UBC SkyTrain urged as 'national priority' by Vancouver City Council | Daily Hive

UBC SkyTrain urged as a 'Project of National Interest' by Vancouver City Council

Highly conceptual artistic renderings only for illustrative purposes of UBC Station of the UBC SkyTrain extension (UBC).

The last time the project to extend SkyTrain’s Millennium Line from Arbutus to the University of British Columbia (UBC) was discussed by Vancouver City Council was in Spring 2022, when they provided TransLink with the station locations and the route recommendation that also directly serves the First Nations-owned Jericho Lands development.

Before that, in 2019, City Council endorsed TransLink and City of Vancouver staff’s recommendation to proceed with planning the UBC rapid transit project as a seamless SkyTrain extension of the Millennium — for reasons that entail its superior speed, competitive travel times, frequency, ridership, lower operating costs, long-term capacity, and economic benefits.

Earlier this month, for the first time since 2022, Vancouver City Council revisited the UBC SkyTrain (UBCx) project, unanimously approving a member motion introduced by OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney. The motion calls on the Government of British Columbia to expedite the completion of the project’s business case and detailed technical planning, and to commit to a clear timeline for both planning and construction. The approved motion also urges the provincial and federal governments to commit funding for the project in partnership with TransLink, UBC, and local First Nations.

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This motion follows an online petition launched by the Alma Mater Society (AMS) of UBC, the university’s student union, which has garnered more than 15,000 signatures in recent months calling for the project to be expedited.

“I know that you can’t just ask one time and then shrug your shoulders and give up if you’re not successful straight away,” said Maloney during the public meeting.

“Thank you again to the AMS for initiating this motion. It’s really important that we present a united front in advocating for this essential infrastructure… This is another example of UBC students taking the lead and showing really strong leadership in pushing for things that benefit us all.”

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)

City Council also unanimously approved an amendment by ABC Mayor Ken Sim, adding to the motion to formally request the federal government to designate UBC SkyTrain as a “Project of National Interest” under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new Major Projects Office.

The main purpose of this federal office is to advance major infrastructure and resource-development projects by expediting, streamlining, and coordinating the federal regulatory and approval process. Such projects are deemed to be economically significant and nation-building.

“Right now, the federal government is making historic investments in infrastructure projects that deliver national impact. UBCx clearly meets that test. It serves the busiest bus commuter corridor in North America and connects a major employment hub to the broader region,” said Sim.

“This designation would bring the project under the federal Major Projects Office, helping to accelerate approvals and ensuring that all orders of government work together to complete the full extension to UBC as quickly and efficiently as possible. Councillors, UBCx is not just a transit line, it’s a nation-building project… It’s been way too long. We’ve been waiting way too long for this.”

In September 2025, Carney announced announced the first projects to be reviewed by the Major Projects Office. They include LNG Canada Phase 2 in Kitimat, B.C.; the Darlington New Nuclear Plant in Bowmanville, Ontario; the Contrecoeur Container Terminal Project in Quebec; the McIlvenna Bay Foran Copper Mine in Saskatchewan; and the Red Chris Mine expansion in northwest B.C.

Other major projects are also under early consideration for inclusion, but require further planning, such as the proposed Alto high-speed rail service between Toronto and Quebec City.

Global Container Terminals is also looking to receive such a designation for its Deltaport Berth 4 expansion project in Tsawwassen.

The provincial government is currently conducting the business case and detailed technical planning for the UBC SkyTrain project at a total cost of $40 million, with $14 million funded by the federal government under a 2021 commitment.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, provincial contractors carried out geotechnical studies in 2024 to support the business case work, including borehole drilling at 100-metre intervals along the entire corridor between Arbutus and UBC to collect soil samples.

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)

The business case will establish the project’s baseline architectural and engineering design, including station locations, routing, and construction methods — identifying segments that are underground, elevated, or at-grade. It will also account for geotechnical and seismic conditions, roadworks, utilities, property impacts, construction staging, and traffic management. In addition, the study will assess overall construction costs, economic benefits, integration with the public transit network, and transit-oriented development opportunities associated with the extension.

The provincial government first began the business case work in the second half of 2023, following a procurement process that selected architectural and engineering firm Stantec Consulting and architectural firm Perkins&Will.

