Why is SkyTrain's "Canada" Line branded blue instead of red?

Existing Canada Line branding of blue (left) vs conceptual Canada Line branding of red (right). (Shutterstock/Perkins&Will/Daily Hive)

This is an answer to a question mainly from Metro Vancouver’s public transit enthusiasts.

If you look at a map of TransLink’s public transit network, you will notice the colours of the various major services, most notably the three different colours for the lines that represent each of the three SkyTrain lines.

The Expo Line is drawn on the map with a navy blue colour, the Millennium Line is yellow, and the Canada Line is turquoise or cerulean blue — another shade of blue.

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First and foremost, the rationale for using an adjacent shade to the Expo Line for branding the Canada Line has never made much sense, and can add to confusion for people unfamiliar with the system — or at the very least, it is not the optimal colour for wayfinding purposes.

Secondly, the name of the system — Canada Line. “Canada” Line. Canada. 🇨🇦.

Why did they go with blue for something named “Canada?” A second type of blue after the Expo Line? What’s going on here? Did we run out of completely different colours after three SkyTrain lines?

Just to be absolutely clear: You would think a shade of red would be more appropriate for the “Canada” Line.

TransLink frequent services map in and around downtown Vancouver, with Expo Line (navy blue), Millennium Line (yellow), 99 B-Line (orange), R5 Hastings Street RapidBus (green), and West Coast Express (purple). (TransLink)

Tokyo Metro

But we can’t get to the bottom of this “extremely important issue” without addressing how the region’s third SkyTrain line — a standalone system that is physically separate from the Expo and Millennium lines — got its name.

Archival records of federal government press releases show the “Canada Line” name was announced in November 2005, and it was a condition of the $450 million in federal funding allocated to the project by Prime Minister Paul Martin of the federal Liberals.

However, the visual branding was not determined for another few more years, when the Canada Line was much closer to its opening in 2009.

Daily Hive Urbanized reached out to TransLink inquiring the Canada Line’s blue colours, and they said this was a decision made by SNC-Lavalin — the Quebec engineering giant that designed and built the Canada Line under the P3 public-private partnership arrangement, and is responsible for its operations and maintenance until 2044. We also reached out to SNC-Lavalin, but they did not respond to the inquiry in time for publication.

Canada Line SkyTrain YVR Airport Station

YVR Airport Station on SkyTrain’s Canada Line. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

But what we’ve heard over the years from insiders is the colour of blue is a request from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which took office in 2006. The Conservative party’s colours are, of course, blue.

Governing political parties plastering their party’s partisan colours on publicly-funded projects and publicly-owned assets are not an entirely new concept.

In 2013, Harper’s government repainted the Prime Minister’s official aircraft, a military Airbus plane, with a bright shade of blue being the overwhelmingly dominant colour. At the time, critics slammed the Harper government of replacing the drab grey colours with the eye-popping blue as a move that essentially turned the the military aircraft into a “flying billboard for the Conservatives.” While the plane is occasionally used to transport government officials including the Prime Minister, its primary use is to transport soldiers — but with the new bright blue paint, this particular plane could no longer be used to safely transport soldiers in global hot spots.

Others have also told us that other factors were possibly in play in the colour scheme of the Canada Line, such as a desire to align its colours with the “West Coast” natural colour branding schemes adopted by the organizations of Vancouver International Airport (YVR), the City of Vancouver, and/or the 2010 Olympics under VANOC — all three organizations use various shades of blue as a primary branding colour, and red is certainly nowhere to be found in their branding standards. YVR was also a major financial contributor to the Canada Line, as it provided $300 million to complete the segment between YVR Airport Station and Bridgeport.

The mezzanine level of the Canada Line’s Broadway-City Hall Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Existing street entrance and fare gate area of the Canada Line’s Broadway-City Hall Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Landing area at the bottom of the escalator and staircase of the Canada Line’s northbound direction. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

The Canada Line’s shade of blue is not only on system maps, but also found on in-station wayfinding signage and the exterior paint on the heads of the trains.

Every now and then, the modes of the public transit system undergo a visual rebrand. It was not too long ago all SkyTrain cars (the original Mark I cars on the Expo and Millennium lines), buses, and SeaBus vessels were painted white with distinct blue and red stripes — a change made just in time for Expo ’86. Before that, the buses and SeaBus vessels in the region were painted orange.

When the next opportunity for a refresh of the Canada Line comes along, a change of its visual branding incorporating red as its central colour should be considered — as long as red is still available and not used for another service. This would be a rebrand of everything from reflecting the system with a red line on maps to a complete overhaul of the in-station wayfinding signage. So far, only bandaid improvements have been made to the original wayfinding of the Canada Line, which was poorly designed and placed with little thought or consideration to good practices and consistency.

Other than the turquoise blue for the Canada Line, yellow for the Millennium Line, and navy blue for the ExpoLine, TransLink has reserved green for RapidBus, purple for the West Coast Express, and a shade of brown for SeaBus. Orange is currently dedicated to the region’s remaining lone B-Line service, the 99 B-Line, which is expected to be rebranded as a RapidBus service when its route is truncated in 2026 from the opening of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension to Arbutus.

Over the coming years, TransLink will need to establish different branding colours for two new additional distinct services — the new network of bus rapid transit (BRT) lines will be a significantly enhanced service compared to the existing RapidBus and B-Line, and the gondola between Production Way-University Station and the Burnaby campus of Simon Fraser University (SFU).

If not for the Canada Line, perhaps assigning red to the gondola could end the avoidance of putting red on the map, and re-establish red livery and branding for a new type of service. After all, red is SFU’s school colour.

Or maybe we need two more shades of blue for the transit system.

Map of Metro Vancouver’s key public transit services. (TransLink)

TransLink

99 B-Line using RapidBus-branded vehicles (left) and SkyTrain Canada Line (right). (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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