From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Did you know that a commuter train used to run right through downtown Vancouver? I found out about it when I was over at Tom Carter’s studio checking out one of his amazing paintings. There it was, a train chugging across Hastings Street.
The train came up again when I was writing a blog post a couple of weeks ago about getting the star of Blood, Sweat, and Fear—Inspector Vance—from his home in Yaletown to his lab at Hastings and Main Street. The 1907 map that I downloaded from Vancouver Archives showed four large blocks from Hastings to Water Street and from Cambie to Carrall Street were occupied by the BC Electric Railway Company.
The streetcars were already in place by then, in fact had been since 1891, but the interurban train came later, in 1911 after the BCER opened its spiffy new terminal, and a car full of officials made the first trip from Vancouver to New Westminster on March 1.
It’s hard to imagine now, but over five kilometres of track ran through city streets.
Tom, who seems to have a bottomless well of ephemera when it comes to anything to do with Vancouver history—particularly buildings, theatres and transportation—sent along this map (above) of the BCER in downtown Vancouver from the 1920s.
At its height, BC Electric operated 457 streetcars and 84 interurbans.
And, some good news. The BCER’s formal terminal is still there on the corner of Carrall and West Hastings Street.
For an upcoming blog I’m going to try and put together a list of the top 10 worst decisions when it comes to destroying Vancouver’s history and heritage. But I’ve got to think that the “from rails to rubber” should be right up there with the demolition of Birks and the second Hotel Vancouver.
Essentially, rails to rubber meant the end of the streetcars and interurban system. It was a nod to the power of the car and a desire not to spend the money to upgrade the transit system. If you’ve tried to drive across Vancouver lately, you’ll likely agree that it was the dumbest decision ever.
Nevertheless, the last streetcar made its final run in Vancouver in 1955, and three years later, the last of the interurbans finished up service in Steveston.
Sources for this story:
- Tom Carter
- Canadian Rail, Jan-Feb, 2010
- Canada’s Historic Places: BCER Terminal
- The Buzzer Blog: A short history of interurbans in the Lower Mainland, 2009
- For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage
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