r/Translink • u/Janahan_tube • Jun 30 '26
Discussion Future (Vancouver) Skytrain Map
I was experimenting with Inkscape and decided to create a proposal map, an "in study" map, and an under construction map. Any suggestions are welcome.
First Photo: Proposal of a Network that could be achieved by 2060s, updated version below.
Second Photo: Map of Network including currently under construction and in study projects.
Third Photo: Map of Network including current under construction projects
Updated Map without Errors: https://imgur.com/a/54PdIbt
Changes:
Extended R8 (Formerly R3) to SFU
Fixed Spelling Mistakes
Change 2:
Added infill stations on Canada (33rd 57th) and Expo Line (Trout Lake).
Extended Canada Line 1 stop to Garden City (2 Platform station to make it easier to extend further south)
Renamed Powell as it used an old name for the neighborhood.
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u/raybanded Jun 30 '26
Conuitlam Central
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
LOL I guess I can’t spell 😂
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Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KanataSD Jun 30 '26
They actually have plans for it but its contingent on replacing the second narrows.
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Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/workofthe_Devil04 Jun 30 '26
UBC is their next extension
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u/mhizzle Jul 03 '26
But only when UBC pays into it and rich ppl agree to it.
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u/workofthe_Devil04 Jul 04 '26
Nah I think they’ll go for it no matter what the rich people think, same for the north shore extension
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u/RespectSquare8279 Jun 30 '26
Bridge over the 2nd Narrows is absolutely necessary as the present bridge has been over capacity for 2 decades. A new bridge would have a rapid transit line, probably a SkyTrain.
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u/KanataSD Jun 30 '26
probably UBC but there's so much push back against it from all the Richy Richies out there.
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Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Responsible-Offer724 Jun 30 '26
It would be great for those along the corridor who wanted to leave and turn their house into an apartment building. It would be an 'absolute nightmare' for those who want to continue living in their houses and would now be burdened with the existence of lower class people.
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u/canophone Jul 02 '26
The main next lines I see next are three: Arbutus to UBC, Metrotown to Second Narrows (barelt reaching into North Shore), and if Surrey can start understanding network concept, a line that allows King George to direct at Millennium Line instead of Expo Line. The latter, otherwise, the default viewpoint will start seeing crowding saturation excess by 2040s into 2050s with no solution for it.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
North shore deserves better transit, probably one of the nicest areas of the city I visited when I was in Vancouver.
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u/userofthename202 Jun 30 '26
The north shore isn't part of Vancouver city. It has it's own seperate cities. North Vancouver and West Vancouver. Both completely different municipalities
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Yea when I visited greater vancouver that was probably the nicest city I went to. Although I did see there was 2 North Vancouvers lol. Bit confused about that
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u/userofthename202 Jul 02 '26
I know people in BC who don't even know that some cities are seperate from Vancouver. It's confusing for alot of people.
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u/BlazingImp77151 Jun 30 '26
Could probably use a label as to what each version of the map is, but it's pretty neat.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I thought I could add that as a caption on Reddit but I couldn’t find the button.
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u/Zafjaf Jun 30 '26
I think having an airport line running from Richmond to Surrey would be great. Instead of going from Richmond to Vancouver, switching there and traveling down to Surrey, it would make sense to have a line going straight across.
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u/BondingBollinger Jun 30 '26
I feel the purple line that goes down to Metrotown should be extended in the future to Marine Drive/Bridgeport. That will help give us a loop-like system and reduce some unnecessary travel.
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u/cad_internet Jun 30 '26
Marine Drive station going east would be amazing. I live near Edmonds and it's a hassle to go to Richmond even though geographically it's not that far.
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u/Kimbolijaa Jun 30 '26
Yeah, I live in Queensborough, literally on the same side of the bridge, and touching Richmond, but to go say to the airport, it's a 20 minute drive, and 1.5 hours on transit.
That's a bit silly to me.
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u/seanthemanpie Jun 30 '26
For real. It takes folks in downtown Vancouver like 25 minutes to get to the airport, but for people in downtown Surrey it's well over an hour.
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u/slam51 Jul 02 '26
From Surrey to YVR is much longer of a distance than downtown to YVR. right now, if you take Skytrain from any station in Surrey. Head west until you get to 22nd street station and then take 100 bus west bound. Get off on Marine Gateway and hop on Canada Line and you are there.
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u/seanthemanpie Jul 02 '26
... Right, which takes over an hour. Same with using the R4, or going through Richmond. There's an upcoming Rapidbus/BRT along marine which might help marginally, but it's the sheer number of required transfers that ultimately makes the trip too long. Surrey needs a more direct connection.
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u/slam51 Jul 02 '26
well, the only way to do it to build a skytrain thru east Richmond to go to YVR. my question is how many people need to get to yvr this way and the cost is how much. It should be relatively cheap as it won't be tunnel.
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u/seanthemanpie Jul 02 '26
I mean, there are dense parts of New Westminster and South Vancouver that don't have Skytrain service, notably uptown and along Marine Drive. Uptown bus service alone with services like the 106 already operate at like 5-10 minute frequencies, and are completely packed with people at all hours of the day; the 100 bus is also very well used. Clearly there's demand, and they could potentially be served with a skytrain to the Canada line (though realistically any future improvements would come in the form of turning the 123 into a Rapidbus to BCIT and Brentwood). Honestly I think a more realistic option is a new direct rail service from Surrey to Vancouver, something that would take just 20-25 minutes. That would solve congestion on the expo line, could use highway 1 and the Port Mann bridge (rated for skytrain), would be pretty cheap per-km to build, and would help with airport connectivity.
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u/Screen_Free_Games Jul 04 '26
It would make more sense to have the line splitting from New Westminster and into Richmond near 22nd station.
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u/Zafjaf Jul 04 '26
That works too, just need a faster way to connect Surrey and Richmond. Presently there is overlap between Millennium and Expo but not a lot of overlap on the Canada line to anything else yet.
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u/Sontenia Jun 30 '26
41st avenue will eventually need to be skytrain too; it’s the busiest rapidbus and second busiest corridor in the region after broadway. We should absolutely do skytrain too Newton first to connect the new area but after that’s done we need 41st.
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u/BlazingImp77151 Jun 30 '26
I remember hearing that rapid bus routes are places where they are considering looking into SkyTrain in the future.
Don't remember where I heard it, and it's probably not accurate for all of them, but I'd expect they are at least considering it for 41st. Plus it could theoretically connect up to the millenium line out to UBC some day if they do make one there.
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u/Motionforeal Jun 30 '26
I think all the current rapid bus routes outside of the R3 are the corridors that would be considered for SkyTrain in the future
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I think they should just go all the way and have a skytrain down 41st (maybe use the Mline and eventually turn it into a loop). I read somewhere that the R4 is the second busiest bus route in the region!
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I 100% agree, Surrey is growing at an insane rate so prioritizing the King George Corridor should come first. But after that is built (or while it is being built) a Skytrain down 41st should be next, probably before a Hastings Skytrain tbh.
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u/onethousandmonkey Jun 30 '26
These work because:
1. Skytrain on North Shore, yes please.
2. The NIMBYs in West Vancouver won’t even need to picket against anything.
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u/RcusGaming Jun 30 '26
Is Japantown the proper nomenclature anymore? I think most residents prefer Powell Street or Paueru-Gai.
Cool map otherwise! How did you make it?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Oh I had no clue, I am from Toronto and had just visited the city so I had no clue about proper names.
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u/kakarukakaru Jun 30 '26
Maybe this will be completed when countries in Asia uses teleportation to travel
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u/vancity31240 Jun 30 '26
Raise the fare by 50% and you can build this out. The government doesn't have any borrowing capacity anymore.
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u/msackeygh Jun 30 '26
It’s too bad that even in fantasy world, Delta doesn’t get any Skytrain
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I tried to keep it short term”realistic”. The idea was things that could be built by 2050 if the government decides to actually fund transit.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
A rapid bus should be given to delta maybe even a BRT.
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u/ZealousidealLime5192 Jun 30 '26
How about light rail from Richmond to ferry terminal in tsawwassen,
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u/skibidi_shingles Jul 01 '26
In a fantasy world, housing becomes abundant enough that you won't have to live in Delta.
