Single tracking at SkyTrain's Metrotown and Patterson stations during evenings

Transit passengers should expect some delays over much of the latter half of the month while traveling through a section of SkyTrain’s Expo Line during the evening hours.

TransLink says construction work on the $55.5-million Metrotown Station rebuild project will necessitate single tracking through both Metrotown and Patterson stations, with delays of between 12 to 15 minutes. The work occur from 9 p.m. until the end of service on Sundays through Thursdays, beginning on January 17 and ending on January 28.

Millennium Line service will also be affected by this work: Trains for this line will only operate from VCC-Clark to Columbia stations during the same period of time.

With 50,000 train passengers and 25,000 bus passengers, the Metrotown Station exchange is one of the region’s busiest transit hubs. Improvements to the station revolve mainly around increasing its circulation capacity, including a platform extension, reconstruction and expansion of the existing main entrance on the east side of the station, new entrances on the west end of the station, new elevators, and a new pedestrian overpass above Central Boulevard to Metropolis at Metrotown and Station Square shopping centres.

There will also be aesthetic and safety upgrades, such as a new roof for the platform level, improved lighting, and a bike parking facility.

A preliminary proposal to relocate the bus exchange under the station on Central Boulevard was canceled due to opposition from the City of Burnaby. The bus exchange will remain at its current location on the south side of the road, at the shopping centre.