32 - Wednesdis. duty 29) 1987 - North Shore News

Buses, SeaBus and cars replace =
old-time_local ferries and trams |

IT 1S 5:30 on a Friday afternoon and the Lions Gate Bridge
causeway is packed with home-bound commuters. Buses
and the SeaBus are both filled with riders.

Transportation on the Narth
Shore, while sometimes a source of
commuter grumbling, hus come a
long way since the area's carly
days, and municipalities, transit
companies and government all
continue to look into better ways
to move people.

In 1907, the B.C. Electric
Railway Co. provided a streetcar
service from the foot of Lonsdale.
Then, a trip to the wilds of the
North Shore involved a host of
changes —- a streetcar to the
cross-inlet ferry and then to
another tram.

“(The ferries) plied their trade
right across to Powell Street,’’ ex-
plained North Shore Museum and
Archives director Bill Baker, who
points out the non-human riders.

“You'd be sitting and a cow
would be ceading the paper over
your shoulder,"* Baker said.

Service today has improved con-
siderably since then — with public
transit, not the only way to. get
from) Vaneouver to its northern
neighbor across the Burrard Inlet.

“We are always looking to im-
prove our services to another area
or community where we can,”
West Vancouver Municipal Transit
superintendent Tony Lorage said.
“We are conducting studies...in
conjunction with B.C. Transit.’

Owned by B.C. Transit) but
operated by West Vancouver, the
municipality's bus fleet numbers
28 vehicles and 44 drivers, who run
the bus service every day.

The only blue buses in British
Columbia — the rest are all
painted official B.C. Transit colors
— the West Vancouver buses ure a
source of local pride.

“We have our own identity —
people, residents are proud of it,”
he added.

As a relatively static municipali-
ty, West Vancouver’s transit
statistics remain fairly constant
from year to year, with only slight
changes, Lorage said.

Serving eight routes all going in-
to Vancouver at one time or
another, buses experience a one-
per-cent-per-year increase in rider-
ship — ‘‘very, very steady."*

While brand new buses are
climbing hills in North Vancouver,
West Vancouver's oldest bus fleet
in B.C. is largely unable to use the
8¥:-foot-wide vehicles.

Routes to Horseshoe Bay and
other narrow roads cannot handle
the wider buses.

“Tcan’t use them," Lorage said
of the new buses. “We (can only)
use eight-foot-wide buses.”’

New buses for North Vancouver
are just one part of a program to
phase out the diesel fleet that has
seen a solid 20 vears of service.
Five of the $200,000 buses are
already on North Vancouver ioads
and (wo more are on their way,

“Expanding routes (and any
other improvements) is something
that's always there,’ said B.C.
Transit spokesman George Strop-
pa. “All that is subject to (the
B.C. Transit Commission) looking
at it, approving it or altering it."

Any future expansion on the
North Vancouver transit scene will

yend on the area's growth and

yansion — more areas to service
ely means mote service.

The often-talked-about third
SeaBus will not appear in the near
future, said Stroppa. ‘‘The (pres-
ent transit) capacily appears to sat-
isfy the demand,"' he said. **Once
again, that could change in a year

or two (depending on the need)."”

The provincial Ministry of
Transportation and Highways,
which oversees most of the major
routes across and on to the North
Shore, is planning improvements
for che Upper Levels Highway in-
terchanges at Lonsdale Avenue
and Westview Drive.

Highways regional assistant
manager Dan Williams said other
future plans could include an in-
terchange at Lynn Valley and
another one along Mo ntain
Highway.

“Various schemes are presently
being analysed as to how that
would work at Mountain (High-
way),’’ Williams said of highways
department long-term plans.

Access to the Second Narrows
Bridge, a long-time source of
frustration to district council and
local commuters, will likely only
be improved to highway standards
as part of an extensive upgrading
of the highways in the area, said
Wiliams.

“In the long term it would be
reasonable for the highway to be
converted (to more lanes),"' he ad-
ded. ‘(Access ramps) certainly
would need upgrading.”*

In the District of North Van-
couver, a joint municipal and pro-
vincial project to improve Dollar-
ton Highway is underway. With
provincial engineers doing the
survey and design work, municipal
crews will oversee the construction
work.

When work is done, the district
assumes ownership of the road,
said Williams.

“We're always considering

PUBLIC TRANSIT on the North
Shore has come a long way from
the colorful trams in North Van-
couver seen here on Lonsdale
Avenue, circa 1912. Today a fleet
of buses moves passengers
Uhsroughout the North Shore.

various options in planning and
working with the municipalities,”
he said, pointing to the Dollarton
Highway improvement plan.

For people who have difficulty
using public transport or who do
not own their own vehicles, the
North Shore's two taxi companies
provide a number of services.

Service to those with mobility
problems, seniors, children and the
disabled have been an important
part of the firms’ community in-
volvement for many years.

NS ]

Ph

Baer

joto submitted North Shore Muacum & Archives

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