1970:

“Subway Net To Serve City?” asks a headline in The Vancouver Province, as a GVRD and provincial government study lays the groundwork for what will eventually become metro Vancouver’s Skytrain System.

“A multi-million dollar subway in downtown Vancouver is being considered as one of the principal stages of a metropolitan rapid-transit network,” the paper explains. “The underground system would be the nucleus for surburban transportation development over the next two decades.”

The study, recommending a 20-year “master-plan”, calls for electric rail as the most efficient type of transit, with a “netowrk of lines radiating from the city centre.”

“Many types of transportation are possible,” the article notes. “Two of the most noteworthy are the Tokyo monorail and a proposed French hovertrain that will speed passengers from paris to Orleans on an inverted “T” rail at 188 miles per hour.”

“While more conventional trains are expected to be recommended in Vancouver,” the piece concludes, “the possibility of other systems has not been ruled out.”

 

IMAGE: Construction of the Skytrain line near Science World, circa 1983. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives. Image Copyright City of Vancouver.