This past weekend, our family enjoyed a free ride on the brand new (or at least, freshly borrowed from Brussels) Olympic Streetcar. The Streetcar runs between Granville Island and the Olympic Station of the still newish CanadaLine - a short, quick and child-friendly trip.
On our visit, the streetcar was packed full of locals and tourists enjoying the ride. The streetcar is fully accessible for strollers and wheelchairs - easy on and off onto the door-level platforms.
The 1.8 km distance is covered in just a few minutes, and mid-way through the journey, the two streetcars cross each other along the short route.
The Streetcar's connections between Granville Island and CanadaLine station at the Olympic Village promises some great opportunities to access downtown, south Vancouver and even Richmond during the Games.
The Streetcar will remain free to use throughout February during the Olympic Winter Games.
Judging by its crowded cars full of enthusiastic transit users on this opening weekend, the Olympic Streetcar promises to be a very busy people-mover over the next six weeks.
See video of the Olympic Streetcar - from the driver's seat - here.
[TTM comment: My one pet peeve is the two crossing guards at intersections with the rail line. I'm all for safety, but if Europeans have lived and worked for decades with ground-level rail transit in their cities without such measures, why can't we in Vancouver?]