Recently, I learnt that train pairs 133-134 and 143-144 were sent to the scrap yard during the autumn of 2023–the first pair were retired in 2020. These trains mark the beginning of the retirement of the original Mark I SkyTrain vehicles to be replaced by the Mark V, which are presently being delivered through into 2027.

The interesting part of the retirement of these trains is that they were not part of the original 1985 sets. Trains 133-134 were delivered as part of the 1991 order and 143-144 as part of the 1996 set.

I read that the reason 133-134 were retired was due to them being in a state of irreparability, meaning that it wasn’t economical to continue the operation of these trains. Neither of these sets received a new splash of paint or upgrades as part of the fleet overhaul from a few years ago.

If you’re wondering, some of these trains did have names. 133-134 had the names “Spirit of Peace River” and “Spirt of Zeballos” respectively. The other set did not as none in that order never received any. At some point I should write about the topic of names behind some of the SkyTrain vehicles..

However, while we are retiring these trains in favour of new ones, I want to touch on a subject about when we did retire trains to the scrapyard with nothing in kind or better to take their place.

As I have written about before, the BC Electric Company retired its interurban and tram lines during the 1950s. This was part of its rail to rubber initiative to replace all rail service operated by the BCER with either diesel or electric trolley buses.

So what became of the retired trains?

Unfortunately many of the trains were scrapped in the most environmentally-sound way possible for the 1950s; stack them atop of each other under the Burrard Street Bridge and set them ablaze. Some did not suffer this fate but were repurposed into housing and storage. The tiny home craze started in the 1950s, not the 2010s.

Of the trams and interurbans which were scrapped, only so many were saved.

Three of the trams survived with one of them going to a museum in North Vancouver, another to a tramway society in Nelson (located in the British Columbian interior), and a third one is in Gastown at a factory that serves spaghetti.

The interurbans themselves were a bit more lucky as seven survived. Most of them were scattered about in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, with one of them sent to a museum in Ottawa. The odd time they still roam the original Fraser Valley Line albeit with a diesel generator behind them.

In addition to the trains being scrapped, a handful of stations survived. Both the New Westminster and Downtown Vancouver barns were spared but are no longer in use as anything resembling rail infrastructure, but the station in Chilliwack did not share that fate. Some of the intermediate stations were spared and were given to museums, but most were scrapped or left abandoned.

Vorce Station is probably the most pristine example of an intermediate station, which was rescued from the Burnaby Lake Line and is now on display at the Burnaby Village Museum.

Coming back to the present and the remaining Mark I trains, it’s hard to know what is being planned for these trains especially in light of two sets having been unceremoniously scrapped. Some really interesting ideas have been thrown about on what to do with them and one in particular I like is the idea of repurposing them into mini cafes.

If you think my idea of a coffee shop called the “Expresso Line” in honour of the Expo Line is interesting, let me know if you want to halvesies on this golden opportunity.

As you might have noticed, I haven’t streamed on Twitch much in the past two months. There have been good reasons for that and it stems from the fact that I have been getting out more often as of late.

I started to stream regularly in late 2019 at the suggestion of a friend and found myself to having good time. Back then, I was recovering from an operation and needed something to do to occupy myself. However, just as I was coming around the corner on healing, the pandemic hit and my options to do things like play sports again evaporated.

Prior to all of this, I was regularly rollerskating and was priming myself to play roller derby in some fashion. However, an injury during a skirmish led to a limited ability to participate in physical activity again and when combined with an unrelated operation and a pandemic, my desire to play sports was greatly diminished.

So from 2020 onward, I would finish work and then prepare to stream whatever content I felt like streaming. This resulted in me speedrunning, playing RPGs, trying to get through the entire Game Gear library, and of course completing the entirety of Ace Attorney.

However, in late 2022 during Flame Fatales, I realised that streaming and the culture around it really was taking its toll on me. I made a decision to step back over time from helping out with all marathons and after I completed Ace Attorney, I began to struggle with what to do over streaming on Twitch in general.

I love playing RPGs. They’re my favourite genre and it should come as no surprise to many as my favourite game is Chrono Trigger. However, I have always been happier playing them on my own and not to an audience. This has become a source of conflict for me as it is the only content I feel I can stream on Twitch right now.

Last year, I returned to playing sports by joining the local queer softball league. It is a sport I really enjoy and have played previously. My team is really spectacular and I like to be around everyone in a social setting too. It’s not often that a bunch of folks who had never met before come together to form a team that not only gets on well, but kicks ass at the same time.

My playing softball has proven to be a huge conflict time-wise with streaming. I honestly prefer not being at a desk all the time and even in winter I am avoiding streaming by hiking, birding, or taking up dancing, which is another thing I used to do regularly until my divorce.

So what does this mean for me and Twitch in the long-term? It does mean no more regular streams. It doesn’t mean I am going away entirely.

For example, if and when a new Ace Attorney game comes out, I will stream it aggressively. I feel like I should and I definitely want to. However, I do not want to maintain a schedule and I do not want to make a big production of my stream like I once did.

But what I won’t do is just stream for the sake of streaming. It isn’t healthy for me, isn’t compatible with my life, and it gets in the way of spending time with friends and family.

So this is not a goodbye, but it is time for me to nap.

Happy New Year!

If you live in Metro Vancouver and regularly listen to the radio like I do, you’ll often hear about this section of highway called the “Burnaby Lake Stretch” during traffic reports. This is a three kilometre section of the Trans Canada Highway and provides a vital east-west link within the region.

It also used to be a railway.

In 1964, the stretch was built over was previously the BC Electric Railway’s Burnaby Lake Line, which closed 11 years earlier. In fact, much of the line is followed by the current-day freeway from Cariboo Rd. in the east to Douglas in the west. However, you can still to this day follow the route via a parallel path in Burnaby Lake Regional Park.

Unlike the Central Park Line, the Burnaby Lake Line did not have any evidence of its existence survive at all due to the construction of a freeway to replace it.

However, fortunately you can find one of the stations although it has moved a kilometre and a half from its original location.

Vorce Station, which was once placed where the freeway passes the residential Nursery Street, was brought to the Burnaby Village Museum in 1977 and subsequently restored in 2008. It’s to my knowledge the only station structure outside of the New Westminster and Carrall Street termini of the BCER to survive to this day.

Additionally, the same museum has a BCER interurban you can walk into, but that is a post for another time.

I refuse to link to this paper, but here is an excerpt:

The UK has been left out of major trans-European transport projects that the EU is expected to approve. The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) regulatory framework agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council was approved earlier this week by the European Commission.

The new plan sets mandatory goals, such as having all trains in the network reach 160 km/h or faster by 2040 and putting in place a single European signalling system.

[…]

Adina Vălean, the European Commissioner for Transport, said: “This is a landmark agreement for the EU.

“Europe needs a transport network that addresses the mobility concerns of our citizens and businesses, both sustainable and resilient, and that builds a bridge with our neighbours, in particular Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.

I wonder why the UK was left out. It’s a mystery I guess. Those fuckers in the European Commission and European Parliament have it out for the United Kingdom!

In the past few months, I have had a few people ask me about the wayfinding or the design and typefaces of the signage used on the SkyTrain system. I’ve wanted to talk about this for sometime and since I am on Christmas holiday, I felt like it was time to write about a part of its design language.

The question in particular was this: what font does TransLink use? Well, fortunately TransLink told us in 2010 that it is FF Meta. It forms the basis of nearly all fonts or typefaces used in the TransLink system and even the ‘T’ logo is from it.

Starting around 2010, the transit agency began to standardise its signage across the system although except (sort of) for the Canada Line, but I’ll explain this in a bit. Before, the system was distinguishable from its BC Transit predecessor but it still had a lot of features lingering over and one of them was having so many different typefaces. This was part of TransLink’s 2040 plan and in 2011, they released a guide on the subject of wayfinding.

Prior to 2010, you’d see a mix of Helvetica and Times Roman. In fact, FF Meta’s mere existence is as its author, Erik Spiekermann puts it: “[the] complete antithesis of Helvetica”. I guess TransLink hated Helvetica because I rarely see it outside of advertisements or the odd thing some employee prints out that doesn’t conform to the style guide.

The use of FF Meta elsewhere isn’t unheard of. The Stockholm Metro and Caltrans both use it as part of their system. A very similar font, FF Transit is in use by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

One interesting thing I learnt while researching all of this is that the provincial government has its own typeface: BC Sans. It was introduced in 2018 as an initiative to standardize content viewed on websites and to provide support for indigenous languages.

The use of FF Meta or BC Sans is not unheard of. In the late 1960s, the Canadian federal government came to the realization that having consistency across government agencies and departments was important, so in 1970 the Federal Identity Program was created.

TransLink for a long time really had a lot of inconsistency with graphic design across its services. You’d look at the West Coast Express and see that it was very different from the three SkyTrain lines and then you’d also see the buses not matching either. So the choice of a common typeface, design language, and livery across the whole TransLink network made sense.

Even to this day there are some holdouts or the odd thing just sitting out in the open (there are still signs from the 2010 Winter Olympics languishing about at a few stations), but in the 13 years since TransLink has adopted the current typeface standard and design language, it has nearly replaced anything from its BC Transit past.

As for the Canada Line, it has to do with it not being completely under the control of TransLink. That said, some of the design language has crept into it and I am curious to see the new Capstan Way station once it opens to see what happens. If there is interest in why everything is weird with this line, let me know.

I do plan to talk about design language and transit in the future too, but for now enjoy using FF Meta.