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  #1  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2013, 5:14 AM
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Stingray2004 Stingray2004 is offline
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Oak Street - Streetcar - 1950

Didn't know where to post this, but here's a vid from circa 1950 with a streetcar, with narrative, heading down Oak Street to Marpole. Man, Oak Street was just a sparsely developed rural road at the time!

Not the same 6-lane Oak Street that I travel into downtown Vancouver!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=x_I5M94ChyA
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  #2  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2013, 2:41 PM
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Great footage. Definitely a different city back then.
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  #3  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2013, 9:29 PM
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So cool. And there are a bunch more by the same uploader!
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  #4  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2013, 10:23 PM
officedweller officedweller is online now
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Including the burning of the streetcars/interurbans under the Burrard Street Bridge!!

Video Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zkQ4EKUt8k
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  #5  
Old Posted Jun 20, 2013, 5:43 PM
Zassk Zassk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stingray2004 View Post
Didn't know where to post this, but here's a vid from circa 1950 with a streetcar, with narrative, heading down Oak Street to Marpole. Man, Oak Street was just a sparsely developed rural road at the time!

Not the same 6-lane Oak Street that I travel into downtown Vancouver!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=x_I5M94ChyA
Thanks for sharing! I was actually quite surprised that the route hasn't changed very much from downtown until 33rd Avenue. I recognized a large number of buildings prior to 33rd, and the road layout pretty much resembled today.

After 33rd avenue, the city ends and it is basically rural land, which is really quite cool. You can see that the wide right-of-way for Oak Street was already laid out in its full width, but had not yet been built out.

I have read about the "forest" that the streetcars travelled through along Granville/Oak and Kingsway in between City of Vancouver and the suburbs (or in this case Marpole), but it's great to actually see it on film.
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  #6  
Old Posted Jun 20, 2013, 10:18 PM
jsbertram jsbertram is offline
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Originally Posted by officedweller View Post
Including the burning of the streetcars/interurbans under the Burrard Street Bridge!!

...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zkQ4EKUt8k
That was one way to guarantee they would never be seen on the streets again.

I wonder how much left-over litter from these bonfires will be found when the IR is getting redeveloped.
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  #7  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 1:10 AM
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The BC Transit 1 video in the links offers a very interning look of east Van in the 50's as the interurban runs up Hastings/Venables/Commercial/1st ave/Hwy1 out into Burnaby...

Real neat how it heads east on 6th ave to cut back to 1st by going through what is a elementary school & park on Victoria drive.
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  #8  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 2:40 AM
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Imagine what kind of transportation network Vancouver would've had if they hadn't ripped out all the tracks and got rid of the streetcars...
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  #9  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 4:50 AM
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Imagine what kind of transportation network Vancouver would've had if they hadn't ripped out all the tracks and got rid of the streetcars...
I actually rode on these back then. The only route I really remember was the the last route which I believe ran around the down town core.
Others may correct me but one run that I believe was missed in the video was the Steveston run.
Parents of friends as a kid often talked about the teen age romances that developed on the Dunbar street car between the St George's boys and Sacred Heart girls
I agree they should never have been ripped out, but as a second best some of Vancouver's wide streets and the suburbs access roads were as a result of those old BC Electric R.O.W's
The barns and cars were still under the Burrard Bridge in the early 60's, visible from busses on the new (current) Granville Bridge.

I forwarded the links to all 12 of these videos to friends for a hour of remembrance or in other cases an hour of lower mainland history

On a controversial note, we ride the RAV line a couple of times a week. Rode it today from Oakridge and had the unresistible urge to look for the green gate and then uses my pass to access just like Singapore and a bunch of other cities in Asia and Europe...Has transit that was world class 60 years ago almost become world class again (in the down town core.)
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  #10  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 7:19 AM
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Originally Posted by East Van View Post
The BC Transit 1 video in the links offers a very interning look of east Van in the 50's as the interurban runs up Hastings/Venables/Commercial/1st ave/Hwy1 out into Burnaby...

Real neat how it heads east on 6th ave to cut back to 1st by going through what is a elementary school & park on Victoria drive.

You can see the jog martked here as the Burnaby Lake Line:

http://bcer.trams.bc.ca/pics/downtownlq.JPG


http://bcer.trams.bc.ca/pics/vanlq.JPG
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  #11  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 10:53 AM
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Great Map of Metro Vancouver showing its roots of development.

Just one of many informal maps from this book I picked up a few years ago http://www.derekhayes.ca/vancouver.htm
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  #12  
Old Posted Jun 21, 2013, 4:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Hourglass View Post
Imagine what kind of transportation network Vancouver would've had if they hadn't ripped out all the tracks and got rid of the streetcars...
Well, not really. Most of the trams were directly replaced by trolley busses, not as sexy but more versatile and it could be argued safer for boarding etc.

If you're talking loss of the interurban, that's a different story.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jun 22, 2013, 2:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Hourglass View Post
Imagine what kind of transportation network Vancouver would've had if they hadn't ripped out all the tracks and got rid of the streetcars...
Based on the total inability to dodge left turns and change lanes (an important aspect of our modern day transit system).... slower and far less reliable
I mean, sure, they must've been fine back then, and awesome, but the rails would have become a major problem heading into the 70s and 80s and even today. Sure, we could potentially now have higher-capacity articulated trams, but at what major benefits.... how do we know they'd even gather more ridership now to justify the capacity, given the inevitably, incredibly slower service.

