The Vancouver
trolley bus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
system forms part of the
TransLink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to:
* TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada
* Translink (Northern Ireland)
Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...
public transport network serving
Metro Vancouver
The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as one of the 28 ...
in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
of British Columbia. In operation since 1948, the system presently comprises 13 routes and is managed by the
Coast Mountain Bus Company
Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) is the contract operator for bus transit services in Metro Vancouver and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, known locally as TransLink, the entity respons ...
, a subsidiary of TransLink. It uses a fleet of 262 trolley buses, of which 74 are
articulated vehicles
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint in its construction, allowing it to turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains. Steam locomotives were sometim ...
.
History
Following a formal opening ceremony on 13 August 1948,
[Kelly and Francis, p. 102.] regular service on Vancouver's first trolley bus routes began on 16 August 1948,
[Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia'', pp. 78, 148. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. .] operated by the
British Columbia Electric Railway
The British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) was an historic railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Originally the parent company for, and later a division of, BC Electric Company (now BC Hydro), the BCER assumed contro ...
(BCER).
Two routes opened on that day, 6 Fraser and 15 Cambie, and routes 5 Robson and 8 Davie followed later the same year.
[ Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1974). ''The Trolley Coach in North America'', pp. 338–342. Los Angeles: ]Interurbans
The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
. LCCN 74-20367. All of these first routes had been conversions of
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
lines except for the Cambie route. Conversion of several more streetcar and motorbus routes quickly followed, and by 1953, the trolley bus system had 16 routes.
Three more trolley bus lines were created in 1955, when the last streetcar line, Hastings, closed and was replaced by the 14 Hastings trolley bus route and two branches, routes 16 Renfrew and 24 Nanaimo. This brought the network to what was, for several years, its maximum extent, with 19 routes.
![Vancouver CCF-Brill T44 2040 at VTC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Vancouver_CCF-Brill_T44_2040_at_VTC.jpg)
The service was provided by
CCF-
Brill
Brill may refer to:
Places
* Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands
* Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England
* Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK
* Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
trolley buses, with 82 of model T44 acquired in 1947 and 1948, and 245 of the larger model T48 (and variants T48A and T48SP) acquired between 1949 and 1954.
With the delivery of the last new Brill trolley bus, in January 1954, Vancouver had the largest trolley bus fleet in Canada, 327 units.
[Kelly and Francis, p. 103.]
The fleet later included 25 1947-built
Pullman-Standard
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...
trolley buses acquired secondhand from
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, which entered service in March 1957.
[Kelly and Francis, p. 106.] However, drivers considered the Pullmans awkward to operate, and the vehicles were found to be surplus to the company's needs; they were taken out of service in 1960
and scrapped in 1961.
In the mid-1970s, the remaining T44-model trolley buses were retired, and in their place 50 new trolley buses were acquired from
Flyer Industries. Flyer Model
E800s were new vehicles except for the propulsion system, which used recycled
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
equipment
[McIntyre, Angus (January–February 1999). "Vancouver Celebrates 50 Years". ''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 223, pp. 3–5. .] from the earlier Brill T-44s. The Flyer E800s were delivered in late 1975 and 1976. Their use of recycled 1940s electrical equipment resulted in a shorter lifespan, and they were withdrawn in 1985, but around 25 returned to service for
Expo 86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...
,
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 148 (July–August 1986), p. 92. .] and the last few were in occasional service until January 1987.
![Vancouver Flyer E800 trolleybus on Granville Mall in 1983](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Vancouver_Flyer_E800_trolleybus_on_Granville_Mall_in_1983.jpg)
In the early 1980s, the system acquired 245 new Flyer E901A/E902 trolley buses.
["Vancouver Brill Farewell". ''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 134 (March–April 1984), p. 41.] These began to enter service in mid-1982, gradually replacing the CCF-Brill vehicles. The last use of a Brill trolley bus in service occurred on 25 March 1984.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 135 (May–June 1984), p. 69.] After withdrawal of the last E800s, in early 1987, Flyer E901A/E902 vehicles made up the whole of the Vancouver trolley bus fleet for almost 20 years. E902 No. 2937 was irreparably damaged by an electrical fire in 1987, reducing the total number of trolley buses to 244.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 191 (September–October 1993), p. 131.]
Several extensions to the system were constructed and opened in 1986, in connection with the opening of the
SkyTrain rapid transit system. Most were short diversions of routes at their outer ends, to terminate at new SkyTrain stations, including
Nanaimo station
Nanaimo is a partially elevated station on the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on Nanaimo Street between Vanness Avenue and East 24th Avenue in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sta ...
