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The SkyTrain in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is an Advanced Rapid Transit system operating fully automated trains on two lines. With 33 stations, it moves over 220,000 people a day along the 49.5 km of track. Built for the Expo 86 World's Fair, it has since become the world's longest automated light rapid transit system utilizing the world's longest transit-only bridge, the SkyBridge. The system uses the same family of linear induction motor-driven trains as the Scarborough RT line in Toronto, the Putra LRT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Detroit People Mover in Detroit, and the JFK AirTrain in New York City.
SkyTrain cars ordinarily travel at 80 km/h, although they have a maximum design speed of 104 km/h. When including wait times at stops the end-to-end speed is 35 km/h, three times faster than a bus and almost twice as fast as a B-Line express bus.
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Brief description
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The Expo Line (coloured blue on route maps) opened in late 1985, in conjunction with the Expo 86 fair.
The two lines follow a common route between Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver and Columbia Station in New Westminster, serving the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster en route. From Columbia, Expo Line trains continue through Surrey to King George Station, while Millennium Line trains loop back through New Westminster, Burnaby and Vancouver to VCC-Clark Station. Although most of the system is elevated (hence its name), SkyTrain runs at or below grade through Downtown Vancouver, and short stretches in Burnaby and New Westminster.
SkyTrain's fare system is organized on the proof-of-payment system; there are no turnstiles at the entrances to train platforms. Fares are instead enforced by random sweeps through trains and occasional checks for fares at the top or bottom of stairs and escalators by Skytrain personnel. TransLink is believed to lose over $6 million in revenue annually because of fare evasion. There has been talk for a number of years about installing turnstiles, however TransLink has repeatedly pointed out that the cost of installing, maintaining, and enforcing turnstiles would be greater than the losses due to fare evasion. Skytrain will normally post personnel to collect and check fares at station entrances when a large volume of passengers can be expected, for example at the Stadium-Chinatown Station following a British Columbia Lions or Vancouver Canucks home game. Failure to show proof of fare can result in a $173 fine.
Law enforcement services are provided by the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service. This Police Service replaced the old TransLink Special Provincial Constables, who had limited authority. As of December 4, 2005, officers now have the full powers of provincial police, and carry firearms. They may now arrest people for outstanding warrants, enforce drug laws, and enforce the criminal code outside TransLink property; as well as deal with offences which occur off of TransLink property, but make their way onto it. The police force issues violation tickets for fare evasion and other infractions on SkyTrain, buses, SeaBus and West Coast Express.
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Rolling stock
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The current trains TransLink owns as of 2006
114 UTDC ALRT Mk I (Delivered 1984-1985)
16 UTDC ALRT Mk I (Delivered 1991, featured visible design changes)
Current fleet size is 210 operating cars.
Originally, the Expo Line used 12-metre (40-foot) lightweight 'MK I' ('Mark I') ICTS cars from Urban Transportation Development Corporation and similar to the ones used in Toronto's Scarborough RT and Detroit's People Mover. For the Millennium Line, articulated pairs of new 18-metre (60-foot) 'MK II' ('Mark II') cars were built by Bombardier Transportation, similar to the cars used in Kuala Lumpur's Putra LRT. Each pair of cars (either two old cars or one articulated set of two new cars) is permanently joined together in a two-car trainset, or 'married pair'.
Both MK I and MK II cars are accessible vehicles (), having space for wheelchairs. They also allow bicycles on board during non-peak hours in both directions, and opposite the peak direction during peak hours.
Both old and new cars run on both lines. Two MK I trainsets are almost always joined together to form a four-car train. Old trainsets are never coupled with new trainsets, although it is possible. 1 set of articulated MK II's are usually run during periods of low passenger volume (late at night, for example), while six-car MK I and two joined MK II trains are possible at times of peak capacity (for example, when many people are going home from a special event in downtown Vancouver) and during track maintenance, when frequencies are reduced. However, MK I trainsets are always found in sets of 2, and only seen in a set of 1 during track testing or other non-revenue services.
Currently the MK I cars are being used primarily during peak hours.
Canada Line will be using ROTEM (unit of Hyundai) LRV cars.
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Organizational history
Until 1999, the British Columbia Rapid Transit Company owned and operated SkyTrain on behalf of the Vancouver Regional Transit System, which had overall responsibility for public transportation in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) in affiliation with a separate organization, BC Transit. In 1999, the GVRD's new transportation agency TransLink took over SkyTrain. It is now owned and operated by British Columbia Rapid Transit Company Ltd. which is a subsidiary of TransLink.
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Current lines
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The SkyTrain system currently consists of two lines. A third line - The Canada Line more below is under construction currently. Another line that will be a Light Rail Transit, not a metro, has been approved - called the Evergreen Line more below. Thirty-four stations exist on the two lines currently in operation. The current length is 49.6 km.
When not in use, the trains are stored at the Edmonds Yard and Control Centre, which is located between Edmonds and 22nd Street stations (Southridge and Griffiths Drives) in Burnaby.
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Expo Line
The Expo Line connects Waterfront Station in Vancouver to King George Station in Surrey. It was originally built in 1985 (in time for the 1986 World's Fair) and was named the "Expo Line" once the Millennium Line was built. This line consists of 20 stations. When the line was first built, it only ran as far as New Westminister station before the Expo. During the Expo and afterwards it was extended, first to Columbia Station, then across the Fraser River to Scott Road once the Skybridge was finished, then the final mid-1990s extension to King George Station in Central Surrey.
