Downtown Streetcar Project

The Downtown Streetcar is an initiative lead by the City of Vancouver to introduce modern streetcar technology into the City’s existing transportation network. As a sustainable, accessible and reliable mode of transportation, modern streetcars will provide an attractive and exciting transit experience, linking activity centres in Vancouver's metropolitan core and integrating with other transit modes - SeaBus, SkyTrain, West Coast Express, and bus services - to further enhance the region's seamless transit network. The Downtown Streetcar will also support the dramatic change in land use that is underway in Southeast False Creek, Downtown Eastside, Coal Harbour, False Creek North and the False Creek Flats. These neighbourhoods are developing with significantly higher densities that will require additional convenient public transit to create livable and sustainable communities.

The Downtown Streetcar will feature a modern version of electric streetcars, a unique mode of transit that has been successfully established in other cities such as Portland, Oregon, Nottingham, UK, and Melbourne, Australia. Modern streetcars provide a quiet, safe, and comfortable mode of transit with more interior space and larger open windows than buses. As visibly fixed infrastructure they also act as a catalyst for further neighbourhood development and investment. The Downtown Streetcar will also be accessible by wheelchair and bike.