BCER cars 1312 and 1320 stop at Jubilee Station on the Central Park line - 6 Jun 1950 Ernie L Plant - John F. Bromley Collection.

25 January 2008

Resurrect Old Interurban Tramline
Fraser Valley Residents Urge

Abbotsford British Columbia - An organization working toward restoring an old interurban electric transit line through B.C.'s Fraser Valley says the line should be used for public transit.
 
On Wednesday night, some Abbotsford residents at a public forum said they wanted to see the old line, which is part of Metro Vancouver's original tram network, put back into use.
 
Built in 1910, the interurban electric train carted passengers to and from downtown Vancouver all the way to Chilliwack.
 
When Highway 1 was constructed, the train was shut down, but a good portion of its track is still intact and used twice a day by a small amount of freight traffic.
 
Peter Holt of the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society has already been working with the City of Surrey to recreate a tourism-based historical railway project on the line.
 
"We're trying to bring back a heritage rail component on eleven kilometres of track from Newton to Cloverdale. That basically is the start of resurrecting the line," he said.
 
Holt told CBC News on Thursday that, along with the heritage project, the line could be used again for transit once again.
 
"You run it down the track and it goes down the stations a bit like Skytrain (rapid transit). It hops down. It goes across at grade, the level crossings, just like a bus would go on its own and you run something like a 15-minute service down that line in both directions."
 
The line would be simple and cheap to set up because, not only is the line built, it's owned by the province, said Holt.
 
"It's a no-brainer," said Holt.
 
Holt would like to see a test project set up in time for the Olympics, and he hopes, eventually, a train will run from Abbotsford to the Scott Road station in Surrey on the old route.
 
Abbotsford MLA John van Dongen told CBC News the line will be examined in an upcoming transit plan.
 
Author unknown.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada