Park Board seeking new permanent attraction for Stanley Park Train site | Daily Hive

Vancouver Park Board begins bidding process for a new permanent attraction at Stanley Park Train site

Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience in Stanley Park, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

Vancouver Park Board is launching a search for a new, reimagined attraction at the Stanley Park Train site, pitching what it calls a “unique and exciting opportunity” for an operator to develop and run a long-term destination experience in the city’s most visited park.

Under the new procurement bidding process, the successful proponent would be granted exclusive rights to develop, operate, and partner with the Park Board to deliver a new attraction within a designated area of Stanley Park under a long-term agreement.

The goal is to replace or reinvent the long-running Stanley Park Train attraction, which has faced mounting challenges tied to aging infrastructure and equipment and poor maintenance.

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The miniature train has been a fixture in the park since 1964, traditionally operating during the summer months and for three annual special events — the Easter, Halloween, and Christmas operating seasons. After several years of post-pandemic operating challenges and greatly reduced capacities due to the limited repairs performed to the overall train fleet, the train attraction did not run at all in 2025 — following a safety incident that cut the Bright Nights Christmas Train 2024 operating period short, and due to ongoing mechanical and infrastructure issues and the timeline and high cost associated with the required major upgrades.

Those challenges triggered a broader review of the train attraction’s business model, leading the Park Board to explore a potential new permanent attraction for the site.

Rather than limiting proposals to a like-for-like replacement, the Park Board is opening the door to a wide range of concepts. The areas being considered include not only the current Stanley Park Train site, but also the former Stanley Park Zoo’s Children’s Farmyard location, which features two large heated buildings along with an outdoor courtyard and paddocks. This overall area spans roughly 16 acres, with the vast majority forested.

Stanley Park Train. (Vancouver Park Board)

Map of the sites of the Stanley Park Train and former Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard. (Vancouver Park Board)

Map of the former Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard. (Vancouver Park Board)

Vancouver’s municipal government would provide the attraction location, including on-site facilities and structures, with the exception of the Cob House, which is operated by the Stanley Park Ecology Society. It may also consider providing staff and/or existing train equipment, depending on the proponent’s concept and level of interest.

In its bidding process seeking ideas, Park Board staff note it is interested in receiving as many submissions as possible and is prepared to consider an expanded range of uses, operating models, and partnership structures.

Proponents are invited to suggest whether the site should continue its similar train attraction operations or be used in an entirely new way — whether the attraction should follow the existing model or a completely different business approach, and whether it should be run independently or in collaboration with the Park Board. Additional creative concepts for managing and operating the attraction are also encouraged.

Park Board staff emphasized they are looking for an innovative, experienced, reputable and financially capable operator that can deliver a “leading market-focused attraction” appealing to a broad audience, including both local residents and visitors to the city.

Under the proposed framework, the successful respondent would be responsible for funding, building, operating, and maintaining a high-quality, all-ages experience starting approximately June 2027. The initial operating term would be 10 years, with the possibility of an extension.

Some of the Park Board’s other considerations for the new attraction’s concept include the share of revenue provided to the municipal government, the incorporation of affordability and accessibility for visitors, the continuous innovation and update of the attraction over time to ensure market relevance and appeal, and the operational restrictions of Stanley Park’s environment.

The deadline for prospective proponents to express their interest in the bidding process is March 31, 2026.

Stanley Park Train’s Easter operating season. (Vancouver Park Board)

Bright Nights Stanley Park Christmas Train. (Vancouver Park Board)

Taken together, the move signals a major shift for one of Stanley Park’s most recognizable attractions — from a beloved but aging seasonal ride to what the Park Board hopes will be a refreshed, future-proof destination designed to attract new visitors and add long-term value to the park’s visitor experience.

After the sudden safety closure of the Stanley Park Train in mid-December 2024, Bright Nights decided to end its decades-long annual seasonal run at Stanley Park, and moved to the Cloverdale Fairgrounds starting with the Christmas 2025 season. The poor reliability of the train attraction in recent years greatly impacted the fundraising efforts of the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, which staged the Bright Nights light displays at the train attraction each year.

In 2025, Park Board staff first signalled the possibility of exploring a brand new approach for the Stanley Park Train site, after it was estimated that the existing train attraction required about $8 million in repairs, upgrades, and maintenance work, including the replacement of its two-km-long tracks in the park’s forest and the desire to switch the trains to battery-electric propulsion. At the time, it was suggested that the Park Board could seek a new private operator to potentially fund the necessary fixes and upgrades, and revitalize the site into a new dynamic destination.

Prior to the pandemic, the train attraction’s normal operations each year — without issues — were regularly profitable for the municipal government. But ever since the pandemic restart of the attraction, it has been losing money due to its greatly limited capacity and far higher operating and maintenance costs.

After it became clear that the Stanley Park Train would not be operational for the foreseeable future, and following Bright Nights’ decision to permanently relocate, the Park Board filled a major gap in the seasonal operating calendar by allowing the train attraction site to host Warner Bros.’ official global touring attraction of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience.

The highly immersive, illuminated nighttime walking trail first opened on Nov. 7, 2025, and closed on Feb. 1, 2026, following a three-week extension due to its immense popularity. According to the New York City-based production company behind the experience, they recorded an unprecedented demand and interest in Vancouver for the attraction based on J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. Since its inaugural city in 2021, the touring attraction has made stops in more than a dozen cities, with Shenzhen currently hosting the experience.

Harry Potter A Forbidden Forest Experience Vancouver Stanley Park

Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience in Stanley Park, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

There has been an enormous void in the breadth and number of major attractions at Stanley Park since 1996, when the free Stanley Park Zoo permanently closed. Many of the animals were sent to what is now known as the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove.

In a 1994 referendum driven by animal rights activists, Vancouver residents voted to shutter the long-running Stanley Park Zoo rather than make the significant reinvestments needed to modernize animal habitats and other facilities. That same movement in that era also led the Vancouver Aquarium to begin phasing out the captivity of orca whales.

The former zoo’s polar bear enclosure still remains today, not far from the aquarium’s entrance.

The former zoo’s petting zoo continued to operate as the Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard up until 2011 due to a combination of budgetary pressures and animal rights activism. However, some of the petting zoo’s animals were subsequently inadvertently sent to a slaughterhouse.

In 2007, the Park Board briefly considered a semi-permanent, revenue-generating plan to turn a former zoo area near the Stanley Park Train into an immersive dinosaur experience attraction, with dozens of life-sized animatronic robotic dinosaurs and an indoor display of skeletons, fossils, and other dinosaur exhibits.

Dinosaurs in Stanley Park. (Robert Legere/submitted)

Dinosaurs in Stanley Park. (Robert Legere/submitted)

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