The Salmo-Creston Highway: The Summarized History 2023-5

Not much to say today except this one is short. This is an interesting highway. Definitely lots of hopes and dreams fulfilled by its completion. It's somewhat unique in that it had two separate openings. Without further ado, here's the article for today:

Apologies for the delay. Let's just say it was Black Friday. I might play around with a map on Saturday (the 25th) and add another source. We shall see. Enjoy!

Note: The article's title was edited to remove the words CliifsNotes. A mention was also given to Gordan Taylor. Some clarity editing too. A reference was also added (November 26, 2023)

-George

To the South of the Fraser: The Introduction of Bus Service to Surrey-White Rock-Delta in 1975 (2023-4)

Today's (Friday, November 17, 2023) article speaks about the introduction of public transit into Surrey, White Rock and Delta in 1975.

Here it is in PDF form:

Some notes:

The exchanges were a bit hard to find. Initially I thought Newton was always a bus loop. I chose not to include Whalley loop as that could probably be an article unto itself.

That's all.

Enjoy!

-George

At-Grade Crossings of the Trans-Canada Highway From Bridal Falls to Taylor Way (2023-3)

    This week's article is about the many intersections that existed on Highway 1 (and formerly 401) between Popkum and Taylor Way in West Vancouver.

Some notes on the article and commentary:

•     The highway did have freeway sections when it was officially opened. The "Abbotsford Bypass" (Highway 1 from Highway 11 (at the time called 'C Street') to Fraser Highway/Mt Lehman Road) was a freeway. That opened on April 19, 1962. When it was built it had interchanges at all of its present locations. The "Burnaby Freeway"  (which opened on May 1, 1964 some 42 days before the Port Mann opened). The last large section of freeway was the section from the Cape Horn-Mt. Lehman section. The Cape Horn-Mt. Lehman section has an unverifiable opening date of June 12, 1964. Why unverifiable? No newspapers seemed to comment on the opening of this section. They all focused on the Port Mann's opening. It's a ~38.8 km long piece of freeway that is totally unaccounted for. There seemed to be a sense too that the previous openings of the four other sections of the Trans-Canada Highway were just a lead up to the official opening of the whole system. Frontier to Freeway, a government publication on road history seems to take the position that the sections of highway that opened before June 12 were minor. So minor that no dates are specified in it. It also gets the number of previously opened sections wrong! It forgot the Burnaby Freeway. 
• It was a very slow process to remove intersections from the highway. It took until 1999 for the last minor intersection to be removed and 1997 for the last traffic light (Westview). Given the population growth of MV, it's odd how long it took.
• Population: There were far fewer people when the freeway was built around Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Vancouver. The lower population outside of the Burrard Peninsula probably influenced the decision to include intersections. The 1961 census counted 885,314 people in what's now the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts (perhaps missing a few unincorporated localities). Interestingly the project number for the Burnaby Freeway was 885 as well. I assume that the project designers of the time wanted to future-proof it a bit for the areas they knew would grow substantially. It'd be interesting to see how the highway planners communicated with the municipalities the highway passes through. 

Here is the article in PDF:

See Corrections to the article below the PDF too:

CORRECTIONS: 

In the PDF an "intersection #16" is mentioned. The intersection intended to be mentioned was intersection #20 (the dyke driveway at 40157 N Parallel Road). There also appears to be a private drive in the median between the "great separation"  at Barrowtown.  (Nov 16, 2023)

-George

Three Historical Bus Loops Around Metro Vancouver

 Three Historical Bus Loops Around Metro Vancouver (no. 2023-2)

    The first article ever on this blog! Today's (Friday, November 3, 2023) article is about three bus loops in Metro Vancouver that have been relegated to the history books. Actually, none of these appear in history books, just vague memories. Technically there are four loops mentioned in the article (I made an exception with one entry and included two but technically three).  

    The three (or four depending on how you look at it are) loops are:

•        Joyce Loop at Kingsway and Joyce Street in Vancouver
•        Edmonds Loop at Edmonds and Kingsway in Burnaby
•        The two former loops at Lougheed Mall (1973 and c. 1980s)

    I intended to include more loops in the article, but due to time constraints and the research required I was unable to. I skimped on a few details. I left out what routes used Lougheed Mall for the most part. I know for certain though that the 145 (formerly the 155) used it. So did several other routes in its early days. The 181 Clarke, 933 Lougheed FastBUS used it. The 181 became the 148 and eventually the C24. It then became the 180 on December 19, 2016 with the Evergreen service changes. When Poco Transit Centre (bus depots are called Transit Centres in Metro Vancouver) opened in 1978, routes changed again. That resulted in several of the routes introduced in 1973 to change numbers and routes. The 182 became the 155. The 184 became the 152. The 186 became the 151 and 154. The 190 became the 149. All of those routes mentioned interchanged at Lougheed Mall. The 1978 routes even went to downtown Vancouver and New Westminster! Some route numbers and alignments are pretty constant, like the 19 mentioned in the Joyce section and the 112 in the Edmonds section; both still exist today. There has been a great deal of change.

    Lots of changes to bus routes have happened over the years. It should be noted I don't go into detail about each route in this article. I highly recommend for specific history about each route the CPTDB Wiki. It has detailed information about many routes in Vancouver going back to the fifties with rail-to-rubber. It's not fully accurate and I suggest looking at its sources (mainly the Buzzer). Sometimes it doesn't cite a source. Sometimes that's because it comes from a Translink website page that is hard to cite. There are gaps in coverage. This blog will hopefully go into detail on bus routes eventually. I will be greatly indebted to the contributors of the CPTDB wiki however and it will be used as an 'indexer'.

    Without further ado, here is the article in PDF form.

Sources used in the preamble (informal) The Buzzer, August 11, 1978 edition and October 16, 1973 edition; several maps ranging from April 1974 to December 2016.

-George

no. 2023-2