 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Railway Archaeology
— 2
In downtown Vancouver you can see, just off Main Street, a fast-food restaurant sign that has been planted full-square in a length of old track.
Other lengths of the same abandoned track have been cemented over to allow cars to be parked on it. A now-isolated stretch of track near False Creek is going to be revived as a touristy tramway from Main Street to Granville Island, which is a move in the right direction, even if a fully-fledged tramline would be a welcome relief to Vancouver's terrible traffic snarl. The tramway would have gone even further had not Starbucks been allowed to build a tedious coffee bar slap in its path (necessitating an expensive detour if the tram is to go further west). Off Hastings Street, tram tracks (and cobblestones) still exist in a side street.
The truncated remains of the line to Steveston, south of Vancouver, may still lie beside the sidewalk of a suburban highway, complete with signs exhorting pedestrians to watch out for nonexistent trains..
Travel on the SkyTrain and you pass above what is left of a branch of the BCER, which sees a single wagon moved every now and then from New Westminster to an industrial siding. The remainder has been lifted (with short stretches surviving in roads). There used to be a railway bridge over Boundary, which made cycling the Skytrain cycleway a pleasant experience. However it was torn down, without seemingly a peep from the local citizenry, last year. Now cyclists are forced to cross a very busy road at street level.
Another long and peaceful line is the Arbutus Branch, which parallels a street of that name for several miles, to end at a brewery just south of False Creek. There are active and disused sidings here and there, especially at the north end of the branch, which crosses dozens of roads on the level. Again you'll find a single wagon or two tucked into a siding, and trains are rarely more than a couple of wagons long as they proceed, at surprising speed given the number of level crossings, with much hooting and ringing of bells, towards the Fraser River and the main lines to the south.
| back |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|