Mount Baker, originally uploaded by Stephen Rees.

This image taken yesterday will be featured in the CBC Vancouver News at six tonight

Cold clear weather and a stray beam of sunlight through the overcast. Remarkable clarity. Taken from the eastern end of Steveston Highway

VALTAC Campaign truck

At Douglas Park this afternoon, VALTAC launched their now rolling billboard as part of the campaign to get serious attention paid to the potential for reopening the old BCER Interurban line for passengers. The line was closed to all but freight traffic in 1954, but the right of way remains in provincial ownership. Southern Railway of BC operates a few freight trains each week, and part of the route is also used by CN and CP to get trains from their mainlines to Deltaport at Roberts Bank. But the right to run passengers trains was specified in the SRY lease as being retained by BC.

Other cities have utilised existing freight railways to improve transit service – even Ottawa! It is in fact quite common in Europe. And a trial project would not be hard to do. In Surrey the Heritage Railway Society is proposing to run an old interurban car with a fuel cell in what used to be the “express” (freight) car behind to provide power, as while the hydro wires are still in place the old trolley wire was taken down immediately after passenger service ceased. The cost of a pilot program would be a tiny fraction of the $3bn the province is proposing to spend upgrading the original Expo Skytrain – and of course much less than the road oriented “Gateway”.

The province’s lack of interest in even trying out such a system is quite at odds with its current attempts to make itself look “green” as its current transportation plan for the Valley (doubling the size of the freeway to the GVRD border) will only increase traffic and greenhouse gas emissions (something Kevin Falcon and Gordon Campbell try to deny – very unconvincingly. No-one thinks that this would solve all the region’s problems – but it would certainly be a step int he right direction for a change.

The event was ill attended and not well covered by the media. However I was interviewed by Sing Tao Daily who do seem to treat local news more seriously than some of the mainstream outlets.

From June 12 to July 6, the CP Spirit of 150 Rail Tour will visit 33 communities in the Kootenays, the Rockies, the Shuswap, Kamloops, the Fraser Canyon and Vancouver as part of the year-long BC150 celebration.

The CP Spirit of 150 Rail Tour is co-sponsored by Canadian Pacific, which is operating, staffing and maintaining the train. The train includes the vintage Empress 2816 steam locomotive and support cars, two vintage passenger coaches, a vintage business car, a heritage baggage car converted into a travelling museum and a vintage stage car.

The museum car features a selection of artifacts from the “Stories of you, me and BC,” a major exhibition at the Royal British Columbia Museum.

The stage car features the sound of British Columbia, with a live band and stage show by The Motherlode. Visitors can enjoy and interact with costumed performers depicting some of B.C.’s most entertaining and notorious historical figures.

June 26
Mission: West Coast Express Station, 33200 N. Railway Avenue (Between Home and Welton Street) 12:45 to 3:45 p.m.
Abbotsford: Gladys Avenue (extension of Highway #11) and George Ferguson Way/W. Railway Street. 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

June 27
Maple Ridge: North Mainline Track (Across from the Billy Minor Pub, 22355 River Road) 9:45 to 11:45 a.m.
Pitt Meadows: West Coast Express Station, 12258 Harris Road. 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

June 29

Port Moody: West Coast Express Station (West end parking lot, corner of Moody and Spring Street) 12 to 4 p.m.

June 30

Langley: Production Way, between 200th Street and Fraser Highway 2 to 4 p.m.

July 1 – Canada Day

Surrey: Cloverdale Village Square, Highway #10 (56th Avenue) and 176A Street (Rear Parking Lot) 10 to 4 p.m.

July 4

New Westminster: Advance Parking Lot, east of Westminster Quay, corner of Begbie and Front Street. 10 to 2 p.m.

July 5

West Vancouver: Ambleside Park, Marine Drive and 13th Street 10 to 2 p.m.