,
29th Avenue station
29th Avenue is an at-grade station on the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on 29th Avenue at Atlin Street, adjacent to Slocan Park in the Renfrew Heights neighbourhood of Vancouver, British ...
and
Joyce station Joyce may refer to:
People
* Joyce (name), list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* Joyce, (born 1948), Brazilian singer-songwriter
* James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish modernist writer
Places
* Joyce, Washington, an ...
,
but the extension of route 19 Kingsway to
Metrotown was long and was the first extension of Vancouver's trolley bus system outside the city of Vancouver, into
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
.
[Kelly and Francis, p. 110–111.] An extension from Blanca Street to the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
opened in September 1988.
From 2005 to 2009, the fleet was renewed again. New Flyer Industries in Winnipeg won the contract for the supply of the new vehicles, with electrical equipment by the German company
Vossloh Kiepe
Kiepe Electric GmbH (formerly Vossloh Kiepe) is a German manufacturer of electrical traction equipment for trams, trolleybuses other road and rail transport vehicles, as well as air-conditioning and heating systems, and conveyor device components. ...
.
In December 2008, 80 of the old Flyer E901A/E902 buses were sold to the
Mendoza trolleybus system in Argentina.
Vancouver now has a fleet of 262
low-floor
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...
trolley buses, supplied under the New Flyer contract between 2005 and the end of 2009.
Services
Current routes
The 13 routes that make up the present Vancouver trolley bus system are:
* 3
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
–
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
* Main River (disambiguation)
**Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries
...
/
Marine Drive Station
Marine Drive is an elevated station on the Canada Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located at the intersection of Cambie Street and SW Marine Drive in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Location
The station is l ...
* 4
UBC
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three ...
– Downtown/Powell (runs UBC – Downtown only after 8 p.m.)
* 5 Downtown –
Robson
* 6 Downtown –
Davie
Davie is a surname and a form of the masculine given name David.
It can refer to:
Surname
* Alan Davie (1920-2014), Scottish painter and musician
* Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847-1889), Canadian politician and eighth Premier of British Co ...
* 7
Dunbar
Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...
– Downtown –
Nanaimo Station
Nanaimo is a partially elevated station on the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on Nanaimo Street between Vanness Avenue and East 24th Avenue in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sta ...
* 8 Downtown – Fraser
* 10 Downtown –
Granville
* 14 UBC – Downtown/
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
(runs UBC – Downtown only after 6:30 p.m.)
* 16 Arbutus – Downtown /
29th Avenue Station
29th Avenue is an at-grade station on the Expo Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located on 29th Avenue at Atlin Street, adjacent to Slocan Park in the Renfrew Heights neighbourhood of Vancouver, British ...
* 17 Downtown –
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
* 19
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The park borders the neighbourhoods of West End and Coal ...
–
Metrotown Station (via
Kingsway)
* 20 Downtown – Victoria
* 41 41st Avenue – Crown –
Joyce Station Joyce may refer to:
People
* Joyce (name), list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* Joyce, (born 1948), Brazilian singer-songwriter
* James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish modernist writer
Places
* Joyce, Washington, an ...
Awaiting reinstatement
* 9 Alma – Boundary (via
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
) (2025)
Former routes
* 15 Cambie – Downtown (trolley service discontinued September 2005 for Canada Line construction)
Current fleet
Vancouver's current fleet of trolley buses, all built by New Flyer, is made up of the following types:
The original order for these trolley buses, placed in late 2003, was for 188 conventional and 40 articulated buses.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 254 (March–April 2004), p. 43. .] The first, a model E40LF, was delivered in July 2005,
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 263 (September–October 2005), p. 117.] and the rest of the 40-footers, now designated E40LFR, were delivered between August 2006
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 270 (November–December 2006), p. 135.] and September 2007.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 277 (January–February 2008), p. 15]
The first articulated arrived in Vancouver in January 2007.
[''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 273 (May–June 2007), p. 62.] TransLink decided to order an additional 34 articulated units, making the total 74, and delivery of the 73 production-series E60LFR units took place between October 2007 and autumn 2009.
Preservation
Three of Vancouver's trolley buses and one former trolley bus that was converted to diesel running have been preserved by the
Transit Museum Society.
The operational ones see occasional use for special events and on enthusiast fan trips. Several Brill trolley buses are stored in the ghost town of
Sandon awaiting restoration. The Sandon buses were acquired from the former fleets of Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, and Regina.
See also
*
List of bus routes in Greater Vancouver
The following list of current bus routes in Metro Vancouver is sorted by region and route number.
Routes with trolleybuses, articulated buses or suburban highway buses are noted as such. All route destination names are based on the official Tr ...
*
List of trolley bus systems in Canada
References
Books
*
External links
Coast Mountain Bus CompanyTransLink / Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority*
*
{{TransLink Services, state_skytrain=collapsed, state_bus=uncollapsed
TransLink (British Columbia)
Bus transport in British Columbia
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
1948 establishments in British Columbia