The loss of the interurbans was probably the most inexcusable. But, you know, today, where we don't have SkyTrain there's adequate service on the previous line with buses. The 410 does 7 minute frequencies in peak hours (the Steveston interurban never used to do that). The 100 is FTN and is definitely outperforming what used to be single-track service. Heck, if you want to head out to Abbotsford, your choices are better today then they were with the previous interurban. BC Transit's 21 Aldergove Connector makes 11 trips a day, better than the 3 per day of back then. And, there are new plans out to have RapidBus service scale Highway 1 from Carvolth into Abbotsford and Chiliwack.

Transportation-wise, we don't really have any reasons to miss the interurbans and the streetcars. They may have looked nice, but their replacements, while perhaps had stagnated due to rising modern standards, didn't fail at replicating what used to be there.

Last edited by xd_1771; Jun 22, 2013 at 2:55 AM.
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  #14  
Old Posted Jun 27, 2013, 7:00 PM
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Would you like to ride on the heritage railway? Have a ride on the Interurban train of yesteryear? You can. This weekend in fact and other weekends this Summer and Fall.

http://www.fvhrs.org/

Operating Schedule

We are open Saturday June 29 & Sunday June 30, 10am to 4pm; last train leaves at 3pm.

We will not be open on Monday July 1st.

Visit us at the Cloverdale Station, foot of 176A St, just south of HWY 10 (56 Ave) in Surrey. We are across the street from the original Surrey City Hall, now the Surrey Archives, which is next to the Surrey Museum.

Operations

Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays through to Oct 14.

10:00 am to 4:00 pm, on the hour, last train leaves at 3pm.

Cloverdale to Sullivan & return (approx. 30 minutes)

Adults = $10.00, Children 12 and under = $5.00
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  #15  
Old Posted Aug 22, 2018, 11:02 PM
jsbertram jsbertram is offline
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Originally Posted by xd_1771 View Post
Based on the total inability to dodge left turns and change lanes (an important aspect of our modern day transit system).... slower and far less reliable
I mean, sure, they must've been fine back then, and awesome, but the rails would have become a major problem heading into the 70s and 80s and even today. Sure, we could potentially now have higher-capacity articulated trams, but at what major benefits.... how do we know they'd even gather more ridership now to justify the capacity, given the inevitably, incredibly slower service.


The loss of the interurbans was probably the most inexcusable. But, you know, today, where we don't have SkyTrain there's adequate service on the previous line with buses. The 410 does 7 minute frequencies in peak hours (the Steveston interurban never used to do that). The 100 is FTN and is definitely outperforming what used to be single-track service. Heck, if you want to head out to Abbotsford, your choices are better today then they were with the previous interurban. BC Transit's 21 Aldergove Connector makes 11 trips a day, better than the 3 per day of back then. And, there are new plans out to have RapidBus service scale Highway 1 from Carvolth into Abbotsford and Chiliwack.

Transportation-wise, we don't really have any reasons to miss the interurbans and the streetcars. They may have looked nice, but their replacements, while perhaps had stagnated due to rising modern standards, didn't fail at replicating what used to be there.
yet despite all these criticisms, in 2009 Toronto decided to replace all their old streetcars with new Flexity Outlook cars from Bombardier, with the first arriving in 2014, and has expressed a desire to expand the fleet by 60 more cars, with a second option for 60 more - even though Bombardier has had problems delivering cars on schedule.

what does TTC know that we don't?
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  #16  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2018, 12:58 AM
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Originally Posted by jsbertram View Post
yet despite all these criticisms, in 2009 Toronto decided to replace all their old streetcars with new Flexity Outlook cars from Bombardier, with the first arriving in 2014, and has expressed a desire to expand the fleet by 60 more cars, with a second option for 60 more - even though Bombardier has had problems delivering cars on schedule.

what does TTC know that we don't?
they know tearing up and removing all their infrastructure would be way too expensive so may as well use what you have.
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  #17  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2018, 1:07 AM
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Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture View Post
they know tearing up and removing all their infrastructure would be way too expensive so may as well use what you have.
It'll be kind of stupid for TTC to remove their streetcars without compensating for them. Unless they are severely unsustainable, they aren't going away.
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  #18  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2018, 1:28 AM
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Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture View Post
they know tearing up and removing all their infrastructure would be way too expensive so may as well use what you have.
^ Basically this. If you still have streetcars in the street, then leave 'em. If they're already gone, then again, leave 'em.
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  #19  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2018, 1:45 AM
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When BC Hydro received the assets and responsibilities of the BC Electric Railway company it took over the region's streetcar and interurban network. A decision was made to transition to buses, but since they were an electrical utility and the was already a complete electrical infrastructure in place, they decided to utilize electric buses and upgrade the overhead wire system by twinning the wires so that the electric buses' regenerative brakes could return electricity to the system. When BC Transit was formed, it received the transit assets of BC Hydro and implemented a phase out of electric buses everywhere except the City of Vancouver where the extreme stop-start nature of the network makes electric buses far more efficient and less maintenance-intensive than diesels.
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  #20  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2018, 2:59 AM
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When BC Transit was formed, it received the transit assets of BC Hydro and implemented a phase out of electric buses everywhere except the City of Vancouver where the extreme stop-start nature of the network makes electric buses far more efficient and less maintenance-intensive than diesels.
There were never any trolley bus routes outside the City of Vancouver. And in fact when the transit system had been handed over to Translink's forerunners, they kept all of the existing routes and even put up a significant amount of new overhead wiring to service additional locations such as UBC, Joyce Station and Metrotown.
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