who just stand around and talk to each other.

Along with the turnstiles, they can implement the smart cards like they have in London and Hongkong.

who needs a smart card when there's upass :thumbsup:

would love to try the street car..

But I bet it'll cost more than $2hkd to ride = (

instead of granville island they should extend it to kits beach

Turnstiles and smart cards are coming in 2013.

So 3 more years of free skytrain rides for fucking HOBOS! FUCK

Well, there have been a few studies done on the amount of revenue actually lost in fare evasion compared to the costs of installing a turnstile system. The general conclusion is that the amount of fare evasion is low compared to the costs of installing a fare-gate system. You can dispute these studies if you want - people will believe what they believe based on anecdotal evidence, etc.

Ultimately, the smart card system is being installed because it's good politics.

I would really like to read some of these studies...

Can you provide a source or a link?

did you read? street car thing is a CoV infinitive, translink has nothing to do with it.

turnstiles/smartcard by 2013, translink has already issue a rfq for companies to submit proposals for turnstiles and a smartcard system.

thats actually the exact point, this does not replace skytrain, skytrain is the backbone of the transit network with everything else feeding into it.

separate issue: the broadway business association is trying to force the translink into building a streetcar (LRT) down broadway to ubc instead of skytrain because they want to avoid a canada line like cambie situation. does anyone else see the fail in that? taking away lanes and parking for a slower streetcar, when 99 is already at capacity? god I hope they don't succeed and a skytrain is built under broadway eventually.. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73380534833

edit: here is the translink rfq concerning faregates/smartpass
http://www.translink.ca/~/media/Docu...20Project.ashx

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/news/bc-080723-...vasion-pwc.pdf

Here's an article on CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...-dropping.html

Counterpoint from a blogger who used to work for Translink and is usually featured in soundbytes by the media: http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/200...sion-dropping/

I understand the merchants' concerns, but if the Skytrain tunnel is bored, then there shouldn't be too much disruption.

I like LRT, but it should complement, rather than replace a rapid-transit system like Skytrain. Some people like LRT because it fits within their conception of what a neighbourhood should look like - street-side cafes, boutique shops, cycle paths, and a quaint street car that doesn't make noise so one can enjoy watching cute women in Lululemon pants walking their dogs while having a latte and biscotti. But, it has nothing on speed or capacity compared to Skytrain.

I'm waiting for the olympic fans to say this is an excellent way to spend money.

$8.5 million for 1.8km of track and a 60 day rental.

FANTASTIC way to spend money.

Oh yea...prince george has to close 11 schools and vancouver school board may lay off close to 300 people. But thats ok, $8.5 million wouldn't help their cause.

Schools closing in Prince George has nothing to do with this - the money came out of the City of Vancouver's budget along with a small contribution made by the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation.

As a public servant myself, the layoffs at the VSB are regrettable, but perhaps part of the 300 may have come from contracts that are going to end at the end of the year? Also, declining enrollment at Vancouver schools might have something to do with it too. I hate to say it, but when you think of public money, $8.5 million is a drop in the bucket. That amount of money is not enough to cover one year's worth of salaries for those 300 teachers that are about to be laid off (based on average salary of $50K/year) Generally, public transportation systems generate economic activity so the city is hedging its bets on someone (provincial government, Translink, etc.) who will be able to fund an expansion of the system. If that happens, then the initial investment of $8.5 million may pay off through increased tourism and local economic activity.

all these new transportation system for "the winter olympics"...

Don't athletes already have their own private transportation vehicles?

And I heard the streetcars are like decked out with leather.. why the heck do PUBLIC transport need those luxuries. Im sure punks will tear it apart and vandalize it within a month...

They should have just bought more buses, so it doesn't take freaking 30 minutes to wait for the next bus at 9:00pm in the freaking cold weather.

The streetcar is meant for tourists and regular joes who want to check out Granville Island during the Olympics. The Swiss, the French and Atlantic Canada will be having exhibits there.

These streetcars come straight from Belgium. Vandalism is a problem in North America, while in Europe, vandalism occurs less on public transit systems. For the record, there are cameras inside which probably reduces the amount of vandalism to a certain degree.

The 8.5 million was spent by the City of Vancouver to refurbish the tracks and build the 2 stations. The cars themselves were provided free by Bombardier, the manufacturer. If you want more buses, talk to Translink.

This is an excellent way to spend money.