Expo Line
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 An Expo Line train crosses Clark Drive
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| Route length: | 28.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Expo Line is an underground line of the SkyTrain Vancouver , the local transport system of the metropolitan area Metro Vancouver in Canada . The standard gauge line is 28.9 km long and has 20 stations (three of which are underground). It was opened on January 3, 1986 with a view to the world exhibition Expo 86 and connects Vancouver with Burnaby , New Westminster and Surrey . The operator and owner is the transport company TransLink . It shares the route with the Millennium Line between the Waterfront and Columbia stations . The trains run fully automatically with linear motors .
route
The line begins at Waterfront station on the banks of Burrard Inlet , where there is a connection to the SeaBus ferry and the West Coast Express suburban railway (since 2009 also to the Canada Line ). This is followed by the 1.4 km long Dunsmuir Tunnel , which previously served as a connection to the freight yard on False Creek . This ends shortly before the Stadium – Chinatown station .
To New Westminster the track is elevated, except for a short walk sections between Nanaimo and Joyce-Collingwood in East Vancouver and at the station Edmonds and the depot of the same name in Burnaby. This is followed by a short tunnel to the Columbia underground station . To the northeast of this is the junction of the Millennium Line. The route then crosses the Fraser River on the 616 m long skybridge . The rest of the way to the terminus at King George in Surrey is elevated. The route runs about one block further and serves as a siding in this area, but is built in such a way that the route can be extended in the future.
From a point immediately west of Nanaimo station to Westminster station , the Expo Line follows the route of the former Central Park Line , on which the British Columbia Electric Railway's Interurbans operated from 1890 to 1954 .
history
The SkyTrain was initially a demonstration project to showcase linear motor technology in Vancouver and other cities. This was the Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) system from the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (which has now been incorporated into the Bombardier Group ). Construction work on the test track began in 1981 and was completed at the beginning of 1983. The test track was one kilometer long and included a single station. It didn't have a name back then, but is now called Main Street – Science World .
The test track consisted of a straight section east of the station above Terminal Avenue. During construction work on the Millennium Line, this section had to be reinforced in order to be able to carry the heavier MK II trains. This was done by adding additional reinforced concrete beams to the pillars that support the route.
After the demonstrations were over, construction work began on the rest of the route. On December 11, 1985, a trial operation was started between the Waterfront and New Westminster stations , which included free trips on weekends. Scheduled operations began on January 3, 1986, five months before the start of Expo 86 . During this world exhibition, additional shuttle trains ran from a third platform in the Stadium – Chinatown station (where there was a connection to the monorail on the exhibition grounds) to the Waterfront station not far from Canada Place , the Canadian pavilion.
The first section had a length of 21.4 km. In 1987, construction began on the second section. First, on February 14, 1989, the 0.6 km long section to Columbia was opened. Another 2.5 km followed on March 16, 1990 with the opening of the section over the skybridge to Scott Road in Surrey. Finally, in late 1991, construction began on the third section within the city of Surrey. The 4 km section to King George Station was opened on March 28, 1994, with which the line reached its current size.
literature
- Bob Egby: SkyTrain, a catalyst for development . BC Transit, 1989
- WJ Hinkel, K. Driver, G. Valenta and H. Liebsch: yesterday-today-tomorrow. U-Bahn from 1863 to 2010. Schmid Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-900607-44-3 (chapter "Vancouver")
- Tom Parkinson: SkyTrain high technology rapid transit in Vancouver (SAE) . Society of Automotive Engineers, 1989
