The Expo Line is the oldest line in the SkyTrain rapid transit system in Greater Vancouver, Canada. The line is owned and operated by TransLink.

History

Original Segment

The Expo Line was built in the mid 1980s with technology from the Urban Transit Development Corporation (now part of Bombardier). A demonstration section opened in 1983, with one train running along a single track for roughly 1 km east of Main Street (now Main Street-Science World) Station.

The Expo Line is named for Expo 86, the world's fair which Vancouver hosted in 1986. SkyTrain began providing free weekend service in late 1985 from Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver to New Westminster Station, a few months before Expo 86 opened. Full service began on 3 January 1986.

During Expo 86, special shuttle trains ran from a third track at Stadium-Chinatown Station (where there was a connection to the monorail serving the main site of the world's fair) to the Canadian pavilion at Waterfront Station.

First Extension

In 1989, the line was extended to Columbia Station, then in 1990 to Scott Road in Surrey, crossing the Fraser River via the purpose-built, cable-stayed "SkyBridge."

Second Extension

Finally, in 1994, the line was extended deeper into Surrey to its current terminus at King George Station. These three newest Surrey stations have a drastically different look from the other stations on the Expo Line that predate it.

Route description

The Expo Line travels underground from Waterfront to Stadium Stations, mainly through the Dunsmuir Tunnel, a tunnel previously used by the Canadian Pacific Railway to connect its mainline tracks along Burrard Inlet to its former yard on False Creek. From Stadium to New Westminster, the line is elevated, except for short at-grade sections between Nanaimo and Joyce Stations in east Vancouver and around the SkyTrain yards at Edmonds Station in Burnaby. The line travels underground for a short stretch between New Westminster and Columbia. Just east of Columbia Station is a junction with the newer Millennium Line. The line then crosses the Fraser River to Surrey via the SkyBridge and is elevated for the rest of its run to its terminus at King George. From just west of Nanaimo Station all the way to New Westminster station, the Expo Line follows BC Electric's former Central Park Line, which carried interurbans between Vancouver and New Westminster from 1890 to the early 1950s.

List of stations

From Waterfront to Columbia Stations, Expo and Millennium Line trains stop at the same stations.

• Waterfront Station (transfer to SeaBus, West Coast Express, and the proposed RAV Line)
• Burrard
• Granville
• Stadium-Chinatown
• Main Street-Science World
• Broadway (transfer to Commercial Drive on the Millennium Line)
• Nanaimo
• 29th Avenue
• Joyce
• Patterson
• Metrotown
• Royal Oak
• Edmonds
• 22nd Street
• New Westminster (the original eastern terminus of the Expo line)
• Columbia (junction with the Millennium Line to Commercial Drive)
• Scott Road
• Gateway
• Surrey Central
• King George

External links

• TransLink - The organization that owns and operates SkyTrain