Michael Taylor-Noonan, editor of the Transit Museum Society newsletter, passed along this interesting tidbit from a route map published in April 1974. It describes a set of complicated rules around transferring buses!

It seems the ticket system in the 1970s allowed you to travel in one-direction only, which made for specific rules about how one could transfer without violating the one-way policy. Michael wasn’t aware of the exact details about how the system worked, but provided this basic description:

Some major cities allowed transfers only when the routes intersected, but because of the layout of Vancouver’s downtown with buses operating on parallel streets, the restrictions allowed transfers to nearby buses. Of course you couldn’t start to walk if you missed the bus, because the transfer would no longer be valid when the next bus came along.

So, over to you: can anyone shed a bit more light on the transfer system of the 1970s and how it worked, exactly? A few kind folks have provided a nice explanation of the 1990s transfer system in the past—is it similar?