Olympic festivities: Free transit

For 60 days, you can hop on a streetcar for free in Vancouver.

Credit: Ian Mitchell

Belgian trolleys to service Vancouver


In what can only be described as a very public thumb of the nose to TransLink’s continuing fossil-fuel-dependent transit schemes for Metro Vancouver, the City of Vancouver and Bombardier Transportation have teamed up to offer free public transit between Canada Line’s Olympic Village stop and Granville Island during the 60-day period marking the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
 

Insider guide to the 2010 Winter Games

What to do in and around Vancouver during the party of the century

Daily events coverage, city secrets, athlete profiles and TV picks

In remembrance of when trolleys were king in Vancouver – a service ultimately undone in the late 1950s by various diesel-powered business interests – the Olympic Line will run two modern streetcars on loan from Brussels, Belgium, along 1.8 km of refurbished historic railway track, raising awareness of the city’s intention to replace much of TransLink’s downtown bus fleet with a more sustainable mode of transportation for under-serviced neighbourhoods.