The Streetcar Rolls On

The latest word on the Vancouver Streetcar is that preliminary work is continuing on Phase 0, the proposed stretch between Science World and Granville Island.

(Click map for a larger image)

According to this article from the Vancouver Courier, a local engineering firm called HMM has been chosen to work on the detailed design plans for the project.

Among the new details to emerge - Vancouver's streetcar will run on a planted (grass) median, rather than a paved one.

It also sounds like the Downtown Historic Streetcar will still continue to operate on this First Avenue stretch of tracks, even after the new system is in place.

Funding remains a question mark, however, as the $60 million required for the Science World-Granville Island stretch still hasn't been committed by the provincial or federal governments.

It will cost an estimated $100 million to continue the line on to Waterfront Station, and another $20 million to bring it all the way out to Stanley Park.

Comments

[Chris]

This is pretty cool. I hope the funding can be found.

[Paul Hillsdon]

I agree. I'm glad the City is pushing this project through. Can't wait to see the detailed designs :)

[Junius]

I agree. It is a great idea and would compliment the other civic transit well.

[tempel1]

This is a great plan. Any reason it wouldn't expand along the Arbutus corridor using the former CPR land?

[Josh]

While we're at it - let's extend the thing down 4th like it used to do, and down Kingsway too. Phase 0 of the plan is aptly named -- it pretty much goes from nowhere to nowhere. Nice for tourists, but the first phase is not super-duper useful otherwise.

[jlousa]

We don't need streetcars everywhere, there is a reason they got rid of them, you can not drive around obstacles unless you are implying ROW everywhere including kingsway??? I like what they have planned with Phase 0+1. Ideally take all the buses off of Granville and have a ROW streetcar up and down the street with the buses on Howe and Seymour. But that would be about it, maybe an extension of Phase 1 to Stanley park eventally.

[Sungsu]

For Phase 0 ridership, quite a few people live along the route, enough to have the 50 bus run every 15 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays.

[Jim Pick]

Why isn't this being done by Translink?

If people can't use their bus/skytrain/seabus transfers and passes on it, it's a bit of a waste.

It puts this into the same category as the Aquabus or False Creek Ferries - nice if you are a tourist or you are just going from point A to point B, but not very useable as a leg of a large trip.

[Jim Pick]

These lines do go from nowhere to nowhere.

Of course, the city thinks of that as "future condo development" to "future condo development".

Translink, on the other hand, thinks of it as a line with no initial ridership that will lose money. Their focus is on getting people to/from the 'burbs.

The city couldn't care less about the 'burbs.

Initially, this is about providing an amenity to future condo purchasers in the Olympic Village area.

I don't think that's a bad thing. If we want people to live further away from the downtown core, but still in dense neighborhoods, then there needs to be some really good transportation links.

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