Half a million riders; but the Olympic streetcar won't be staying

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - As of Saturday 500,000 riders have taken a trip on Vancouver's Olympic streetcar, but the city has no immediate plan to keep the trains running after the Paralympics wrap up.

While the number of passengers certainly says something about the Olympic Line's popularity, the City of Vancouver's Dale Bracewell says the agreement with Bombardier is to only keep the trains running for the two month trial. "The track that we have is here permanently, we will have our downtown historical vehicles using the track again this summer. But it's all ready to go for when an ultimate downtown streetcar project is realized."

There's no word when that project will come to fruition, but Bracewell says it's in the city's long term vision.

The streetcars will continue to run free of charge until March 21st, and will then return to Belgium.