During the public meeting to deliberate the motion, ABC city councillor Lisa Dominato noted that members of Vancouver City Council attended the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in September 2025, where they also met with B.C. Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth to discuss the progress made on the business case to date.

“We were told that a big part of the business case work is done, but now they’re looking at the financial framework. They’re looking at roughly a year for that work, but we made it very clear that this is our top priority from a transportation standpoint and that we will continue to advance this and prioritize it in our conversations with provincial and federal counterparts,” said Dominato.

On Friday, during a press conference announcing upcoming major traffic disruptions to accommodate the next phase of construction work on SkyTrain’s Millennium Line extension to Arbutus, B.C. Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth reaffirmed that the provincial government remains committed to the UBC SkyTrain project and recognizes its local importance. Premier David Eby also identified advancing the project’s business case as a priority in his January 2025 mandate letter to Farnworth.

However, Farnworth also appeared to temper expectations about accelerating the project’s 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.

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

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Platform level of Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station; construction progress on SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension, as of June 2, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Westbound bored tunnel just west of Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station; construction progress on SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension, as of June 2, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

In contrast with the current Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project — a 16-km-long, eight-station extension of the Expo Line — the provincial government finalized the business case in March 2022, which was subsequently approved by both the federal and provincial governments in July 2022. The procurement process to select major construction contractors began in August 2022, with the successful private consortiums announced in Spring 2024.

Major construction on the $6-billion Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project commenced in November 2024, and the extension is scheduled for completion and opening by the end of 2029.

The Surrey-Langley SkyTrain went ahead as the project’s budget was secured, with the provincial government covering the lions’ share of the costs — including the 50 per cent budget escalation to $6 billion, upon the finalization of the contracts in August 2024.

It remains to be seen how much the UBC SkyTrain extension will cost, but it will certainly be more than the $2.95 billion for the current six-km-long, six-station project of the Millennium Line extension to Arbutus, which will open in Fall 2027.

When the trains begins reaching Arbutus Station, the 99 B-Line express bus route will be shortened to operate only between Arbutus Station and UBC. TransLink has previously noted that buses on the 99 B-Line could reach capacity during peak hours at Arbutus Station on the very first day of train service, with the station expected to become one of the busiest in the entire SkyTrain network overnight.

TransLink has already developed preliminary concepts for how the bus network could be recalibrated once the UBC SkyTrain extension opens — including the full discontinuation of the 99 B-Line to UBC. This route, which has been in operation since 1996, has grown into Metro Vancouver’s busiest bus line and remains one of the busiest in both Canada and the United States.

The strong east-west, crosstown public transit demand to UBC is also reflected in the high ridership of the R4 41st Avenue RapidBus, launched in 2020, which is now TransLink’s second-busiest bus route. Several other east-west, crosstown bus routes serving UBC — including those running along 49th Avenue and King Edward Avenue — also rank among TransLink’s highest-ridership routes.

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)

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99 B-Line at SkyTrain Commercial-Broadway Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

“Prior to my time on Council, I worked at UBC for eight years as a staff member and can personally attest to how difficult it is to get there on transit for students, staff, and faculty. The buses are busy, crowded in the winter. It’s not a fun experience either. Lots of condensation on the window, and it’s just not a good environment to be packed on a bus. So we are pushing hard to make this happen — to get the business case moving and get shovels in the ground,” said ABC city councillor Peter Meiszner.

“Frankly, it’s never really made sense to me to stop this line at Arbutus, when all the construction and the tunnelling equipment is already out there. It should have just been one shot, but we don’t control those levers. What we do control is our advocacy and our united voice to push, to make this happen as soon as possible.”

According to the provincial government’s previous ridership forecasts, the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension to Arbutus Street is expected to see between 135,000 and 150,000 boardings per day upon opening. That figure is projected to grow to between 143,000 and 163,000 daily boardings by 2030. By 2045, ridership is forecast to reach between 167,000 and 191,000 boardings per day — a projection that assumes the extension to UBC will be completed by that time.

A previous preliminary TransLink study also estimated that the entire 12-km-long Millennium Line extension between VCC-Clark Station and UBC could see up to about 320,000 boardings per day by 2041.

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