Picnic in the Park - A Review

Well, as promised here are some pictures from VALTAC’s Picnic in the Park event. It was great to see all the rail groups from Chilliwack to Surrey out today. The Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society showed their video of riding the Interurban in the last day before it was shut down. There is a clip available on facebook. Also, we had the opportunity to watch “City Reflections” which was produced by the Vancouver Historical Society. It follows the downtown Vancouver streetcar routes in 1907. I certainly learned a lot about the early years of Vancouver. At the end of the video, there was a side-by-side comparison of the routes then and now. Anyway, you can buy the video from the Vancouver Historical Society’s website.

There was live music, food, a replica (rubber-tired) trolley tour around Downtown Langley, and lots of talk about getting rail to the Fraser Valley now. The (literally) biggest part of the event was VALTAC’s trailer ad that you can see below. It was truly impressive to see.


Blogger Stephen Rees talked about the need for better transit and shared his thoughts about the Provincial Gateway Program. City of Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender also spoke and shared his thought on the Provincial Gateway Program (which were different from Stephen Rees’.) I also believe that Township of Langley Councillor Jordan Bateman spoke about streetcars, though I didn’t get to hear his talk. Rail for the Valley was also out in force spreading the word about restoring the Interurban.

It was a great event for a rainy Saturday. Now here are some more pictures.