Olympic Line
All aboard the Olympic Line
The first week of the Olympic Line 60-day demonstration project has been a great success. Over 6,000 people rode the streetcar on opening day (January 21, 2010) and over 9,000 people per day rode the streetcar on the weekend. Check this website often for ridership updates over the course of the demonstration project.
The Olympic Line: Vancouver’s 2010 Streetcar Fact Sheet (
PDF 2.41mb)
The Olympic Line – the streetcar returns to Vancouver
The City of Vancouver, in partnership with Bombardier Transportation
, is showcasing a modern streetcar demonstration during 60 days of celebration.
The Olympic Line – Vancouver’s 2010 Streetcar – is a state-of-the-art, accessible and sustainable transportation project that connects Granville Island to the Canada Line Olympic Village Station (Cambie Street and West 2nd Avenue) between January 21 and March 21, 2010. Transit trips on the Olympic Line are FREE. Operating hours: 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. daily (18 hours a day).
*Note: The Olympic Line will be closed to the public on Friday February 12 from 11:30AM to 1:00 PM for the Olympic Torch Relay. Operating hours will resume shortly after. To follow the Torch Flame, visit the Torch Relay Route page.
Vancouver’s partner in this project, Bombardier Transportation, brought two modern, accessible streetcars on loan from Brussels, Belgium to Canada. Bombardier is operating and maintaining the vehicles during the demonstration project. The Olympic Line runs about every six to ten minutes on approximately 1.8 kms of dedicated track. The demonstration streetcar will extend the regional transit network during the 2010 Winter Games and decrease the number of private vehicles, motor coaches and transit diesel buses to and from Granville Island.
While TransLink, the regional transit authority, is responsible for public transit in the Metro Vancouver region, the City of Vancouver is leading the Olympic Line project.
The City of Vancouver has invested $8.5 million to upgrade the Downtown Historic Railway (DHR) infrastructure, which includes a $500,000 contribution from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC), owner and operator of Granville Island.
This funding has been used to replace the aging DHR rail infrastructure between Granville Island at Anderson Street, and West 2nd Avenue at Cambie Street (which is also the location of the Olympic Village Canada Line rapid transit station).
The investment creates the opportunity to demonstrate Bombardier’s modern low-floor streetcar technology in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Games, while ensuring the continued future operation of the heritage railway after 2010 and making an investment in a future potential streetcar service along the alignment.
This sustainable transportation showcase is an important first step in realizing the City of Vancouver’s vision for the future of the streetcar – a clean, sustainable public transit option for which Vancouver believes the day has once again come.
The Olympic Line project has won a Sustainability Star!
The Sustainability Star represents the telling of a story and about a product, service or initiative that represents a new solution to local and global sustainability challenges. All recipients are judged by a Sustainability Star Jury, comprised of VANOC partners, sponsors, external representatives and VANOC representatives for eligibility. Click here for more information.
