History of the Interurban

Henry Ewert

About 40 people came out to hear Henry Ewert’s presentation, “When Interurban Travel Dominated the Fraser Valley.” Henry took us on an hour-long photo journey of the Interurban line. If you want more information on the Interurban, I would suggest that you check out our website. Interesting to note was that the line was the longest of its kind in Canada. Also, the Interurban cars had washrooms and water coolers. Talk about luxury! In 1950, the Interurban system was ripped up and cars burned underneath the Burrard Bridge on the promise that local municipal would get $40,000 each for improved roads, and improved transit service with buses. 60 years later, and we are still waiting for improved transit service. In 1910 it took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get from Downtown Vancouver to Langley City. Almost 100 years in 2009, it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to two hours to get into Downtown Vancouver on transit… What’s wrong with this picture? People in the 1950’s were sold a bill of goods that we are still paying for today.

Anyway, you can download the presentation notes for our document archive.