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jeff hodson/metro vancouver
Vancouver’s Olympic Line streetcar is put onto rail tracks near the Cambie Street Bridge yesterday.
The owner of a Texas-based trucking company that specializes in oversize and heavy hauling said he’s moved loads that were longer, wider and heavier than Vancouver’s new Olympic streetcar — but never in such tight spaces.
“The City of Vancouver is tight,” said Colter Chapman after delivering the first of two streetcars that will make up Vancouver’s demonstration “Olympic Line.”
“It was not designed to have things of this size brought into it.”
Everything went smoothly, Chapman said. The 52-metre-long tractor-trailer travelled through the city in the dead of night with a police escort to close roads.
The streetcars will offer free service between Granville Island and the Olympic Village for two months beginning Jan. 21.
About 50 people gathered in the cold yesterday morning to watch as the streetcar was slowly dragged off a purpose-built trailer, down a ramp and onto the upgraded railway tracks near the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
Its arrival capped a one-month, 16,835-kilometre journey from Brussels, via Germany and the Panama Canal.
It arrived in Tacoma, Wash., last week and was hauled — with police escort — through Seattle about midmorning Sunday, arriving at the border at 1 p.m.
The convoy remained at the border until midnight and got into Vancouver at about 1 a.m.
The second streetcar arrives in Vancouver Thursday.
“The City of Vancouver is tight,” said Colter Chapman after delivering the first of two streetcars that will make up Vancouver’s demonstration “Olympic Line.”
“It was not designed to have things of this size brought into it.”
Everything went smoothly, Chapman said. The 52-metre-long tractor-trailer travelled through the city in the dead of night with a police escort to close roads.
The streetcars will offer free service between Granville Island and the Olympic Village for two months beginning Jan. 21.
About 50 people gathered in the cold yesterday morning to watch as the streetcar was slowly dragged off a purpose-built trailer, down a ramp and onto the upgraded railway tracks near the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
Its arrival capped a one-month, 16,835-kilometre journey from Brussels, via Germany and the Panama Canal.
It arrived in Tacoma, Wash., last week and was hauled — with police escort — through Seattle about midmorning Sunday, arriving at the border at 1 p.m.
The convoy remained at the border until midnight and got into Vancouver at about 1 a.m.
The second streetcar arrives in Vancouver Thursday.
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