The humble trolley bus turns 75 on Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 and TransLink is marking this milestone with free rides on two retro buses all day.
Throughout the day, two vintage vehicles from the Transit Museum Society — a 1947 Canadian Car Brill T-44 and a 1954 Canadian Car Brill T-48A — will shuttle passengers around downtown Vancouver every 20 minutes. The route begins across from Waterfront Station on West Cordova Street between Seymour and Richards Streets, and then loop up Burrard Street, along Davie Street, and down Granville Street.
TransLink expects these rides to be popular and encourages riders to show up early.
Unlike conventional diesel-powered coaches, the trolley bus gets its power from parallel overhead wires through the use of trolley poles. Vancouver is one of the few cities in North America that continue to use the zero emission vehicles in its regular operations.
Both buses are decked out in their original livery — the Brill T-44 with the BC Electric colours and the Brill T-48A in the more familiar BC Hydro and Power Authority logo. Prior to BC Transit relinquishing control of the Lower Mainland’s transit system in 1999 to TransLink, the British Columbia Electric Railway (now BC Hydro) operated interurbans, street cars and trolley buses across Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and greater Victoria.
If that’s not an incentive enough to travel downtown tomorrow, TransLink will also have 5,000 Compass Mini-Trolley Compass Card key chains up for sale.
Head over to the TransLink Customer Service Centre in Waterfront Station at 8:00 am PDT to pick up a small trolley-shaped keychain for a $6.00 deposit, limited to two-per-person. There’s 4,000 adult and 1,000 Concession Compass Mini-Trolleys.
The Mini-Trolleys act as Compass Cards and can be loaded with stored value or monthly passes at any Compass Vending Machine, online, over the phone or at the Waterfront customer service centre. The headlights on both models light up when tapped at a fare gate.
Source: Buzzer Blog
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