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Vancouver general sightings and notes


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On 10/10/2020 at 11:53 AM, VancouverTrolleybus said:

Don’t know what that means, never seen a 20 To Chinatown trip.

At some point during construction of the Canada Line in the mid-2000s, the 3 was semi-permanently truncated at Chinatown. It probably had something to do with work being done near Waterfront Station, but I don't remember details. I do remember that this was before the new trolleys had been delivered, and of course there was no rollsign exposure for "Chinatown" in the old trolleys, so the signs were simply left on "3 Main" and a small card marked "Chinatown" was placed in the front windshield. I might have pictures somewhere.

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On 10/11/2020 at 7:39 PM, MCW Metrobus said:

At some point during construction of the Canada Line in the mid-2000s, the 3 was semi-permanently truncated at Chinatown. It probably had something to do with work being done near Waterfront Station, but I don't remember details. I do remember that this was before the new trolleys had been delivered, and of course there was no rollsign exposure for "Chinatown" in the old trolleys, so the signs were simply left on "3 Main" and a small card marked "Chinatown" was placed in the front windshield. I might have pictures somewhere.

The shortening of the 3 was unrelated to Canada Line construction, and came out of a proposal from the 2005 Vancouver/UBC Area Transit Plan.  It was to free up service hours for other improvements in the plan, since boardings on the 3 were fairly low in Downtown.  At the time, the 3's Downtown loop went all the way south to Davie St, and cutting back to Chinatown reduced peak bookout by 8 buses.  But, people complained about the forced transfer at Main and Hastings, so as a compromise a new switch was added from WB Hastings to NB Seymour, and the 3 was given its current route to Waterfront only in December 2008 where it has remained (other than the attempt run it to Robson and interline the 3 and 20 from Sept 2009 to Sept 2010) 

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On 10/11/2020 at 7:39 PM, MCW Metrobus said:

At some point during construction of the Canada Line in the mid-2000s, the 3 was semi-permanently truncated at Chinatown. It probably had something to do with work being done near Waterfront Station, but I don't remember details. I do remember that this was before the new trolleys had been delivered, and of course there was no rollsign exposure for "Chinatown" in the old trolleys, so the signs were simply left on "3 Main" and a small card marked "Chinatown" was placed in the front windshield. I might have pictures somewhere.

Yes, but what about the new 20s? Do thems say Chinatown?

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48 minutes ago, VancouverTrolleybus said:

Yes I do, when thems are late, they end them blocks early and turn around to get back on them schedules. But what I means is what will them DISPLAY for short-turns.

Probably 20 Downtown and the driver will announce that they are ending their run at whatever the last stop is before the switch. 

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19 minutes ago, VancouverTrolleybus said:

Yes I do, when thems are late, they end them blocks early and turn around to get back on them schedules. But what I means is what will them DISPLAY for short-turns.

Same thing as most other short turns:

 

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On 10/10/2020 at 7:08 PM, Michael Marriott said:

Minor observation, but some of the trolley wire on Carrall St is usable again.  Since the bike lane was put in in 2008, and the wire was never shifted for the new lane configuration, using the wire required trollrybuses to knock aside tree branches.  Then, in 2014 a crane lift one weekend resulted in the WB wire from Columbia to Carrall beimg removed; when it went back up the switch from WB Hastings to SB Carrall was never reactivated, the left turn wire was missing a proper curve segment and had extra insulators installed to keep it unpowered. Earlier this year, the Carrall between Cordova and Hastings got shifted due to construction, moving it out of the trees.  And a couple of weeks ago the switch on Hastings was reactivated, the curve segment finished, the turn wire powered and the wire on Carrall between Hastings and Pender moved out of the trees.  The final block from Powell to Cordova still needs to be realigned.  

The biggest advantage to this is that you can now short turn a late 20 in Chinatown without having to drop poles.

Thanks for the interesting update but would the 3 and 20 use the short turn you described rather than left onto Pender, right to Columbia and right onto Hastings and back to Main?

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