October 13, 2008

BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION

Bombardier will bring two streetcars from Brussels for the Vancouver project.

Bombardier Transportation will showcase streetcars at Vancouver 2010 Winter Games

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The city of Vancouver is reviewing tenders for a project that will bring the streetcar back to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

However, there is no guarantee that the service will continue once the games are over.

“We are just getting in the tenders for the track work, which means putting the rails and the ties together,” said Dale Bracewell, director of Olympic transportation with the city of Vancouver.

“There is another tender for the overhead catenary systems or all the power systems, which includes a couple of substations. Prior to these tenders, we did all the material tendering for the rails, ties and turnouts (switches). And, there is one at-grade crossing along the Olympic line.”

Four tenders have been received and are being finalized with the city’s purchasing department and lawyers.

“The streetcar demonstration project is a big part of getting closer to a modern accessible European transportation system,” said Bracewell.

“The system will fill the gap between the regular bus system and the regional railway. It will also help get people out of their cars. It’s time again for Vancouver to get into the regional streetcar business.”

The City of Vancouver announced last month that it has signed an agreement with Bombardier Transportation to showcase a modern streetcar during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Under the agreement, Bombardier will bring two streetcars from Brussels, Belgium, in order to connect Granville Island to the Canada Line Olympic Village Station.

It will replace the single-track line between Granville Island and the 2nd Avenue Canada Line Station, by allowing the continued operation of the Downtown Heritage Railway.

Earlier this year Vancouver city council threw their support behind the project, estimated to cost $8.5 million.

Council also requested that the planning include integration with a possible future streetcar route along the Arbutus corridor.

Council approved awarding a contract to Hatch Mott Macdonald (HMM) to provide professional engineering services for preliminary engineering and design.

“We have a consultant helping us with Phase Zero of the project and we have retained them to get the demonstration project completed,” explained Bracewell.

“They have done the detailed design and will help to the end of the project, which includes construction and project management.”

According to a report presented to Council in March, HMM has been completing professional services related to both the Phase Zero preliminary engineering for the Downtown Streetcar and the reinstatement of the Downtown Historic Railway service on 1st Avenue in Southeast False Creek.

The work to date has focused on minimizing construction costs, addressing design issues and safeguarding the streetcar alignment for modern equipment and track infrastructure.

In order to ensure that design and construction of the infrastructure is ready for the Olympics, staff recommended extending and amending the existing professional engineering services contract to include completion of detailed design and construction management of the track infrastructure upgrades.

After the Olympics, the streetcar system could be expanded to run from False Creek to Stanley Park, as well as along Pacific Boulevard or even along the Arbutus corridor.

“We don’t know when this might happen, but ultimately the city would realize a project with a cost of about $100 million,” said Bracewell.

“TransLink would own and operate the system and they would need to be involved in putting together a funding package. We would also need federal government funding.”

Bombardier will operate and maintain the vehicles between January 21 and March 21, 2010.

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