SkyTrain Burrard Station upgrade downsized to escalator replacements

SkyTrain Burrard Station upgrade downsized to one-for-one replacement of existing escalators

The bank of escalators at SkyTrain Burrard Station between the ticketing concourse and underground mezzanine. (Google Maps)

TransLink is proceeding with a far smaller upgrade project to improve the capacity and reliability of accessing SkyTrain Burrard Station.

All five existing escalators dating back to 1985 when the Expo Line first opened will be replaced.

The public transit authority announced the replacement project today, which will provide the station with new escalators that have smoother operation and braking for passenger safety, LED step lighting for improved visibility, a variable speed option for power saving, and improved maintenance accessibility to minimize downtime.

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The process to remove the existing escalators for their replacement will begin later this month on October 17. Work on replacing all five escalators is expected to reach completion by Spring 2024.

This station will continue to operate normally, but there will be some congestion within the station during the downtime of some escalators for construction.

The existing bank of three main escalators into SkyTrain Burrard Station from the ticketing concourse to the underground mezzanine level. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The bank of escalators at SkyTrain Burrard Station between the ticketing concourse and underground mezzanine. (Google Maps)

This project represents just a small fraction of the entire previously cancelled project to significantly expand Burrard Station’s capacity.

Burrard Station was set to temporarily fully close for two years starting in early 2022 to allow for a complete overhaul of the station layout with a rebuilt and repositioned entrance on Burrard Street closer to the Dunsmuir Street side, with two new escalators between the street and ticketing concourse levels, two new elevators, a new bank of three escalators to reach underground within the space of the existing street entrance near the Melville Street side, and the replacement of the existing three escalators to underground. There would also be a new expanded public plaza and public washrooms.

This previous project design carried a budget of $72 million, but it was cancelled in March 2022 when bids for construction contractors came back higher than the funding available for it.

The cancelled project itself was also a replacement of a previous concept of providing Burrard Station with a second street entrance from the southeast corner of the intersection of Burrard Street and Dunsmuir Street — an elevator-only entrance with a bank of six elevators. But TransLink also dismissed this elevator-only entrance for cost reasons, and an alternative option of two escalators at the time due to space constraints was deemed to have insufficient long-term capacity.

TransLink told Daily Hive Urbanized the escalator replacement project will cost $14 million, which is a small fraction of the cost of the previously cancelled project. For comparison, the recent replacement of Granville Station’s original escalators, including the three long escalators that are the longest in Metro Vancouver, cost $14.5 million.

Artistic rendering of the cancelled expansion and renovation of SkyTrain Burrard Station. (TransLink)

Cancelled concept of the new secondary entrance into Burrard Station with a bank of six elevators. (VIA Architecture/TransLink)

Cancelled concept for the new secondary entrance into Burrard Station with two escalators. (TransLink, retrieved by Freedom of Information)

The station upgrade concept maintains the existing capacity of three escalators between the ticketing concourse and underground mezzanine levels. This is the station’s main accessibility and capacity issue, especially when the aging escalators require maintenance, which can create significant congestion.

TransLink’s new project approach of a comparatively highly modest one-for-one replacement of the existing escalators to mainly improve reliability instead of also substantially increasing capacity also potentially provides a hint over their updated long-term ridership growth forecasts for Burrard Station. Much of the ridership of this station is generated by office workers in downtown Vancouver’s Central Business District, with office workers yet to return to their traditional office workplace, as many companies have pivoted to a hybrid workplace model.

In 2019, Burrard Station saw 25,000 average boardings per weekday, 13,000 average boardings per Saturday, and 10,500 average boardings per Sunday and holiday. Ridership recovered to 12,000 average boardings per weekday by Fall 2021, and it is likely this figure has since increased with growing office worker and tourist numbers, but not to the same pre-pandemic extent yet.

But as of 2021, Burrard Station is still the fourth busiest SkyTrain station on the network.

“Since TransLink paused the previously planned upgrades, due to higher than anticipated construction bid prices during the procurement process, we’ve reassessed what needs to be done in the near-term to continue effectively serving our customers,” TransLink spokesperson Thor Diakow told Daily Hive Urbanized in an email.

“TransLink has chosen to upgrade the five escalators at Burrard Station to improve our overall customer experience, as these escalators have been in service for over 35 years and Expo Line usage has significantly increased since then.”

TransLink previously projected Burrard Station would need major capacity requirements by the 2040s, when the Expo Line’s ultimate capacity will grow to 25,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) to meet growing demand — up from the existing capacity of about 15,000 pphpd.

Burrard Station’s ridership will continue to grow from the construction of major office buildings in very close proximity to the station, including the 562,000 sq ft B6 office tower largely leased to Microsoft, the 540,000 sq ft The Stack office tower, a 462,000 sq ft office tower addition to the Bentall Centre complex, and the 344,000 sq ft Reliance Properties/Hines office tower. This represents a total of about two million sq ft of new additional office space over the coming years — enough workspace for up to about 10,000 workers. Major renovations are also being conducted on Bentall Centre to expand its retail and restaurant uses.

Although TransLink has considerably downsized the Burrard Station upgrades closer to the status quo, it is still making major investments in improving the capacity and accessibility of other stations, including the ongoing projects of a $33 million upgrade for Brentwood Town Centre Station. TransLink is also in the process of planning major upgrades for Columbia Station, Stadium-Chinatown Station, and Edmonds Station.

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