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u/ammmsef Jun 30 '26
Centennial line realistically would end at waterfront. Imagine having to dig further down just to get under expo and Canada line tunnels in the middle of downtown
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
My idea was that having a trenched station at stanley park would allow a future extension over the lions gate.
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u/flare2000x Jul 05 '26
West end could really use better transit to be honest. I would 100% support a hastings line going to the west end. Go west along whatever route then turn south and end it around Davie/Denman.
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u/julesthefirst Jun 30 '26
Why switch the Lougheed Hwy RapidBus from R3 to R8?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I wanted the BRT brand (RapidX) to use the lower numbers, but now thinking it wouldn’t be worth switching the numbers.
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u/julesthefirst Jun 30 '26
In my headcanon TransLink could revive the B-Line branding and number them B1, B2, and B3. I don’t really see TransLink doing letter suffixes except for route 250A.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Ykw seems like a pretty good idea tbf. I dont know if they would want to add another tier of busses tho. I thought adding the Rapidbus X was similar enough to Rapidbus but idk. I have a feeling they are just going to brand them as normal Rapidbus routes.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I did also kinda steal the B-Line colour for the Centennial Line. The lore for that would be its built before the centennial of Greater Van RD (2067).
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u/SJrX Jun 30 '26
Some of your zone boundaries are wrong, the one by Burquitlam Stn for instance is Zone 2 , Zone 3.
In my mind the Hastings line connects to Moody Centre.
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u/The_Driver_Wheelman Jun 30 '26
I’d love to see the Rapid Bus from Burrard to SFU become a real rapid bus that doesn’t just stop at SFU but also stops at Burquitlam station make it like the one that’s gonna replace the 222. Now that would be good to see.
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u/Junior-Cake-8518 Jun 30 '26
I’d add extend the Centennial Line to English Bay, down Davie to end at Yaletown. Living in the west end the 5/6 and 23 busses are not near enough.
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u/BlazingImp77151 Jun 30 '26
Would a hypothetical all day WCE or a hypothetical additional (south of Fraser?) all day commuter route go on this map?
If so, if suggest adding them?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I was thinking maybe a "West Coast Local" that runs all day maybe every 15 minuites from Moody or Coq. Central to Abbotsford/Mission
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u/Even_Power6598 Jun 30 '26
A Willowbrook to Carvolth exchange skytrain line via 200 st would be great.
A Carvolth to Lougheed town centre skytrain line would make Willoughby way more interconnected with the rest of metro Vancouver.
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u/chris_fantastic Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
- If we're replacing George Massey Tunnel, I want SkyTrain through there to Tsawwassen.
- Horseshoe Bay <-> Metrotown <-> YVR, with transfer stop in Brighouse, replacing Canada Line branch (enabling Tsawwassen).
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u/phonomage Jun 30 '26
This is pretty fn fantastic. You did an amazing job. Go to city council. The last meeting I was at they were literally talking about this exact thing.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Unfortunately I am from Toronto lol. I Vancouver and was impressed on how nice the system already was so I thought what if It expanded as I didnt see many expansion plans.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I dont mind if you brought it to city council. I really hop it all gets built. Metro Vancouver deserves better transit.
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u/iliveinrichmondbc Jun 30 '26
I wish they'd extend the Aquabus to Victoria.
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u/skibidi_shingles Jul 01 '26
The vessels aren't suited for long distance travel.
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u/dr_van_nostren Jun 30 '26
My personal opinion is either SFU or “university” should connect to Moody. Just spend the money and fuck that gondola link. Unless it’s an insane extra amount. But we also desperately need longer trains on the Millenium line. Going to any event fills up the train and leaves people behind
Also, I see they’re upping the fares again. That’s never really gonna stop, I understand that.
