Eight new Mark V trains are now in service on SkyTrain's Expo Line | Daily Hive

Mark V train at SkyTrain's Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan)

If it feels like more of the new-generation trains are running on the SkyTrain’s Expo Line, you are not imagining it.

A TransLink spokesperson confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized that as of today, the public transit authority’s fleet of the new five-car-long Mark V trains now actively serving passengers has reached eight trains — a total of 40 Mark V cars.

Another three five-car-long Mark V trains or 15 cars are now in the process of being tested before entering service.

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TransLink’s very first Mark V train entered service about nine months ago in July 2025, at which point the public transit authority indicated that it was expecting to roll out one new train every subsequent month, as testing for each incoming train reached completion.

The public transit authority has ordered a total of 47 Mark V trains, made up of 235 cars. This means about 17 per cent of the order is now in service.

Unveiling of SkyTrain’s first new Mark V train on July 10, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

skytrain mark i trains scrapyard junkyard january 2026

Retired Mark I SkyTrain cars spotted being destroyed in a Surrey scrapyard on Jan. 9, 2025. (Chris Cassidy/submitted)

The last train from this order is expected to arrive in 2029, with the initial trains currently arriving being used to retire the entirety of SkyTrain’s original trains, the Mark I fleet of 150 cars, which have been in service since the 1980s and early 1990s.

The spokesperson also shared that as of today, 34 Mark I cars have been retired, with some being repurposed for new creative legacy uses, and others sent to the scrapyard.

With Mark V trains now making up a growing share of the fleet on the SkyTrain’s Expo Line — gradually replacing the aging Mark I cars — passengers are experiencing a noticeable improvement in ride comfort. The new trains offer more space, real-time wayfinding and information via digital displays, enhanced climate control, and a range of other modern features.

After the Mark I trains are fully retired in 2027/2028, the continued Mark V arrivals through 2029 will provide an overall Expo/Millennium network capacity increase, and serve the needs of both the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension (opening in Fall 2027) and the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension (opening in late 2029).

skytrain commercial broadway station mark v

Mark V train seen on the Expo Line’s outer inbound platform at SkyTrain’s Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan)

To support the maintenance and storage needs of the Mark V fleet — which consists of SkyTrain’s longest trains, exceeding the length of station platforms — TransLink is building the new OMC4 facility, a 27-acre operations and maintenance centre near Braid Station in Coquitlam. The facility, costing $1.3 billion, is expected to be completed in 2027, when Mark V trains will make up a very critical share of the overall SkyTrain fleet. As well, the new $327-million SkyTrain control centre building at the Edmonds hub is also expected to be ready in 2027, just in time for the Broadway extension’s needs.

While the Mark V trains are becoming an increasing fixture of the Expo Line, TransLink has not confirmed whether some of these trains will also operate on the Millennium Line upon the opening of the Broadway extension. Some Millennium Line station platforms are currently undergoing some modifications to ensure future compatibility with the Mark V.

The new train fleet enables a complete reshuffle of how the entire SkyTrain fleet on the Expo and Millennium lines is deployed, as it will still entail the older Mark II trains from the 2000s — for at least a few more years — and the Mark III trains from the 2010s.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, TransLink is preparing to exercise its options for even more Mark V train orders, with new train arrivals continuing well past 2029 and into the 2030s. All of the Mark II trains will also be retired within the foreseeable future; the first batch of Mark II that went into service in the early 2000s will be retired in the early 2030s, while the second batch that went into service later in the 2000s will be retired later in the 2030s.

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