| Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tram car 1207 |
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| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Heritage streetcar, seasonal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | July 29, 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator(s) | Transit Museum Society | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway is a heritage streetcar line that operates between Granville Island and the Cambie Station (north of 6th Ave just east of Ash Street) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It operates only on weekends and holidays, usually from May to mid-October, and is aimed primarily at tourists. Two restored interurban streetcars are used on the line, which used a former freight railway right-of-way.
The VDHR was not operated in 2010; its web site states an "anticipated reopening" on July 1, 2011.[1]
The line is owned by the City of Vancouver. The cars are operated by volunteers from the Transit Museum Society. The car shown (1207) is privately owned.
Service was inaugurated on July 29, 1998, and was considered to be a demonstration project for a modern downtown streetcar system that the city plans to develop.[2] It has continued to operate almost every summer since then, as an excursion-oriented historic streetcar line.
When last fully operational, the line ran from Granville Island to a stop near Science World and Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station. Since then, however, Olympic related construction has razed sections of the line east of the Olympic Village Canada Line Station. The proposal for a modern line would extend the former line through Chinatown and Gastown to Waterfront Station, and eventually to Stanley Park. There would be a separate line into Yaletown with longer term potential for a number of other lines.
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From January 21 to March 21, 2010, a free demonstration service called the "Olympic Line" (named for the 2010 Winter Olympics) ran on the Downtown Historic Railway, using two modern Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcars borrowed from the Brussels tramway.[3] The City of Vancouver and the administrators of Granville Island paid $8.5 million for associated upgrades to the infrastructure.
The City considered the streetcar demonstration "a tremendous success", with over 550,000 boardings during the two months of the experiment.[4] Bombardier received an award for "Exceptional Performance and Outstanding Achievement" at the 2010 CUTA awards, recognizing its operation of over 13,000 one-way trips with zero equipment failures, zero station delays and zero injuries.[5] Mayor Robertson has indicated a desire to continue operation of the line, with a potential extension to Main Street - Science World Station via False Creek South, but mentioned that the city alone lacks the millions needed to complete the construction and equipment purchases.[6] Nonetheless, a streetcar along the alignment used by the Olympic Line was part of two of the proposals for rapid transit running east-west through the city of Vancouver in 2020.[7]
| Make/Model | Description | Fleet size | Year built | Year retired | Notes |
| built in New Westminster, British Columbia | Interurban car | 3 - only 1207 remains | 1905 | 1958 | ex-British Columbia Electric Railway |
| St. Louis Car Company | Tram | 1 - 1231 | 1912 | 1959 | ex-British Columbia Electric Railway |
The fleet also includes an ex-Brussels La Brugeoise et Nivelles SA. PCC streetcar, painted red and cream.
The line's operator, the Transit Museum Society, also owns a large fleet of vintage buses and trolley coaches.
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