Reminder: transit fan trip on an Orion I bus, Sat March 20
Reminder: transit fan trip on an Orion I bus, Sat March 20
Just wanted to bump this item up in case you were thinking of attending (and also because the details didn’t show on the original post when it first went up!).
David Lam has chartered an Orion I bus from West Van Transit for a fan trip on Saturday, March 20: see this post for the full details. He has also posted the following update:
To anyone planning on attending this charter on this upcoming Saturday, RSVP is mandatory, please fire off an email to me before 12am on Saturday (midnight on Friday) if you are planning to attend the charter! So far I have counted 20 people only…….meaning the cost will be $30 per person (max rate) and I might end up having to subsidize the difference out of my own pocket, or I will have to break the rule and charge $32 per person contrary to my previous promise. So please, if you are planning to attend this event, send me an email ASAP! Thanks!
I was considering joining in on the tour, but it’s just not in the budget(2 X $30), and my weekends are short enough as it is…
Hope that those who do get to tour around have a great time! Maybe a quick stop-over in Steveston? Or ice cream at Ladner McDonalds? Looking forward to a picture or two here please!
I went on the tour and it was great. While costly, it was a great opportunity to learn about the buses and to have some fun too.
We left from Homer at Georgia and the route we took was: Homer Street, Pender Street, Cambie Street, Nelson Street, Cambie Street Bridge, 6th Avenue, Ash Street to Olympic Village Station. There, the bus was parked alongside the Olympic Line streetcar.
From there we went: Ash Street, Broadway, Granville Street, SW Marine Drive, Arthur Laing Bridge, Grant McConachie Way, Templeton, Miller Road, Cessna Drive to Airport Station.
From there, we went: Russ Baker Way, Miller Road, Sea Island Way, Highway 99 (George Massey Tunnel), Highway 17, Ladner Trunk Road, Harvest Drive, Clarence-Taylor Crescent and parked in front of Delta Hospital. Pictures were taken, including several group shots.
From there we took Clarence-Taylor, Mountain View Boulevard, Harvest Drive and managed this time to stop in front of Ladner Exchange for a photo op.
After that, we took off again via Harvest Drive, Ladner Trunk Road, Highway 17, 62B Street, River Road (stopping briefly to let a line of cars pass), Nordel Way, 88th Avenue, 152nd Street, 104th Avenue, 154th Street, Guildford Way, Ferguson Diversion, 108th Avenue, 150th Street, 105th Avenue to Guildford Town Centre for a quick break.
From there we went 105th Avenue, 152nd Street, Highway 1 (Port Mann Bridge), Lougheed Highway, Dewdney Trunk Road, Norman Avenue, Ranch Park Way, Spuraway Avenue. We stopped and took more pictures here. We got the occasional homeowner peeking out their windows or coming out, probably wondering what a West Vancouver Blue Bus was doing stopped outside their house!
From there we went Spuraway Avenue, Mariner Way, Barnet Highway, Ioco Road, Heritage Mountain Boulevard, Parkside Drive. We stopped and took pictures of the bus in the very nice looking neighbourhood. More people coming out of their houses wondering why a Blue Bus was parked outside!
From there, the bus was turned around and we took Parkside Drive, Heritage Mountain Boulevard, Ioco Road, 1st Avenue, Bedwell Bay Road, White Pine Beach Road, stopping at the bus stop up there. We got out took pictures and changed the sign to read 250 Horseshoe Bay!
After taking even more photos we departed again and took White Pine Beach Road, Bedwell Bay Road, Belcarra Bay Road, Midden Road and stopped outside the bustling park. After taking more pictures and receiving numerous double takes from park goers, the bus departed again.
We went via Midden Road, Bedwell Bay Road, 1st Avenue, Ioco Road, Barnet Highway, St Johns Street (Where a bus stop full of people waiting looked on in disbelief as they thought their bus just skipped them by!), Clarke Road, Como Lake Avenue, Broadway, Gaglardi Way, University Drive East, East Campus Road, University High Street, Simon Fraser Way, South Campus Road. We stopped for yet another photo op here, then we took off again.
We went on South Campus Road, Gaglardi Way, University Drive, Gaglardi Way, Highway 1 (Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge), Main Street, Cotton Road, 3rd Street East, and then we stopped in front of the North Vancouver Transit Depot. A driver finishing his run for the day did a double take after noticing the bus parked out front was a Blue Bus and not one of theirs!
We continued on 3rd Street East, Lonsdale Avenue, Carrie Cates Court to finish our trip at Lonsdale Quay.
It was a lot of fun and I’m sure the pictures will be up soon. Everyone took dozens (if not hundreds!)
I went on the tour and had great time. It was a great opportunity to learn about buses and have some fun with transit fans.
We started in Downtown Vancouver at Homer and Georgia and went to the Olympic Village Canada line station where the bus parked near the Olympic Line streetcar and had a photo opportunity.
