UBC students lament '18th birthday' of long-promised SkyTrain extension | Daily Hive

"18th birthday party" of UBC SkyTrain promise outside Broadway-City Hall Station on Jan. 14, 2026. (Alma Mater Society of UBC)

On Wednesday afternoon, outside Broadway-City Hall Station, amid major Canada Line service disruptions that ultimately lasted 14 hours — providing a notable backdrop to broader concerns about public transit capacity, reliability, and network redundancy — University of British Columbia (UBC) students marked what they call an unwelcome milestone in Metro Vancouver’s public transit history: the 18th anniversary of a SkyTrain extension to the UBC campus that was promised but has yet to be built.

On Jan. 14, 2008, the BC Liberals-provincial government led by then-Premier Gordon Campbell committed to extending SkyTrain to UBC as part of a broader $14-billion regional rapid transit expansion plan.

At the time, Campbell set a 12-year target, aiming for completion by 2020, to extend SkyTrain to UBC, Coquitlam City Centre, and Fleetwood, and to launch seven RapidBus routes.

You might also like:

While Campbell’s overall vision has seen some major progress under subsequent provincial governments and through various TransLink and Mayors’ Council strategies, key elements remain unfinished. The Millennium Line’s Evergreen extension reached Coquitlam City Centre in 2016, the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension is currently under construction — extending far beyond Fleetwood to Langley City Centre, opening in late 2029 — and most of the envisioned RapidBus routes have since been launched, with additional RapidBus and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes now planned.

January 2008 map for Premier Gordon Campbell’s SkyTrain expansion plan. (Government of B.C.)

January 2008 map for Premier Gordon Campbell’s RapidBus expansion plan. (Government of B.C.)

But 18 years, five provincial elections, and four premiers later, there is still no defined timeline for when Millennium Line trains will reach UBC. Over that period, construction costs have also risen significantly due to market inflation and land acquisition costs, meaning delays and prolonged waiting have only made such projects even more expensive.

The anticipated 2027 completion and opening of the current construction project of the six-km-long Millennium Line’s Broadway extension from VCC-Clark Station to the new Arbutus Station achieves half of the 18-year-old promise.

To highlight the prolonged delay, UBC’s student union, the Alma Mater Society (AMS), held a symbolic birthday party at Broadway-City Hall Station, framing it as both a protest and a renewed call for action.

“If the UBC SkyTrain were a person, it would be old enough to start university, sign its own construction contract, and even vote. Yet, the project remains stalled,” said Solomon Yi-Kieran, a UBC student and the AMS vice president of external affairs, adding that “18 years of delay is unacceptable. If I handed in an assignment 18 years late, I’d fail. Why should government get a pass?”

ubc skytrain ams protest broadway-city hall station january 14 2026 f1

“18th birthday party” of UBC SkyTrain promise outside Broadway-City Hall Station on Jan. 14, 2026. (Alma Mater Society of UBC)

Student leaders argue that the lack of SkyTrain to UBC has far-reaching consequences for housing, transportation capacity, and the environment. According to the AMS, a SkyTrain extension could enable up to 50,000 units of affordable, transit-oriented housing along the corridor, while easing pressure on an already overburdened bus network.

UBC’s population of students, staff, and faculty — currently about 80,000 people — generates an estimated 145,000 daily trips. That figure is expected to rise significantly in the coming decades, even as bus service struggles to keep pace. Students say the absence of rapid transit leaves long commutes, crowded buses, and limited alternatives.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized over the years, when the Broadway extension opens in Fall 2027, the existing 99 B-Line route will be truncated between the new Arbutus Station and UBC. Overnight, Arbutus Station is expected to become one of the busiest stations on the SkyTrain network, with large volumes of passengers transferring between the subway and buses for the remaining leg to campus. TransLink has previously projected that the 99 B-Line will reach capacity at Arbutus Station during peak hours on the subway’s opening day.

