Bob Hunter

® strictly personal e

nerrrras

LOOK WELL upon the city to the south

across Burrard Inlet, mountain people.... It is
just coming of age. You don’t see a city do that

very often.

Taking a sneak preview
ride on the ALRT recently
drove the point home
beyond a doubt in my
mind: Vancouver is about
to become an actual
“world city.”’ In the mod-
erm context, the dividing
line between bush and city
is a mass rapid transit
system.

And the one Vancouver
now has is simply the best
in the world, as long as it
works.

The day I took a ride
from New Westminster to
the Stadium Station by the
Expo site, it had snowed
the night before. Since
none of the stations in be-
tween were operating yet,
there was a ghostly sense to
the voyage.

At each of the half-
dozen stops along the way,
a robot voice would come

‘on and say: THIS... iS....
ROYAL... OAK or
THIS.... 18....
METROTOWN.... or
THIS.... IS..... BROAD-
WAY. It was one of those

terrible computerized tapes’

~ such’ as you hear giving out
numbers. over the phones
-these days.” :.

It sounded very mich as.

if the ALRT control. com.
puter was speaking directly

to us, which wouldn’t have.
» been: so. scary if it didn’t ©

always hesitate an extra
fraction of a second before
giving the name of the ac-

1 tual station—so that you

couldn't help; wondering if
it was having trouble
remembering where it was.
Or,: more to the point,
where WE were.

The train. would stop.
The doors would open. We
would stare. out through
them at the ‘empty stations

_with a thin, crust.of snow -
blown across the plat-.:

forms, Then the doors
would close and off we'd go.
: !

Family fled fire |

From Page 1

vent they both realized there
was a fire in the basement.
‘I’ was devastated,’’
Cooke-Dallin. said, recalling
the moment he realized he
had to get his family out
Tight away. “I knew without
thinking that it was only a
matter of minutes before
(Jaimie) would succumb.”
As the family evacuated
the house, Cooke-Dallin
recalls returning to the
porch. ‘‘I'saw flames turning
against the window of the
suite’? That memory is one
of the strongest he has of
that night. ‘‘Everytime |
close my eyes, I see the
flames turning and turning
against the window. You feel
so violated, so helpless,’’ he
said. .
Cooke-Dallin did not
know there was an occupant-
in the basement suite at the
time of the fire. Regular te-

.fant Lynn Dale, travelling:

overseas, had made. ar-
rangements with Bready, her
cousin, to housesit on an oc-
casional basis.

The stations, I should
say, are designed in that
tubular metal fashion that
makes them look like space
platforms. As somebody
who has lived in London
and gone to work on the
Tube, I can tell you that
the difference between the
ALRT and the original
Underground railway is
like a gap of 1,000 years
instead of less than a cen-
tury.

“It dawned on
me that they
were the ultimate
electric train set
players. ’’

BE

It was not many months
age when the designs you’d
see on the covers of science
fiction. magazines didn’t
look any more futuristic
that the ALRT stations

. about to be thrown open to
“the public. It is a class

‘job—and I was seeing the
system at its most vulner-
able.

For one thing, it is clear
the. stations have been
designed to cope mainly
with rain, now snow. That
would be okay if our
climate didn’t seem to be
cooling. One is a trifle ex-
posed at most of the stops.

The big question is how

_ tough the trains will prove -

to be. The only other
magnetic rail system is’ at
Disneyland in Florida. It is
a toy compared to the
ALRT, and it enjoys quite
different weather.

In. fact, the trains all
came to a halt.after only a
handful of round trips the

. day I was on board, It was

“When the firemen came
they. asked if everyone was
out of the house and I said
yes. I was 100 per cent sure
no one was in the house.’’
Cooke-Dallin was ‘‘shock-
ed’? when firemen brought
Bready'’s body. from the
house. .

Cooke-Dallin is convinced
that if the smoke detector in

- the basement did not go off,

the story might have had an
even. more tragic ending.
“*We were already out of the
house’ when our

went off.”?

While insurance and fire
investigators probe the cause
of the fire and estimate the
extent of the damage, the
still-shaken Cooke-Dallins
are staying with Diana’s
parents. Although the base-

‘ment suite suffered extensive

damage, its gyprocked cceil-
ing acted as a retardant and
stopped the fire from
spreading to the upstairs.
The main part of the house
itself suffered only smoke
damage.

smoke..
detector (on the top floor)

Vo tO

vs ‘ eK

the largest number of peo-
ple the system had moved
yet, and at the same time
the effect of snow on mag-
netic propulsion was being
tested, like it or not.

The tension of the
various ALRT officials and
attendants and _ technical
people was palpable. There
were at least three of them
on our coach along with
their walkie-talkies. It
dawned on me that they
were the ultimate electric
train set players.

The difference was, with
this particular real-life
train set, there were living
human beings in the
coaches.

It is an act of faith to
put your life into the hands
of a machine, and the
memory of that boy who
died when one of the
“robot trains”
down on the tracks is still
very fresh.

Somebody in my coach
made a joke about the pos-
sibility of a fuse going
somewhere and the. entire

sophisticated array of}

linear induction motors
and fibre optics going
poof! Nobody laughed.

There we were, hurtling
along, at one point proba-
bly six stories above the
ground, like a snooker bail
down a concrete
eavestrough in the sky, and
it was not only Look Ma
No Hands, but there
wasn’t even a driver!

Weird.

Now I know why Grace
McCarthy backed away

from the name “‘Spirit’’ |

for the ALRT system. It is
already a kind of Ghost
Rider in the Sky. Why give
people any more. goose
bumps than they have?

I think it is an incredible,
fabulous and fantastic
system. But it will take a
wee bit of getting used to,
and that awful robot voice
has to go. Other than that,

a lot of people have every |

right to take a lot of bows.”
Jack Davis, stand up!

ot

ran him}

to clear sidewalks

CLEARING sidewalks of
snow and ice is more than
just a courtesy — in the
three North Shore
municipalities it is required
by law.

In both North Vancouver
City and District, fines for
noncompliance with bylaws
outlining the removal of
snow, ice and rubbish from
sidewalks fronting commer-
cial businesses carries a $35
fine. .

In West Vancouver, slov-
enly shopkeepers face fines
to a maximun of $2,000 or
60 days in jail.

Bylaws in both West Van-
couver and North Vancouver
districts thus far apply to
commercial properties and
the sidewalks, paths or
walkways fronting those
properties every day except
Sundays and holidays. In the
City of North Vancouver,
however, the responsibility
applies to all owners of real
property and all merchants
everyday.

Barbara Warrick, super-
visor of bylaws for North
Vancouver City, says tickets
are not handed out for every
violation because she just
does not have the staff to
police such a massive under-
taking, ‘‘but we had a lot of
problems with ice and snow
removal last year and we
want to make sure it doesn’t
happen again. It’s not bad if
it’s only snow, but when it
turns to ice, that’s when the
problems start.’ .

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