From there we went on Ash street, Broadway, Granville Street, SW Marine Drive, Crossed the Arthur Laing Bridge into Richmond, Grant McConachie Way, Templeton, Miller Road, Cessna Drive to Airport Station.
Our next route was: Russ Baker Way, Miller Road, Sea Island Way, George Massey Tunnel, Highway 17, Ladner Trunk Road, Harvest Drive, Clarence-Taylor Crescent and parked in front of Delta Hospital. There we had a photo opportunity and also took many group shots.
The next route was: Clarence-Taylor, Mountain View Boulevard, Harvest Drive and this time we had a chance to stop in front of the Ladner Exchange Bus Loop for a photo opportunity.
After that we took off again via Harvest Drive, Ladner Trunk Road, Highway 17, 62B Street, River Road (where we pulled over briefly to let some cars pass), Nordel Way, 88th Avenue, 152nd Street, 104th Avenue, 154th Street, Guildford Way, Ferguson Diversion, 108th Avenue, 150th Street, 105th Avenue to Guildford Town Center where we took a quick break.
From there we went to 105th Avenue, 152nd Street, Port Mann Bridge, Lougheed Highway, Dewdney Trunk Road, Norman Avenue, Ranch Park Way, Spuraway Avenue. We stopped here for another photo opportunity. Occasionally, a homeowner would peek out their window or come outside probably wondering why a West Vancouver Blue Bus had stopped outside their house!
After that we took off again via Spuraway Avenue, Mariner Way, Barnet Highway, Ioco Road, Heritage Mountain Boulevard, Parkside Drive. Here we stopped for another photo opportunity, again more homeowners coming outside wondering why a West Vancouver Blue Bus was stopped outside!
From there the bus had to turn around and took Parkside Drive, Heritage Mountain Boulevard, Ioco Road, 1st Avenue, Bedwell Bay Road, White Pine Beach Road, stopping at the bus stop up there. We had another photo opportunity and at this point the driver changed the destination sign from Charter to read “250 Horseshoe Bay.”
After another photo opportunity we departed again taking White Pine Beach Road, Bedwell Bay Road, Belcarra Bay Road, Midden Road and stopped outside a bustling park. After taking even more pictures there and receiving numerous double takes from the park visitors, we departed again.
From there we went via Midden Road, Bedwell Bay Road, 1st Avenue, Ioco Road, Barnet Highway, St Johns Street (where a bus stop full of people waiting for the bus looked at us thinking that the bus had just passed them by!), Clarke Road, Como Lake Avenue, Broadway, Gaglardi Way, University Drive East, East Campus Road, University High Street, Simon Fraser Way, South Campus Road. We stopped for another photo opportunity, then we took off.
This time we went on South Campus Road, Gaglardi Way, University Drive, Gaglardi Way, Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge, Main Street, Cotton Road, 3rd Street East, stopping outside the North Vancouver Transit Center, and had a photo opportunity.
We continued onto 3rd Street East, Lonsdale Avenue, Carrie Cates Court and finish our trip at the Lonsdale Quay bus loop/seabus terminal, and had a photo opportunity.
We then got on the seabus (we got the new seabus) to get to waterfront station where we then went our own way.
I even had the opportunity to take a picture of the Mark 1 skytrain car while I was waiting for the train at waterfront.
During the tour, we were having lots of fun on the bus too by calling out random street names at random times to simulate the automated stop announcements. We were also joking with the driver of the bus by constantly ringing the stop request bell.
It was a lot of fun and I hope that I have the opportunity to go on a tour like this again in the future. I took so many pictures that I actually completely filled up the memory card on my camera and my memory card was empty to begin with.
If you ever wanted to just explore the system on a $9 DayPass, there are countless different routes you could take. One that I would suggest is from downtown bus #160 routes out to Coquitlam Centre, then bus #701 continues out to Haney Place. From there the newer #595 would cross over the Golden Ears bridge into Langley where you have multiple options…
Buses #320, 501 and 502 all have various routes back to SkyTrain from Langley, but you could also catch the newer bus #364 that runs along 64th Ave… You could then connect down to White Rock at King George Hwy? Or to the #301 at Scottsdale? From White Rock bus #351 routes to the Canada Line or that #301 from Scottsdale does too… Once in Richmond, there is also the #480-UBC bus into town, as well as the Canada Line…
I also used to enjoy the ride out to Horseshoe Bay for fish & chips too…
Maybe stop for a bite to eat at either Haney Place or somewhere in Langley…
Oh sure, I could get a daypass and I could take transit for the day.
But Saturday we got to go EVERYWHERE without a transfer! Our own private bus. Worth every penny and another $10 if it came to that.
I’ve got to say, Saturday was probably one of the funnest trips I’ve had in a while. It might be a while, but pictures should be up… in about a month. Darn computer problems…
[…] You can also read Cliff and Ric’s account of the trip in this past post too! […]