Free rides on PNE roller-coaster's 50th birthday

Vancouver's famous wooden roller-coaster turns 50 on Tuesday, so the operators offered free rides from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. PT.

The wooden roller-coaster opened on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition in 1958 with a maximum drop height of 20 metres and a top speed of up to 75 km/h.

"Every year we ride half a million people on it," Playland spokeswoman Laura Ballance told CBC Radio Tuesday morning. "It's our most popular ride. We've ridden over 25 million people."

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was scheduled to make a special presentation to PNE president and CEO Michael McDaniel, designating the Playland wooden roller-coaster as a site of special significance to the city after the last ride at 10 a.m. PT.

The roller-coaster is operated by Playland, which runs Canada's oldest amusement park on the grounds of the PNE in East Vancouver on East Hastings near Highway 1.