Light Rail

Last week, we treated ourselves to a ride on the new Canada Line.  We rarely go into Vancouver because of the traffic and parking difficulties.  Mainly, we just hit the outer edges of the Greater Vancouver District when we go back and forth to the Sunshine Coast.  Just before the Olympics, Ed's daughters were here for a week and they arrived at YVR and immediately took the new Canada Line downtown and then after a little touristing, took it back to the airport, picked up their rental car, and came down to Point Roberts.  They had such a good time, were so enthusiastic about it that we were inspired to do it ourselves when some friends came to visit.

We went to Safeway in Tsawwassen where we bought our day passes ($7 for 65 y/o), then drove on to Richmond where you park, apparently all day, for $2.  I didn't think there was anywhere in the world that you could park for $2, but there it is: an incentive to take the Canada Line.  The parking garage was connected directly to the terminal and we were on a train within minutes.

Any new experience like this involves a certain amount of phumpering around, trying to figure out how the machines of various sorts work.  In general, it was pretty obvious, and credit cards could be used.  It is something to go into a brand new terminal and into a brand new train.  The absolute newness of it all just keeps being remarkable; partly that's about cleanliness but it's also about the this-momentness of everything, the posters you've never seen before, the design and layout of the whole thing.

We rode down to Waterfront (and be warned if you are riding for the first time absolutely absolutely to hold on when the train starts; it goes from standing to moving very quickly very fast and if you aren't holding on to something, you have a good chance of falling down).  Waterfront is the end of the line in that direction and you can go on and take the seabus to North Van on your day pass ticket.  Or you can go outside the wonderfully spiffed up railroad terminal building and find a Vancouver bus and go somewhere else...clear out to Mission or Horseshoe Bay, if you are so inclined.

We walked up Granville and eventually over to Robson and enjoyed all the features of a spring day in Vancouver.  Eventually, we returned to the Canada Line and went down to Yaletown and looked around that waterfront.  And then back, in the early evening, to Richmond and the parking garage.  It was a lot of fun.  I might not do it ever again because I was pretty overwhelmed with all the people and the sights and the high level of noise, but it clearly is a great addition to the city and to suburban and urban living for the residents. 

It did take me back to my childhood when trains were the way we travelled.  We should not have lost them, of course, but we didn't know then what cars and planes would ultimately do to us.