Construction begins on escalators for all downtown Canada Line stations

Construction begins on new escalators for all downtown Canada Line stations

Escalator construction on the platform level of the Canada Line's Yaletown-Roundhouse Station. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

All three of the Canada Line stations in downtown Vancouver are set to receive big circulation capacity increases.

Construction started earlier this week on a new escalator at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station between the platform level and concourse level. It is being built within a platform waiting area, just right next to the staircase to the platform.

Only Waterfront Station’s additional escalator will have a minimal impact on the footprint of the station, as it will use a partially pre-built void space between the CPR building’s grand hall and the Canada Line station’s north concourse level — right next to the staircase, with an ATM located at the landing area.

Additional escalators will help the Canada Line stations move passengers in and out of the platform areas more efficiently and quickly. These upgrades are necessary as they come just ahead of the 2020 arrival of 12 new two-car trains that will increase the Canada Line’s passenger capacity by 30%.

There will be another surge in ridership on the Canada Line in 2025, when Broadway-City Hall Station becomes a transfer point to the Millennium Line from the completion of the Broadway Extension to Arbutus Street.

While most Canada Line stations were built with only up escalators, TransLink has since stated that all of its future station designs for new SkyTrain line projects will have both up and down escalators to all levels to meet its new high standard of accessibility. This new standard began with the Evergreen Extension’s stations.