The problem is that neighboring municipality, the District of North Vancouver must densify too. Once you get group of municipalities crying for transit, it will come.

Remember, North Vancouver wants to set up their separate streetcar too, although there are no definite plans.

It seems to me that the most sensible (not having lived in BC for 12 years mind you) way to get rail to North Van is to integrate it with a heavy rail route to Whistler. Start the tunnel at Pacific Central Station, subway station at Waterfront, another underground for Lonsdale, surface and follow the existing corridor (with whatever upgrades we can afford) to Whistler. On top of whatever commuter service to Whistler add the most frequent service a single track tunnel (double would be better, but I suspect single with a siding at Waterfront station would suffice) can accomadate between Pacific Central and Horseshoe Bay.

Actually, tram trains would be ideal for this, run a heavy rail commuter system to Whistler, and tram trains, integrated with Fraser Valley Light Rail (I suspect it will be serisouly on the radar by the time this tunnel is possible, and the express route from New Westminster is really tempting in any case) could run to Horseshoe bay. Too bad about the Olympics though, this would have been an ideal project if Canada had been built a decade earlier.

so i'd hate to ask this, but, are there any renderings of what the new SeaBus is actually going to look like yet?

My understanding was it will look a lot like the older ones. But the other two will be renovated/updated too.

Here's the rendering from the June 11 event, courtesy Kevin Falcon's website:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/photo_galler...616-SeaBus.jpg

Nice, different, but obviously the same purpose. Actually, does anyone here know anything of marine engineering? Any idea why the original vessels had their bridge cantilievered over the passenger cabin? Even with access from the side I've never seen the advantage over just supporting it directley.

What crosses my mind is the skin on the cabin is probably not load bearing so it has to be anchored to the hull, but even then, why only on one side?

Could have something to do with the twin-hulled catamaran design of the vessels - arching over probably ties into the parallel hull structures on each side without compromising the open-space within the passenger cabin.

I thought it had something to do with optimizing the flow of warp field energy at high warp, but your answer also makes sense.

Names being considered for the third SeaBus:

Burrard Heron
Burrard Seal
Burrard Pacific Breeze
Burrard Sea Lion
Burrard Water Strider
Burrard Salish Seal

There was an article in the Vancouver Sun for BC's 150th birthday a while back that said that there were three vessels that I think it was James Douglas (?) rode on to reach Fort Langley to found the Colony of British Columbia.

The Royal naval ship "Satellite", and the HBC's "Beaver" and "Otter".

I thought it would be a good idea to name the third Seabus after the Satellite - but I figured that there would be opposition to naming it after a warship (but there's a better chance that a Satellite could attain warp speed than a heron.)

Pacific Breeze or Heron, it rolls off the tongue much better.

Burrard Heron sounds alright, but it'll probably be nicknamed the "Burrard Heroin"

Who nicknames a seabus?

Burrard Seal and Burrard Heron are both good names.

Did everyone get their Translink Listens e-mail to vote on the name? I voted for the Heron although my dad hates herons because they're always eating his Koi fish...

I figured Hollywoodnorth would have chimed in with a "Pacific Falcon" or "Burrard Gordo" by now.....:tup:

The funny thing is "Pacific Falcon" is actually a cool sounding name, but better for an airplane than a sea vessel.

Burrard Sea Lion works for me.

Needs two syllables to go with Bur-rard and Heron would be better for a float plane.

I voted Heron.

I voted for heron too though I think I should have voted for seal or sea lion just to keep up with the tradition of aquatic animals, the otter and the beaver.