False Creek Streetcar / Trolley / Tram Back in the News

I personally love the idea of having a modern streetcar running in Vancouver. The IDEA is to incorporate the present heritage trolley route through False Creek South and South East False Creek into an extended route roughly along Quebec St to Gastown the through Gastown to Coal Harbour. A proposed extension to the extension would see a line branching off at Pacific and running up the nice Pacific Blvd at least as far as Burrard Street. The map on the Transit Museums Society's website even shows a branch of of that line.

City staff have gone to Council to ask for $8.5 million for a demonstration project that would run on the present route between SE False Creek and Granville Island. There is some talk of it being done as a P3, or public private partnership. This story has been in the news quite a bit this week. I have heard it on CBC radio twice (there is nothing on their website) and you can read more about at these links:

The Vancouver streetcar in the Globe and Mail.

The Vancouver streetcar on CKNW.

The Vancouver streetcar on CKNW again.

I would like to see this run west from Granville Island too, through Kits and up through Arbutus to Kerrisdale and then down to the South Granville - Marpole area. The people who live up there I am sure are not interested, but the tracks are there. It seems shame not to use them.

photo credit to annia316 on flickr.