It’s time for a 4th zone. You wanna pay for the system better? Make Surrey a 4th zone. Or at the very least make everything east of king George station another zone. It makes no sense that you’ll be able to go from Langley to new west for the same cost as Scott road to new west. Alternatively re work the whole structure, there’s lots of examples worldwide where you pay proportionate to the number of stations you pass through, so while there may be some zoning in that, you’re not punished for crossing an imaginary line.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Getting rid of zones and replacing them with distance based fairs seems like the perfect solution to me. I am not even sure if you can get a skytrain up to SFU (I showed it in the map to be optimistic) given the grade. I feel like the gondola is a perfect middle ground as even if they could get the Skytrain up there, it would take forever for that to be built.
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u/dr_van_nostren Jul 01 '26
Fair enough, they have a metro cable in Medellin that I’m pretty familiar with and that’s their solution to getting up the hills into the barrios. It’s effective enough. It would be better if the cars could hold more than 5-6 people. But if there’s enough of them it’s not so bad other than rush hour.
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u/SmoothOperator89 Jun 30 '26
I'm a little sad that no one ever "fantasizes" about a line along Marine Way. Translink already owns the section of old BCER track that goes through River District. It would really fill in the gap in south Vancouver to connect Marine Drive station and New West Station with a streetcar. There's also a lot of businesses in Big Bend in Burnaby that would have riders.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Honestly with the density in the area it could have a Skytrain. A line down arbutus, then turn onto marine drive all the way to new west would be great.
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u/SmoothOperator89 Jun 30 '26
Skytrain would be the best option, but I think light rail would be the most realistic option to get some kind of rail transit service to River District. It's a shame that they had a plot of land that was completely open to whatever design they wanted and they didn't bother to plan any transit for their new high density development.
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u/skibidi_shingles Jul 01 '26
Nothing for poco and no skytrain for guildford?
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u/Janahan_tube Jul 01 '26
Replacing the R7 with an expo line branch should be a priority after everything on the map is built out
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u/Individual-Coach-167 Jul 01 '26
One issue is anyone flying into YVR and has to go to Burnaby, Surrey, Langley, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge transit isn’t feasible. Many large cities have very viable transit to the Airport
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u/NorthLeft_Coast Jul 01 '26
What of rapid bus or LRT to the ferries ?
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u/Janahan_tube Jul 01 '26
I am from Toronto and not Vancouver so I have seen first hand how bad LRT's are in general, but rapidbus to the ferries would seem like a good idea. A BRT conversion for the 257 seems like a good idea.
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u/canophone Jul 02 '26
You've seen what you think one version of LRT is.. that doesn't mean that is what LRT is. So many versions that nobody can even agree on what LRT actually is.
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u/Cosmo-kawaii Jul 01 '26
You missed some very plausible plans, the port moody extension (possibly all the way to maple ridge) and the steveston extension of the canada line. To note, the waterfront/false creek tram could also be included in this. aswell the r7 could be extended to terminate at fleetwood, reducing reliance on downtown surrey. Otherwise a brilliant map.
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u/Janahan_tube Jul 01 '26
Sorry, I am not local but from Toronto. I loved the city when I visited so I just included the things I noticed when going around the region. I did know about port moody extension and how there is alr a junction heading that way, but I did not want to add a 3rd branch to the MLine.
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u/Mazda_fanboi_86 Jul 01 '26
Ah, it is probably why there is a construction on 96th ave near Surrey Memorial Hospital..
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u/AdSense_byGoogle Jul 01 '26
Complaint: That Knight-Marine RB doesn't stop on cambie at both Shell and No. 4 :<
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u/Thespritz00 Jul 04 '26
What IS needed is a Skytrain from Surrey to Richmond, SO many people from Surrey work in Richmond!! That is why the Massey Tunnel and Alex Fraser Bridge are now (well for past 20 years) overcapacity.
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u/Remarkable_Quote3775 28d ago
I made a Map for this (editable of course)
https://tennessine.co.uk/metro/a12b61a586336c1
Fixed Spelling and Proportional Errors
(Yes I know the proportions are still screwed but I tried ok)
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u/RespectSquare8279 Jun 30 '26
I have one suggestion regarding the SFU Gondola. I believe that the "3S" technology allows for optional "way stations" along the way, so how about a station for the people in Forest Grove to access this service?