July 6

Vancouver: Rocky Mountaineer Station, 1755 Cottrell Street. 10 to 2 p.m.

for places outside the Vancouver region see the CP web page

finishing

Originally uploaded by Stephen Rees

The recent warm weather has melted the snow pack and started the “spring freshet”. The water in the river rises and cleans off all the logs and other debris from the banks, which then gets swept out to sea. Or, in this case into Canoe Pass which is one of the outlets of the delta. The current piles the debris up against the bridge, and the rise and fall of the tides does not always dislodge the longer trees. So the tugs are called. The link above takes you to a video of the Canoe Pass Renegade finishing off the remains of a large snag last weekend.

Metblogs acknowledges those brave souls who have got on their bikes for their first commute ride this week. Vancouver does make some efforts to try and give cyclists are reasonable route choice, but in my recent experience there are still way too many drivers who regard cyclists as legitimate targets. While the rest just don’t see cyclists, though this outfit should draw some attention.

Which, by the way, is why you need a helmet. Falling from a bike is unlikely to result in a head injury for a commuter. Being hit by a motor vehicle is.

It was a lovely weekend, but CKNW didn’t find any traffic jams to report on. This is unusual when we have a long weekend and sunshine. So they called me to ask – why?

Best guess is that gas prices have a lot to do with it. Everyone has to commute, so that trip can’t be cut, but “discretionary travel” can be. There are always closer destinations, or you might decide to get out into the yard and catch up there rather than go to Bellis Fair Mall. The border crossing at the Peace Arch has construction work going on so there were only half the lanes available, and CBC were warning about that on Friday. But the ferries were not overloaded either.

Americans are coming here in fewer numbers, partly due to the lower US dollar, the economic downturn but also increasing restrictions at the border. They tended to drive here. They are being replaced by folk from further afield – China and Europe – who are less likely to drive when they get here.

Will we get used to higher gas prices and go back to driving? Only if incomes rise, something else gets cheaper or we decide to give up something else. Britain has much higher pump prices than we do – and has done for many years – but they still have chaos on the roads every bank holiday weekend. But the adjustment process is not going to be easy, and it doesn’t help that we have so few alternatives. Overcrowded transit and no trains off peak or at weekends on West Coast Express for instance.

Photo by Evan Leeson currently in flickrs Explore – the most interesting photos from the last seven days

April showers we had enough of. Now for May flowers. Sometimes you get the nicest shots in your own front yard, though I only noticed these when I was backing out of my parking spot.

I also discovered that all Azaleas belong to the genus Rhododendron – so i could have used either name and been right

We were really packed in at the network hub tonight. Many standing, more sitting on the floor.

Rebecca – who also blogs here – live blogged the event on her Miss604 blog and also explained how to embed photos into a WordPress blog – with nifty tricks for those who do not use WordPress.com.

I suspect that most people there use wordpress.org and want to make some income from blogging – John Chow seemed to get the most attention. You cannot, of course, insert ads into Wordpress.com.

While the last run in service was on April 20, some fan trips have been run to say goodbye to the type of electric trolleybuses that have served Vancouver for 23 years – well over their design life.

The old Flyer trolleybuses in Vancouver BC have now been retired. The process of replacement has been going on for some time with the worst examples taken out of service first and sent for scrap. At least one of the better examples will be preserved for the Museum fleet, possibly with another to provide spares to keep it running. Most of the rest are being exported to Argentina for further service.

A special, final fan trip was run today, and that will be the last we will see of these buses. The two that will stay here were joined by one of the old Brills for a network tour that started at Marpole Loop and took in 41st to Oakridge and then on to Dunbar, out to UBC and then through Kerrisdale with a stop for lunch at Tenth and Granville. The afternoon included Stanley Park and Fraser Loops before returning to Marpole.

The Brill was still the most popular choice for riders – odd given that rides on a 901 will not be available again soon, and we were supposed to be bidding farewell to them. I found the 901s to be much quieter, more comfortable, despite the hard seats, and smelled better too!

The image below is of the Brill leading the parade into Marpole loop