The Old Line

Vancouver has taken a lot of routes off its maps: streetcar rails, rail spurs, stops that used to matter. On wet nights they come back. Look into a puddle on a street with no tracks and you may see rails shining in the reflection.

This is the Old Line. It does not run on a timetable and it does not care what the current map says. Old alignments, old rights-of-way, old versions of a corner, all still there under the asphalt, all still in use. A car on the Old Line stops where a place used to matter, not where a passenger expects.

The Freight shares its rails but does the opposite job: the Freight removes what cannot stay, and the Old Line keeps what must not be forgotten. You may follow an old route. You may not assume it goes where the current map says.