The long-awaited Evergreen Line Skytrain line opens at noon on December 2, 2016, after over a decade of planning and construction.
The new 11 kilometre line will run from Lougheed Town Centre on the Burnaby-Coquitlam border, to Lafarge Lake-Douglas station, just past Coquitlam Centre. In all, there are six new Skytrain stations along the Evergreen Line in Port Moody and Coquitlam.
In preparation for the opening of the Evergreen Line, Translink made some changes this past October to the Millennium and Expo Line routes. The Expo Line now has two routes: one train that travels between Waterfront to King George stations, and another train that travels between Waterfront and Production Way-University.
The Millennium Line no longer travels from Waterfront Station — instead, it travels between VCC-Clark station and Lougheed Town Centre station, and will continue northeast on the new Evergreen Line once it opens on December 2, 2016.
Once the line is open, commuters will be able to travel from Coquitlam City Centre to Lougheed Town Centre in about 15 minutes. For people in the Tri-Cities, the opening of the line will be a game changer, allowing people to get downtown from Coquitlam in 30-40 minutes.
In this video, a construction worker takes us a on tour of the line, from Lafarge Lake-Douglas station to Lougheed Town Centre, complete with commentary:
The Evergreen Line cost $1.43-billion, and once it’s online, B.C. will have the longest fully-automated rapid transit line in the world. It’s expected to transport 70,000 passengers per day by 2021, according to provincial government estimates.