Transportation links and tidbits for Wednesday April 7
April 7, 2010
Transportation links and tidbits for Wednesday April 7
April 7, 2010
I found this picture above in our Buzzer archives and thought it would be a good photo to share in this tidbits post! The B.C. Electric observation cars were big draws for people wanting to see the sights back in the day. Can anyone tell me when they went away or why? (Seriously, I don’t know the answer.)
And one more thing before the tidbits: I just want to let you know that I’m at a conference called F5 Expo today, learning more about social media and the web for our organization. I’d love to say hi if any of you are in attendance—find me through the Buzzer’s Twitter account!
And finally, here are the links and tidbits!
- We at TransLink released our 2009 financial and performance report last week. Lots of stats and data there: the lead-off line is that tight cost controls and savings on fuel for the transit fleet combined to more than offset declines in revenue.
- Check out the marketing award finalists from the International Association of Public Transport! Here are the top five commercials and the top five print campaigns. And yes, De Lijn’s cute animal ads are the best.
- Good Magazine has an ambitious L.A. transit map which supporters want to see in place within the next decade.
- Streetsblog posts about bike taxes: apparently Tucson and Portland are looking at the possibility of charging bike riders. A hugely divisive topic, to say the least.
- Ikea decorates the Paris Metro.
- St. Louis Metro’s blog lists their top 10 videos of people dancing on transit. One of them is Vancouver’s Spandy Andy!
- Guelph Transit will not be running bus service on Sundays in August, to save $1.2 million in payroll costs.
- The New York Times writes about how cycling helps some patients with Parkinson’s disease. Make sure to watch the video.
- Karen Fung has an interesting liveblog about planning as a profession.
- Stephen Rees covers a talk about public art on Seattle transit.
- And because I know we care about all things Olympic now, I thought I’d throw in Anish Kapoor’s enormous tower that will be built for London 2012. It will be TALLER THAN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!
Why? To sight-see, natch :-) I’m not sure exactly where it went, but it most likely was dependent on where there were streetcar tracks…
Wasn’t there a Pacific Coach bus sightseeing tour thing too? (On a previous post) Maybe that replaced the sightseeing train. Then more and more people got cars. =D Then we all know what happens after =P
Here’s a neat article by historian Chuck Davis about the BCER observation cars and their most famous operator, Teddy Lyons: http://knowbc.blogspot.com/2009/09/vancouvers-open-air-streetcar.html
The observation cars stopped running in 1950. They sadly had to go, as did the rest of Vancouver’s streetcars, during BC Electric’s conversion of the streetcar system to a trolleybus system. This took place from 1948-1955, but on the bright side, it gave us the wonderful trolleybus system we still have today.
Dave is correct. The BC Electric sightseeing car ceased after so many streetcar lines had been discontinued that it was no longer possible to operate a comprehensive tour of the city.
Another link of interest this week is the re-opening of the East London Line. Looks like they have done a brilliant job, it was my lifeline for many years in its less modern days. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/things_to_do/newsid_8604000/8604842.stm
Ah, that should have been obvious—of course they went away when the streetcars did. You need tracks!
Steven:
I remember being in London when they started moving the East London line from underground to overground. Glad to see it complete! Hopefully it won’t be a lonely tail for long :)