Sky Train Becomes Earth Train?

But It Starts (Or Stops) Here.

This slab of concrete is the headshunt to the south of Richmond (which isn't in Surrey) Brighouse Station.

There is the entrance on the borders of No 3 Road.

And so it continues northbound up in the Sky on concrete pylons that must have been fun to build.

Our virtual train passes through Lansdowne Station (amongst others), near where fbb's No 1 Son was conferencing about a week ago.

The "main line" is soon joined by the airport branch by way of a "flying" junction (appropriate for a Sky Train).

The branch starts at the airport, located on Sea Island, another original name because it is an island in the sea.

the airport was first opened in "Injun" land in the 1930s.

Boeing added an aircraft factory to construct planes for WW2 but the simplistic one-runway minimum terminal facility has growed rather a lot. The Sky Train starts up in the air in the terminal building, then drops down to ground level because the airport has plans to build a taxiway over the line. It crosses the Fraser River on a spiffing little (!) bridge ...

... before joining the main line. After the station at Bridgeport and thanks to Google Earth, we can see the line's depot.

The Fraser River is bridged yet again with something even more spectacular.

There is one more station above ground before the tracks descend to become the Under-The-Earth Train line.

The line was buried variously in cut-and-cover and bored tunnel, with a huge amount of work in downtown Vancouver.

The city terminus is at the Waterfront interchange which looks a lot older than something that comes with a Sky Train.

that is because the station wasn't built for the whizzo new transit network of which just one chunk is the Canada Line. The slick new-ish trains are buried somewhere below this magnificent building.

More tomorrow.

For now, and back in the UK, take a look at this.

More about this vehicle coming soon.

But, as they say; "why, oh why do bus companies make their timetable so incomprehensible?"

 Next Vancouver blog : Tuesday 8th August