How do I get tickets to Steveston Tram?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at http://www.stevestontram.ca.

Photo by EHuang55, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Steveston Tram

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Upcoming Events

No ticketed events are currently listed for Steveston Tram. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.

Check the operator’s website for current hours and special runs, or subscribe to event alerts and we’ll email you when something is scheduled.

About Steveston Tram

Step into the story of British Columbia's electric railway era at the Steveston Tram Museum, home to one of just seven surviving BCER interurban streetcars. The centerpiece, car 1220, was built in 1912 and worked the system for forty-five years before retiring in 1958. The museum stands on original BCER tracks across from the old station site, and every July first the restored tram rolls outside for Canada Day.

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History

The Steveston tram story begins in the 1890s, when the Canadian Pacific Railway sought to create a company to serve Lulu Island; a light-rail line from Vancouver to Steveston followed in 1902. The route proved unprofitable for the CPR — Steveston's canneries found it cheaper to ship directly by ocean — so in 1905 the line was leased to the British Columbia Electric Railway, which built a substation at Marpole to electrify it. Passenger service began on July 4, 1905 and lasted until February 28, 1958. The Steveston Tram Museum opened on May 3, 2013, built around original BCER tracks and standing across the street from the site of the now-vanished Steveston station. Its interurban car underwent a three-year, $400,000 restoration funded by the City of Richmond and went on display in 2018.

The Trains

The museum houses BCER interurban car 1220, built in 1912 by the St. Louis Car Company and purchased by the British Columbia Electric Railway in 1913. The streetcar ran throughout the BCER system for 45 years before its 1958 retirement, with service on the Marpole-to-Steveston line. Of the 28 1200-class trams the St. Louis Car Company built for the BCER, only seven remain in various states of repair — among them sister cars 1225, operating at the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway in Surrey, and 1223, displayed at the Burnaby Village Museum. Car 1220 is brought outside the museum each July 1 as part of Steveston's Canada Day celebrations.