$32 million project to replace all 21 original elevators on SkyTrain's Expo Line
A years-long project is now underway to replace all of the aging elevators built for the stations on SkyTrain’s Expo Line.
TransLink announced today this project to improve station accessibility and reliability will replace 21 original elevators at 15 stations.
Most of these elevators are in stations completed in 1985, when the first phase segment of the Expo Line between Waterfront Station and New Westminster Station opened.
The new elevators will not only be more reliable by reducing the downtime needed for maintenance and more resilient to warm weather, but the cabins will also be larger to provide passengers with mobility devices, strollers, bikes, and luggage with more space to maneuver.
Currently, two elevator replacements are underway at Nanaimo Station and 22nd Street Station.
Each elevator replacement will take about four months to finish, but such work that temporarily closes an elevator for months at a time will be staggered to reduce disruptions for passengers. The elevators will be replaced a few at a time, until all remaining original Expo Line elevators are replaced.
This project carries a total cost of $32 million, funded by TransLink and the federal and provincial governments.
“Elevators are essential to ensuring customers can access transit reliably, and this program will reduce how often they break down. This work is a result of the Mayors’ 10-Year Vision, and we are proud to continue improving transit in Metro Vancouver through the Access for Everyone plan,” said Brad West, chair of TransLink’s Mayors’ Council and the mayor of Port Coquitlam, in a statement.
The public transit authority also recently completed its years-long process of replacing 37 original Expo Line escalators, and the escalators built in the early 2000s for accessing the Millennium Line at Commercial-Broadway Station.
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