There will be no trial revival of the Olympic Line streetcar after all | Daily Hive

Vancouver's Olympic Line streetcar operating in early 2010. (City of Vancouver)

A potential plan to launch a new demonstration streetcar service — effectively a revival of Vancouver’s Olympic Line — has been scrapped.

Earlier this fall, City of Vancouver staff told Daily Hive Urbanized that they had been in the early stages of reviewing unsolicited proposals from foreign entities — including one company based in the United Kingdom — to operate a new, fully privately funded pilot project streetcar along the City-owned False Creek South railway right-of-way, running between Granville Island and the Canada Line’s Olympic Village Station.

City staff indicated that any new demonstration service would not begin until September 2026 at the very earliest, after the FIFA World Cup. Municipal resources are currently focused on tournament planning; additional lead time would be required to prepare for such a streetcar operation, and it could also be made complicated by FIFA’s sponsorship regulations.

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This east-west railway corridor, much of it running parallel to West 6th Avenue, was formerly used by Canadian Pacific for freight operations. The City purchased the railway in 1995 to support its long-term vision of a streetcar network linking Vanier Park, Granville Island, False Creek South, Science World, and potentially the downtown Vancouver peninsula.

For more than a decade, up until 2011, a historic tourist streetcar ran along the route during the summer months.

In the late 2000s, the City also invested heavily to upgrade the railway between Anderson Street at Granville Island and Olympic Village Station, enabling a free demonstration service using two modern Bombardier streetcars. Launched during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the service was a major ridership success.

Over the years, just before and after the pandemic, the City undertook multiple studies exploring the feasibility and financial viability of a permanent streetcar line. Such a service could help accommodate the significant transportation demand associated with Senakw and improve access to Granville Island. Under its services agreement with the Squamish Nation, the First Nation is also required to complete its own streetcar feasibility study, identifying potential ways to serve the major residential density of its Senakw rental housing complex.

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Vancouver’s Olympic Line streetcar operating in early 2010. (AlexAranda/Shutterstock)

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Ridership projections; proposed Olympic Line revival streetcar route concept, January 2025 report. (Parsons/City of Vancouver)

However, the City has now decided to rule out any potential plans for a new demonstration streetcar service. According to City staff, the shift stems from the newly identified need, in more recent weeks, to preserve long-term flexibility as major redevelopment planning proceeds in the False Creek South waterfront neighbourhood, where many City-owned leaseholds are set to expire in the coming decades.

“Over the last few years, the City has been exploring the potential of a streetcar trial using the existing railway infrastructure between Granville Island and the Olympic Village. Following internal review and analysis, staff have concluded it is not feasible to undertake a streetcar trial at this time,” the City told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“Work is underway following Council’s direction for an updated landowner’s development framework for False Creek South. As the public process evolves, staff will explore how transit will be best integrated into the area, including right of way retention and construction phasing, which would impact the ability to undertake a future trial.”

The City relaunched the False Creek South planning process in 2024 from the perspective of a landowner rather than a land-use regulator.

The municipal government’s Property Endowment Fund (PEF) owns 80 acres of the False Creek South waterfront between the Granville Street Bridge and the Cambie Street Bridge. Developed in the 1970s and 1980s on former industrial lands, it remains one of the PEF’s most valuable holdings.

This follows Vancouver City Council’s 2021 rejection of City staff’s proposed land-use and redevelopment plan for the area. Instead, City Council directed City staff to return to the drawing board to rethink the plan with revised concepts and more resident engagement, after significant pushback from longtime leasehold, co-op, and rental residents. City staff later negotiated extensions for some leasehold agreements.

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August 2024 condition of the Olympic Line’s streetcar infrastructure. (Kenneth Chan)

One of the existing key advantages of the False Creek South right-of-way for railway service is its largely grade-separated 1.8-km-long stretch between the Anderson Street entrance route into Granville Island and Olympic Village Station. With only one at-grade crossing — located at Moberly Road — the corridor offers inherent benefits for safety, reliability, and travel speed compared with streetcar systems that must frequently cross or operate within general traffic, such as those in Toronto.

The transportation concepts from the 2021-rejected proposal may offer hints about what could still be reconsidered in the City’s renewed planning effort.

That 2021 plan included a proposed redesign of West 6th Avenue, which parallels the railway immediately to the south. Although West 6th Avenue is currently a major east-west arterial road with few traffic signals — enabling relatively high vehicle speeds with very few traffic signal stops — the proposal suggested “taming” the corridor between Alder Street and Ash Street. It envisioned extending several north-south streets (Birch, Oak, Laurel, Willow, Heather, and Ash) toward the railway and into False Creek South, supported by new traffic signals along West 6th Avenue to improve connections between the neighbourhoods on either side of the railway.

Rejected 2021 concept for the future of False Creek South, showing new north-south street extensions with new traffic signal-controlled intersections on West 6th Avenue. (City of Vancouver)

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