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Millennium Line
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The Millennium Line follows the Expo Line from Waterfront Station to Columbia Station in New Westminster, then continues along its own route to Vancouver Community College (VCC-Clark Station) in Vancouver (the extension of the Millennium Line from Commercial Drive Station to VCC-Clark Station was opened on January 6, 2006). The Millennium Line consists of 13 stations it does not share with the Expo Line. An extension west toward the University of British Columbia (UBC) had been planned before priority was given to the Canada Line.
TransLink at one point considered extending the Millennium Line into Coquitlam, but now are in the process of building instead a street-level light railway - LRT - for that route (see the Evergreen Line below).
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Expansion lines
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Canada Line
The Canada Line (known in earlier planning stages as the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver or RAV Line) is scheduled to be completed around November 2009, in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It will be built by InTransitBC, a consortium headed by SNC-Lavalin, as a design, finance, build operate and maintain Public Private Partnership Project (P3 or PPP). It was announced on 25 November 2005 that the new line would be called the ‘Canada Line’ (Vancouver Sun, A1).
The Canada Line will not use Bombardier's proprietary SkyTrain linear induction technology, but rather another fully automated transit vehicle using more conventional motors than the linear induction motor used in trains on the Expo and Millennium lines. This was largely a consequence of the public-private partnership format (a condition of BC government funding), which favoured the proposal by SNC-Lavalin/Serco over that of the RAVxpress consortium, comprised of Bombardier and others.
Because Bombardier's linear induction "SkyTrain" technology will not be used for the Canada Line, the line will not be branded as SkyTrain. It will, however, use the same fare system as the rest of the transit system and be owned and managed by TransLink.
The entire line will run from Waterfront Station (Vancouver) to Richmond-Brighouse Station, with a branch serving Vancouver International Airport at a special surcharge, creating a total of 16 stations four on Lulu Island, three on Sea Island, and nine in Vancouver.
The Canada Line will travel from Waterfront Station to the Marine Drive Station completely underground (in a subway) which will serve downtown and central parts of the City of Vancouver (down Cambie Street) but when it reaches the city of Richmond, from that point on (to Richmond-Brighouse Station and to YVR-Airport Station), the line will surface to become elevated like the current Skytrain lines.
Canada Line trains will leave Richmond City Centre and YVR every six minutes heading to Vancouver. Thus, passengers will be able to catch the Canada Line every three minutes in Vancouver.
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Evergreen Line
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The Evergreen Line (referred to in planning as the Coquitlam Line) is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The line will connect Lougheed Town Centre Station on the Millennium Line in Burnaby to the Coquitlam City Centre area, and will be a light-rail tramway built mostly at street level, rather than a fully segregated metro like the Expo, Millennium, and Canada lines.
When the Millennium line was built, junction tracks and an extra platform were built at Lougheed Town Centre station to allow for a proposed SkyTrain extension to Coquitlam City Centre. At the present, the plans are for the Evergreen Line to have an elevated station next to the existing one, possibly using the unfinished platform.
From Lougheed Station, the vehicles are proposed to run northward along the North and Clarke Roads, then through a tunnel under the Burnaby Mountain, through Port Moody, and towards Coquitlam Centre where it will have another short elevated section. The line will then turn northward again along the Pinetree Way, and end at the Guildford Way, with another possible station somewhat further north.
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Broadway extension
There are also near-term plans to extend the Millennium Line westward along the Broadway corridor through the Central Broadway business district and possibly to the University of British Columbia. It was originally scheduled to have started construction in 2006; however, the Canada Line delayed the project. Studies that test possible alignments, financing, technologies and costs are to be completed by 2009.
TransLink says that if they were to bring the Skytrain along the Broadway corridor, it would not go all the way to UBC. Because of cost reasons, the Skytrain would travel under Broadway and would end at a certain point. At this point, Skytrain riders would have to transfer onto a rapid bus that would travel the rest of the westward route; eventually ending at UBC.
If the Skytrain were to end at Arbutus, there would be stops at Finning, Main, Cambie, Willow/Oak, Granville and Arbutus. The Rapid Bus system would finish the route with stops at MacDonald, Alma, Sasamat, Wesbrook and UBC. The estimated cost for this extension of the Millennium Line would be approximately $700 million (1999).
According to TransLink's Three-Year Plan and 10-Year Outlook (PDF) written in 2004, the construction on this extension is unlikely to start before 2013, and at present the new line does not have the priority over the Canada Line or the Evergreen Line. It would also connect the line up with the currently under-construction Canada Line at Broadway-City Hall Station and the current terminus of the Millennium Line at VCC-Clark Station.
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SkyTour
As of August 2006, the International Tour Entertainment Corporation teamed up with TransLink to launch SkyTour, a self-directed audio tour on Vancouver's history around the system. Three tapes are available: the tour from inside the train only, and two "walking tours", where passengers explore Gastown and New Westminster districts.
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Design
In 2004, Busby + Associates Architects, designers of the Brentwood Town Centre Station in Burnaby, were honoured for their work with a Governor General's Medal in Architecture
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Trivia
The SkyTrain uses the world's longest bridge used only by transit services: the Skybridge. It crosses the Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey. It is a 616 m long cable-stayed bridge, with 123 m tall towers. The SkyTrain was also one of the first fully automated rapid-transit systems in the world, as well as still being the longest as of today.
If Commercial Drive and Broadway Station are considered the same station, the Vancouver SkyTrain is, along with the Tyne and Wear Metro, one of the few rapid transit systems in the world in which trains pass through the same station twice.
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See also
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Reference
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Footnotes
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