Tag Archives: Vancouver

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2020

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Bombardier Mark II Car 204

Bombardier Mark II Car 204

Location: VCC/Clark Station, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Operator of Vehicle: British Columbia Rapid Transit Company
Date of Photo: August 7, 2007

SkyTrain is certainly one of the most unique transit systems I’ve been on.  At one time, it was the longest fully automated driverless system in the world, but it has since been surpassed by systems in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (though it is still the longest rapid transit system in all of Canada).  The mostly elevated system averages speeds of 28 MPH (45 KPH) including stops, significantly faster than standard buses or even the B-Line buses I wrote about for the August 2020 Bus Photo of the Month.  The system includes what was the longest cable-supported transit-only bridge in the world from 1990 until 2019, aptly named SkyBridge, and also uses the Dunsmuir Tunnel in Downtown Vancouver, originally constructed in 1932 for use by the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1932.

I rode the entire system in 2007 during my only visit to Vancouver.  Since then, the Canada Line and Evergreen Extension have both opened, and the Expo Line and Millennium Line use a type of rolling stock that was only ordered and delivered in the past four years.  I hope to visit Vancouver and explore its transit system again at some point in the future, and certainly encourage others to do the same, as Vancouver is a delightful place to visit.

For more photos of Skytrain, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2020

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New Flyer D60HF 3014

New Flyer D60HF 3014

Location: Alma Street at W 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Operator of Vehicle: Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC)
Date of Photo: August 6, 2007

What does a bus line have to do in order to keep its traditional branding when other routes with the same branding are rebranded?  Being the most used bus route in Canada and the United States apparently helps.  For many years, there were a handful of bus routes in Vancouver called “B-Lines” that offered high frequency, limited stop service.  Two of them were replaced by Skytrain extensions over the years.  Earlier this year, TransLink decided to rebrand two of them under its new RapidBus brand, but the 99 B-Line that connects the Commercial-Broadway transit hub with the University of British Columbia campus, is retaining the B-Line branding.  Ultimately, the 99 B-Line will be phased out when SkyTrain’s Millennium Line is extended to UBC, and this is the primary reason I’ve found that explains why the route designation wasn’t changed.  However, serving an average of 55,900 passengers daily (as of 2018) probably doesn’t hurt the avoiding rebranding effort.

In addition to being the busiest bus route in either the US or Canada, the 99 B-Line also has the distinction of being the first Vancouver area bus route to have all door boarding with fare inspections to ensure that all passengers have paid.

For more photos of CMBC New Flyer buses, please click here.

Oren’s Reading List: Riding an entire system in a day

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Bombardier Mark II Car 204
The Vancouver Sun reports that today, a man named Stephen Quinlan intends to ride the entire Vancouver SkyTrain system in about 3 hours, in order to set the Guinness World Record for achieving the feat.  You can read about his preparations here.  I made no effort to set a record while doing so, but I did ride the entire Skytrain in a single day on August 7, 2007, back when it only had two lines and fewer stations.  It isn’t the first system I rode in an entire day, either.  The largest system I rode in a single day is the Washington, DC Metrorail (in 2002, when it only had 83 stations), but I have also explored the entire TTC Subway (2007), San Juan Tren Urbano (2016), Glasgow Underground (2005), Rome Metro (2008), Jerusalem Light Rail (on opening day in 2011) and Haifa Carmelit (2007) in a single day, and did the Tren Urbano, Jerusalem Light Rail, and Carmelit on a single fare.  Needless to say, it is a much easier feat to achieve on a smaller system such as Haifa’s (the smallest subway in the world) as opposed to a city such as London or New York, but that is to be expected.  

Have you ever tried to ride an entire system in one day?  Were you successful?  Were you trying to set any records?  Feel free to post your answers in the comments below!

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2017

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New Flyer D40LF 964

New Flyer D40LF 964

Location: Bay Street at Keith Street, West Vancouver, BC, Canada
Operator of Vehicle: West Vancouver Blue Bus
Date of Photo: August 6, 2007

West Vancouver Blue Bus has the distinction of being the oldest municipally operated bus system in North America, having been founded in 1912.  Although they are operated under contract to TransLink (which is the primary transit operator in the Vancouver area), the dozen or so West Vancouver Blue Bus routes certainly have their own identity.  After all, no other buses in the Vancouver region are running around with the West Vancouver seal above their headsigns.  It’s been nearly 10 years since I was in Vancouver and I still don’t think I’ve seen an agency before or since that trip to stick something on the roof of the buses like that before.  Has anyone else seen anything like it elsewhere or know why West Vancouver Blue Bus does this on all their buses?  It is certainly unique.

For more photos of West Vancouver Blue Bus buses, please click here.