Opinion: We need to rethink, reimagine, and rebuild SkyTrain Canada Line

YVR Airport Station on SkyTrain Canada Line, July 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Nathan Jang, who is a resident of Vancouver.

This past month, TransLink released the first footage of the brand-new, 80-metre-long Mark V SkyTrain cars being tested in Kingston, Ontario, as part of the Expo and Millennium Line Upgrade Program. This will allow for expanded capacity on both lines, preparing for projected demand on the current system and future expansions such as the Millennium Line Broadway Extension and Expo Line Surrey-Langley Extension.

However, the Canada Line system, which uses smaller 40-metre-long trains due to cost-cutting measures during the design and planning process, is not undergoing any capacity upgrades and there is no plan to expand capacity currently.

Despite the obvious long-term capacity limitations, the Canada Line punches well above its weight, especially with the use of smaller trains, and having similar ridership amounts compared to each of the other SkyTrain lines.

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This past June, the Canada Line had 3.53 million boardings, while the combined system of the Expo and Millennium lines had a combined 8.63 million boardings. With ridership and overcrowding increasing on the Canada Line, we do not want the first experiences of tourists in Vancouver being stuffed into a hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable SkyTrain car.

We also do not want people returning to their automobiles, increasing congestion, and dispersing fossil fuels.

The 100,000-plus daily riders of the Canada Line deserve a long-term permanent fix for a problem created since the beginning of this particular line’s existence that will have enough capacity for decades to come.

Some station platforms are already at the Canada Line’s current design maximum length of 50 metres, while the platforms with a shorter length of 40 metres are expandable to 50 metres in the future. But 50-metre-long platforms are not enough if Vancouver wants to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. We need to rethink, reimagine, and rebuild the Canada Line now.

Option 1: Rethink and reimagine with an additional Victoria Line

This option would consist of studying a potential additional parallel SkyTrain line along a major north-south arterial such as Victoria Drive, Granville Street, or Arbutus Street as an alternative to the Canada Line.

Of these three route options, the Victoria Drive corridor offers the most potential.

This would add more capacity as a whole, while also benefiting the growing and densifying neighbourhoods in East Vancouver and downtown Vancouver.

This line, which we’ll call the “Victoria Line” for all intents and purposes, would replace the eighth busiest bus route in Metro Vancouver, the No. 20 Victoria/Downtown, which had 4.18 million annual boardings in 2022, according to TransLink.

skytrain victoria line concept nathan jang

Theoretical concept of the SkyTrain Victoria Line. (Nathan Jang)

The Victoria Line would use mainline SkyTrain technology of the Expo and Millennium lines with platforms long enough for the Mark V trains.

The Victoria Line would run from the YVR Airport Station, replacing the Canada Line branch to further increase frequencies on both lines. There would be retrofits to the existing track to allow for mainline SkyTrain technology.

From Sea Island, it would then interchange with the Canada Line at the existing Bridgeport and Marine Drive stations before running eastward along Marine Drive underground. Next, it will turn north onto Victoria Drive, heading towards the Commercial-Broadway Station interchange hub.

North of Commercial-Broadway Station, it would run along Commercial Drive, before transitioning onto Hastings Street to terminate at Waterfront Station.

And then from Waterfront Station, the Victoria Line could be extended further, crossing the Burrard Inlet into North Vancouver, serving more communities.

With all that said, the Victoria Line would be one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in BC’s history — most likely costing around $10 billion today for its approximate 20-km-long route, based on a very rough estimate of using the Broadway Extension’s average cost of about $500 million per km.

The cost could be lower, considering the retrofits along Sea Island as well. If it is further extended to the North Shore, it could cost $5 billion to $10 billion more.

Based on the planning process for the region’s SkyTrain projects to date, the Victoria Line would be a huge, long-term investment and would require intensive planning work. It would take decades before the Victoria Line is up and running if it ever gets built and funded. However, with the new Victoria Drive RapidBus being created in the next 10 years, there is still the possibility for it to be upgraded into a SkyTrain line in the future.

Option 2: Rebuild the Canada Line

However, a relatively lower-cost and faster strategy to increase capacity on the Canada Line would be expanding platform lengths to 80 metres — beyond 50 metres. This will allow for the Canada Line’s two-car trains to be coupled and the acquisition of new four-car articulated trains.

All of the stations will need to be expanded, and many segments of the track will need to be rebuilt along the whole length of the Canada Line.

With the construction downtime, this will also be an opportunity to construct two infill stations on the Canada Line — the 33rd Avenue Station on the west side of Queen Elizabeth Park and the 57th Avenue Station, and perhaps even the second station serving Vancouver International Airport’s future eastward terminal building expansion.

In this scenario, the single tracking for the approaches towards YVR Airport Station and Richmond-Brighouse Station will be eliminated with the addition of a second platform and track to each station to increase maximum frequencies and improve capacity, redundancy, and reliability.

Optimally, three major segments should also be rebuilt.

skytrain canada line rebuilding concept nathan jang

The theoretical concept of rebuilding the existing SkyTrain Canada Line. (Nathan Jang)

Firstly, the Bridgeport Station flyover is too sharp and has steep grades. Secondly, the Queen Elizabeth Park segment has sharp curves going around the park, and there may not be enough space for the 80-metre length of the 33rd Avenue station.

Finally, the entire downtown Vancouver segment of the Canada Line will need to be rebuilt to allow trains to go deeper, replacing the existing Vancouver City Centre station with a new interchange station seamlessly linking with the Expo Line’s Granville Station, and an improved and deeper interchange station at Waterfront Station.

From Waterfront Station, with its rebuilt deeper depth, the Canada Line will continue north underneath Burrard Inlet, taking the line to Lonsdale Quay and eventually Lynn Valley Centre. This would provide a North Shore rapid transit connection, something desperately needed as alternatives to the only crossings of the Lions Gate Bridge, the SeaBus ferry, and the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

Compared to the Victoria Line concept, this option is likely the lower-cost option of the two and will provide an enhanced service for visitors and citizens. This project would most likely cost several billion dollars, depending on how much track needs to be rebuilt.

When the Canada Line was first being designed and planned, many believed that this line would fail to meet projected ridership levels, and now we are living with the consequences of poorly made decisions of the past. The capacity on the Canada Line desperately needs to be improved, especially after TransLink’s current work to improve the Expo and Millennium lines.

Clearly, TransLink realizes this problem, as noted in its Transport 2050 strategy, but planning for such a retrofit should begin sooner than later, so that construction can begin in the early 2040s — as soon as SNC Lavalin’s ProTrans BC division’s private operating contract for the Canada Line ends, at which point operational and maintenance responsibilities will presumably be transferred to TransLink.

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