CP Empress 2816 Steam Train Vancouver to Mission BC trip

On Saturday October 4, the CP Empress 2816 Steam Locomotive will be making a special 4 hour trip from Vancouver to Mission to help raise money to send some special kids to camp. Tickets cost $25 and include lunch. To order tickets, contact 604-873-1865.

Check in at Pacific Central Station at 10:00 am, Train departs 11:00, Returns at 3:00 pm.

Presented by VIA Rail and Canadian Pacific. Proceeds to Easter Seals...


2816 Steam Train in action: Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge BC

Westjet seat sale: Half price flights today only. To and from Vancouver BC

50% off Westjet flights. Today only.

- Book by today, March 13, 2008 (23:59:59 MT) for travel from April 1 until June 25, 2008. Advertised fares are for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and may be slightly higher on other days of the week.

For example, One-way flights starting from:

- Vancouver to Las Vegas $104
- Vancouver to Maui $199
- Vancouver to Honolulu $184

Westjet Seat Sale
Special fares departing from Abbotsford Calgary Charlottetown Comox Edmonton Fort McMurray Grande Prairie Halifax Hamilton Kelowna Kitchener / Waterloo Kona, Hawaii Las Vegas Los Angeles (LAX) London Moncton Montreal Orlando Ottawa Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Prince George Quebec City Regina Saskatoon Saint John
St. Johns Thunder Bay Toronto Vancouver Victoria Winnipeg
Book online now at Westjet.com

Today's View of the North Shore Mountains, North Vancouver BC

North Shore Mountains as seen from Burnaby BC January
Click for larger photo...

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Cross Border Shopping, Vancouver - Seattle

With the Canadian dollar now worth $1.04 US, Vancouver area residents can save a bundle on designer clothing, shoes, housewares and more by making a short trip across the border to the Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip Washington (just north of Everett).

Located next door to the Tulalip Casino, Seattle Premium Outlets has 100 outlet stores including Adidas, Aeropostale, Banana Republic, BCBG, Calvin Klein, Eddie Bauer, Fossil, GAP, Guess, Lucky Brand, NIKE, PacSun, Ralph Lauren, Restoration Hardware and Tommy Hilfiger.

Canadian residents who have been out of Canada for 24-47 hours can claim $50 in purchases at Canada Customs without duty or taxes; more than 48 hours but less than 7 days, $400 ; and 7 days or more, $750 . If the value of the declaration exceeds the personal exemption, you must pay duty on the remaining value.

If you're looking for a hotel in the area, check out the deals in Everett, Lynnwood or Seattle or use Priceline.com to bid on a hotel room in the general area. You can also find some great hotel deals in the area using the new Entertainment 2008 Vancouver or Seattle Coupon Book.

If you prefer to avoid border lineups, online retailers that ship to Canada include JCPenney, Lands End, Altrec and Bare Necessities. You can access their websites from here or here.

Deer Lake Burnaby BC Bike Trails

Nice day for a bike ride on the folding bikes. Great bike trails and boardwalks around Deer Lake in Burnaby. Click on the map for a larger image:

Map of Burnaby, BC. Click and drag to move around:

Skytrain Adventure Mar. 15 2007 - Canon Powershot photos

Had an unusual Skytrain ride today. Heading toward Surrey from New Westminster (Columbia Station) the train crossed the switching mechanism just outside the station and came to a grinding halt. Another train coming from Surrey into Columbia Station was also halted further up the tracks toward the Skybridge.
(Photo shows the Skybridge from Scott Road Station. Click pics for larger image. )

After about 20 minutes of no movement, a Skytrain attendant forced the doors apart and boarded the train, hoping to manually drive the train across the bridge when he got an all-clear signal from Skytrain Control. I figured this could be interesting, so I got out my Canon Powershot camera, just in case.

After another 30 minutes of waiting, we saw some passengers on the other train force the doors open and step onto the tracks, crossing over to climb a barbed-wire fence and disappear, possibly into the Skytrain tunnel to Sapperton. Eventually another Skytrain attendant went into the tunnel to look for these guys, but of course the power had to be shut off while the tracks were checked.

People on our train were starting to have serious bladder issues after an hour and it was getting hard to breathe, so we opened all the windows. Finally the Skytrain attendants got permission to open the doors on both trains and walk us back along the narrow center guideway, across the tracks and back on to the main platform. Among the passengers were some elderly or disabled; mothers with strollers, and young children.

The attendants mentioned that buses would be coming along to take passengers over Patullo Bridge to Surrey, but nobody knew where to wait for them, and in fact it took almost another hour for the first buses to show up, since there's no regular scheduled bus service over the bridge.

Finally we got a family member to come and pick us up in New Westminster. Others were stranded much longer. Skytrain service was out for 3 hours and the buses were few and far between.

Now don't get me wrong - I think Skytrain is great and it works well about 96% of the time. I know that mechanical problems happen from time to time, and the Skytrain attendants do a great job of doing what they can to keep things safe and orderly.

The problem is that there's no reliable backup system to get passengers to Surrey if there are problems with the trains in New Westminster. There are no scheduled buses to Surrey from Columbia or New West stations, and it's extremely difficult to bring them in on short notice.

Translink shouldn't rely on Skytrain as the only means of getting passengers across the Fraser River. During rush hour, the trains are above capacity from Columbia to Scott Road. I say bring back a regular scheduled frequent bus service from New West to Scott Road Station, to complement the Skytrain service and provide an alternative when these incidents occur!

But that's just my opinion...

More photos (click pics for larger image):

Passengers walk along centre guideway in Columbia Station tunnel and cross tracks back on to main platform