Previous ridership studies indicate that the Broadway extension to Arbutus alone would attract very high ridership, rivalling the current total ridership of the Canada Line. That figure would be even higher if the Millennium Line were further extended to provide a one-train ride to UBC.

Map of the Broadway subway’s station blocks for road reconstruction. (City of Vancouver)

translink broadway subway future bus network changes.jpg

Map of the proposed additional east-west bus route changes in the Vancouver Westside due to the opening of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway extension to Arbutus. (TransLink)

arbutus station skytrain broadway extension

SkyTrain’s Arbutus Station design concept, April 2021. (Government of BC)

Last year, 15,000 signatures in support of expediting the project were collected in a petition led by AMS.

After nearly two decades of waiting, the AMS is calling on the BC NDP-led provincial government to release a clear timeline for planning, construction, and completion of the project, and publish the project’s supporting business case by January 2027.

The students’ renewed calls comes just over a month before the provincial government is expected to release its 2026 budget and updated multi-year financial plan and outlook. The request also arrives at a time when both the provincial and federal governments are struggling with historic budget deficits and growing debt and interest payments on borrowed money, including for provincial capital projects.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, the provincial government first began business case work in 2023, involving detailed technical design and planning — including geotechnical borehole drilling completed throughout 2024 to extract soil samples along the roughly seven-km-long route between Arbutus Station and UBC.

The fully-funded business case work carries an estimated cost of about $40 million, with the federal government contributing $14 million. This will identify the precise route, alignment (elevated, underground, etc.), tunnel entrances, and station locations, and the very extensive aspects of engineering, the construction process, and property and traffic impacts.

translink ubc skytrain route options april 2022

TransLink’s recommended route and station locations for UBC SkyTrain, April 2022. (TransLink)

Terminus station location for the UBC SkyTrain extension of the Millennium Line, April 2022. (TransLink)

translink ubc skytrain extension bus network

Map of the proposed bus route changes after the opening of the SkyTrain extension from Arbutus Station to UBC. (TransLink)

In Fall 2025, Vancouver City Council approved a member motion urging the provincial and federal governments to prioritize and expedite the project. During City Council’s deliberations at the time, it was disclosed that the provincial government had recently informed municipal leaders that a significant portion of the business case work was complete and that it was reviewing the project’s financial framework — a process expected to take about a year, which would put a potential completion date in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.

Unlike the business case work that supported earlier SkyTrain projects, including the two lines currently under construction, the UBC SkyTrain (UBCx) business case includes additional layers that consider the potential for high-density, transit-oriented development as a core component from the outset of planning.

B.C. Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth last publicly commented on the project in October 2025, tempering expectations about accelerating the timeline.

He pointed to TransLink and the Mayors’ Council’s 10-year expansion and improvement plan from 2025 to 2034, which places the UBC SkyTrain extension in the second half of the plan. Under the current regional framework, construction is not expected to begin until the early 2030s at the earliest.

“We have been doing preliminary work and working with TransLink. It is part of TransLink’s 10-year plan, but it is in the second half of the plan. And so, we are looking at working with Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, UBC, and the Province in terms of how do you move a project of that size forward,” said Farnworth in October 2025.

“We’re very mindful of the importance of UBCx,” he added.

The provincial government has yet to provide a cost estimate for building the UBC extension, which is a key component of the current business case work. But it is expected to exceed the $2.95-billion cost of the current Broadway extension project to Arbutus.

Last fall, while expressing support for the UBC SkyTrain project, TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn also emphasized the need to consider not only the one-time upfront capital costs — the expense of building the project — but also the ongoing operating and maintenance costs every year once it opens, noting that the public transit authority’s financial situation remains precarious without new stable revenue sources.

ubc skytrain geotechnical drilling borehole foundex

Foundex crews performing geotechnical borehole drilling work for the UBC SkyTrain project’s soil sample analysis, as seen on West Broadway near Trafalgar Street in August 2024. (Google Maps)

You might also like: