B.C. provides peek into $2.95B SkyTrain tunnels, set to open in 2027

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This article was published 02/06/2025 (195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER – In a maze of cement under Vancouver, the latest expansion to the SkyTrain rapid-transit system is taking shape, one stretch of track at a time.

Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth described how track is being hauled into place in 400-metre lengths, as he led a tour of the $2.95-billion Broadway subway project and its two brightly lit centrepiece tunnels on Monday.

The track lengths will ultimately be welded together to help create the 5.7-kilometre extension of the SkyTrain’s Millennium Line through to Arbutus Station on the city’s Westside.

Farnworth said the extension, involving six new stations, is on track to open in 2027.

“When this is complete, with this project and the completion of the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project, that’s going to increase the capacity of the SkyTrain system by more than 27 per cent,” said Farnworth, in hard hat and safety goggles in the future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

He said it would take 11 minutes to get from VCC Clark Station to Arbutus along the Broadway expansion.

“This line alone will be able to carry at any one time more than three times the capacity of the 99-B (rapid bus) line,” Farnworth said.

“So it’s going to be a significant improvement in terms of people’s ability to commute.”

Construction on the highly touted project — which extends SkyTrain service deeper into Vancouver’s Westside but ends short of the University of British Columbia campus — began in 2020 and was originally estimated to take about five years.

It has had delays, but Farnworth said the project is now back on course for a fall 2027 opening.

On the future platform at Great Northern Way Station, pipes, wires and plywood boards indicate a rough framework of how it will look when completed.

Farnworth said the Millennium Line extension will also feature a 700-metre stretch of elevated track before the route plunges under Broadway. He said about 750 workers are involved in the overall construction.

Farnworth said costings were slightly more than previous estimates, but added that small overruns are common in underground construction and it’s largely been kept under control.

“Whenever a tunnel-boring machine’s going through, there’re always issues that come along the way that … slow it down a bit,” Farnworth said. “You’re dealing with underground construction. That’s a lot different than building above ground.”

There have long been calls for the SkyTrain line to be extended to the University of British Columbia, and Farnworth said municipal governments and TransLink have been looking at such an extension in the second half of their 10-year plan.

“That’s a future project,” Farnworth said. “At this point right now, it (the extension) is to Arbutus.”

The province said that until an extension to UBC is confirmed and built, commuters to and from the school can use the 99-B bus service from Arbutus Station.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.