The Vancouver Olympic Line Streetcar opened today, January 21st, 2010.

Mayor Gregor Robertson helped unveil Vancouver’s latest addition to the Olympic downtown transit system today, the Vancouver Olympic Line Streetcar. In partnership with Bombardier and the Brussels Transport Company STIB, the Olympic Line Streetcar will run between Granville Island and 2nd Avenue and Cambie Street. The state-of-the-art transport is free to ride between January 21st and March 21st, 2010, though whether this will spur additional streetcar usage in Vancouver is unclear.

Mayor Gregor Robertson (right), Kris Lauwers, Deputy Gen. Manager of the Brussels STIB (far left)

Mayor Robertson next to one of the Bombardier Flexity streetcars on loan from Brussels.

During the introduction of the streetcar to the media and gathered crowd of a few hundred people, Raymond Bachant, president of Bombardier Transportation North America, said, “Bombardier is proud of its partnership with the City of Vancouver whose vision of sustainable development is a model for cities in North America. We are confident that these award-winning vehicles will demonstrate the potential role that streetcars could play in the future of transportation in Metro Vancouver.”

Mayor Robertson is interviewed by reporters after the Olympic Line opening.

When asked in an interview with CBC whether or not Vancouver has plans to continue streetcar use after the Olympics, Mayor Robertson admitted, “it is a lot cheaper than Skytrain technology.”

The first passenger boards the Olympic Line streetcar.

The maiden voyage of the Vancouver Olympic Line.

Wow, was it cold. And rainy. And wet… it didn’t matter whether you went in the water or not, everyone was the same amount of soaked at the end — swimmers and spectators alike.

This was my first Polar Bear Swim and won’t be my last. I did go in! Beforehand, I asked some of the swimmers to pose for portraits:

And now for the waterborne portion of the Polar Bear Swim…