Are modern streetcars the future?

Vancouver's interurban train system -- the first in Canada -- started in 1910, and went from the downtown core into south Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey and Langley.

With too many cars on the road and gas prices creeping higher, the streetcar system of years past may be the answer for Vancouver's transportation future.

A UBC professor of landscape architecture thinks the time is now or never for Metro Vancouver to implement a low-cost, environmentally friendly and modern streetcar system.

"The problem for TransLink is they already have a 50-year commitment to the system of buses on the one hand and SkyTrain on the other, so I sympathize. It's very difficult for them to insert a whole new technology, but I think if we don't do it during this decade, we will never do it and we'll miss an opportunity," Patrick Condon told CTV News.

In the midst of a proposed two-cent gas tax increase to fund the high-priced Evergreen Line, Condon believes the streetcar system would be a better value as well.

"SkyTrain along the corridor here is $200 million per kilometre," he said, "whereas the modern tram could be put in for $20 million per kilometre."

At one time the streets of Vancouver were interlaced with streetcar lines, and even the outlying communities all the way out to Chilliwack were connected by passenger rail.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts wants streetcars to connect her community to decrease traffic congestion, and says more buses alone won't do it.

"If all you're going to do is add buses and continually add buses, which we've had in Surrey…you're congesting the roadways," she said.

But TransLink says rapid transit is more of a priority than community rail these days.

"Everybody wants to go fast; it's just a matter of how much you want to spend," Condon said.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington