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Vancouver to spend $8.5M on streetcar route

by Rob Peters | March 12, 2008 at 10:28 am

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Looks like the old streetcar line to Granville Island will be brought back to life in time for the Olympics. At 1.8 km, it's a distance you could probably walk, really, but if additional segments are eventually approved the line could become more useful. For now, however, it'll be a streetcar named, er, tourist attraction?

The City of Vancouver will spend $8.5 million to revamp a streetcar line between Granville Island and the future Olympic Village, at Canada Line Skytrain Station at Second Avenue.
City staff hope the line will provide a green and efficient way of getting tourists to Granville Island during the Olympic games, and they hope to work with TransLink, the regional transportation authority, to make that happen.

TransLink staff, however, have already expressed concerns about the proposal, saying it will compete for funding from provincial and federal governments because it will effectively duplicate the bus service already running along nearby Broadway Avenue.

Eventually, the city hopes to extend the service north through Chinatown and Gastown, with one fork turning to run westward all the way out to Stanley Park and the other fork heading south into Yaletown.

The 1.8-km demonstration project will have two stations, one at Granville Island and one at the Olympic Station in the Canada Line, on Cambie Street and 2nd Avenue.

But when the full project is authorized by council and completed, it could run as far as Chilco Street in the West End, adjacent to Stanley Park.

In the future, the project could be extended up the Arbutus rail corridors, said Anton. But she said while the city has zoned the land for a light rail transit, CP Rail still owns the land.

Council hasn't got a cost estimate for the full project, but a portion from Granville Island to Science World, including a maintenance facility, would cost $90 million.