Video: a quick clip of the SkyTrain zooming through Expo 86
December 14, 2010
Video: a quick clip of the SkyTrain zooming through Expo 86
December 14, 2010
Another item in our 25th anniversary flashback series! Here’s a quick clip of SkyTrain zooming through the Expo 86 grounds, courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives!
It’s a quick look at the SkyTrain during its launch year, plus about a minute of footage of the Expo grounds, including the monorail :)
This clip is an excerpt from “Expo Views” by Yaletown Productions, a video production firm whose footage was recently acquired by the City of Vancouver Archives. The item number is accession 2010-035, and the Archives currently hopes to have the full footage available online sometime in 2011.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Breaking News in Van, iSkytrain. iSkytrain said: Video: a quick clip of the SkyTrain zooming through Expo 86 http://ff.im/-vejRu […]
Yay, Thats so cool!
Note the speed of the outbound SkyTrain as it approaches Main Street Station (and even the speed of the inbound SkyTrain as it departs from Main Street Station).
Thanks to noise complaints trains are now much slower.
So that’s what the monorail and Expo 86 looked like, that was nice to see Jhen. I was born in that year but didn’t come to Vancouver until 1989.
I watched the video, noted the train’s improved speed, and remembered the reason that they were slowed down. Then I looked at the comments and saw that I was beaten to the punch.
Your choice of words showed much restraint, Derek.
Is there any reason that these restrictions could not be relaxed for the PM rush hour? What has been the impact in service due to this change?
Looking at the video has also made me wish I was around for Expo. It looked a lot more exciting than the Olympics! Look at everything going on! Chairlifts, monorails, and SkyTrains, oh my!
There was even a maglev demonstration at Stadium Station!
The monorail was something else, it’s a shame we couldn’t hang on to it. I’m sure it’s doing a fine job over in England anyway. I always get a kick out of playing Roller Coaster Tycoon because one of the parks is the park the Expo monorail was moved to and has the Monorail as a ride!
The didn’t just slow down Skytrain… they took out the Molsen Indy and accompanying airshow. There was also an attempt to silence other summer festivals like the dragon boat races and concerts. I miss the nightly fireworks and laser show that ran for the entire 6.5 months. It was foundation of being a “no-fun” city.
If you thought the 2 to 5 hours to see the Olympic medals were long, so were the Canada Place and GM pavillions.
I would say Expo really taught Vancouverites patience in line waiting.
I was only 4 years old during Expo but I vividly remember riding the SkyTrain holding my mums hand standing like tuna’s in a can from Stadium to Waterfront (no stops) and hearing kinda tour-like info over the PA about the SkyTrain.
The Train would go eastbound from the (now unused) 3rd platform and use the switch to the inbound track and milk-run to Waterfront.
The CP Air Skyrides also bring back some memories, I’ll see if I can dig up a few photos as a kid inside one of the cars.
And the monorail. I was lucky enough to ride it during Expo 86 and also at Alton Towers 2 years ago. Really was nostalgic!
I’ll have to upload some of those photos too!
Here’s a followup to the video above with more Expo footage…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-eiVewQaXI