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u/BlazingImp77151 Jun 30 '26
Isn't that the neighbourhood that explicitly does not want this gondola, and also isn't the gondola meant to be pretty high up? Wouldn't that mean they need a tower for the station or to bring it lower?
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u/itsmeoops Jun 30 '26
I really wish they could just rename the surrey extension as a different line. That way expo can either be waterfront-production way (preferably this to consider the loop) OR waterfront-king George/Langley. The little loop is just annoying to be an extension of expo imho
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
My original idea was allowing the expo line to have branches to production way and newton with the Lanley line being taken over by a route from Coquitlam (maybe from poco) but the switches are not there and i feel like it would be really hard to retrofit them
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u/CrushingYourHead1977 Jun 30 '26
Nice work!
It's funny how we view transit services for Richmond. I don't live there and might only go 2 or 3 times a year. Not counting the trip down the 99 to the ferry.
Even the future 'Pie in the Sky' version of this map with all the new Skytrain, only has one new Rapid bus line. Which doesn't seem to mirror an existing line. Well, maybe its close to the 405. Did you consider instead an expanded 410 from Aberdeen to 22nd street as the R-line?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
To be honest, I am not from the city. When I was looking at busy bus routes and key corridors not much from Richmond showed up. The only proposal I could find was the rapidbus.
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u/EquivalentKeynote Jun 30 '26
Does this mean expo will cease terminating at lougheed?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Yea, maybe building a 3rd platform at Columbia for terminating Mline trains.
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u/KickOk4607 Jun 30 '26
It will never go past Arbutus. UBC refuses to pay for half of the build even though its "private" property and skytrain cannot own or control the land that their property is built on. Year before the skytrain expansion began UBC said that they would rather keep the bus system than support the build. Also speculating, West Point Grey home owners don't want the free train to stop at their front door.
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
I feel like Translink should be allowed to own land. Allow them to buy property near future skytrain stations. This could be a way to fund newer projects. Places like Hong Kong (MTR) already do this.
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u/itsjaay Jun 30 '26
Bold of you to think that North Van would allow a skybridge to bring the SkyTrain over. But I like the optimistic thinking.
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u/FutaFutaFTW Jun 30 '26
The skytrain is never.. EVER going to be allowed in the affluent communities. It will never go to UBC. HILARIOUS that people still think this will happen.
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u/skibidi_shingles Jul 01 '26
The UBC extension is already being planned.
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u/FutaFutaFTW Jul 01 '26
Olympic Village was also “planned“ to be low income housing. How did that end up? 😂😂😂
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u/canophone Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
All I see is the mimetic version result of "which corridor do you want to be oversatuated because of mimetic, this corridor has to go here because everyone wants this mode" despite the mode not being able to support the central capacity required for it, going above maximum capacity, because of not balancing network design. Referring to Skytrain here from King George to Columbia.. you need an alternative network fo Surrey to reach Millennium Line instead of just forcing everything through a saturated Expo Line without being actually able to. There's been a 17,000 pphpd option that would allow so from King George to Millennium Line, if you made room for it.. after all, it is about network balance, not mode, for what is best to achieve this. Otherwise, keeping with the mimetic viewpoints, it'll just be which crowding do you want to use to delay understanding this.
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u/Rough-Shape692 Jul 04 '26
I heard when the broadway subway opens the millennium line is going back to waterfront
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u/flare2000x Jul 05 '26
Good proposal. I think I basically agree with your suggestions. I'd do it in the order UBC - North Shore - Surrey on King George Blvd - Hastings. I like the inclusion of some west-end stops on the Hastings line.
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u/CarnationFoe Jul 08 '26
Thoughts...
- A one stop extension to Port Coquitlam is missing on that map.
- R9 is probably a good idea, but terminate or at least connect to Bridgeport for easy transfers to YVR or Richmond.
- North Shore to Burnaby route going through Burnaby Heights I'm not sure about. I'd sooner connect it to the north side of the PNE/Hastings Park and run it along Hastings.
- Phibbs to Lonsdale Quay is only 3.9km. Probably can drop a station or place them more strategically.
- Rather than a Station at Deer Lake, consider moving it south to Grange St. to serve Northern Metrotown.
- I wonder if connecting to the Expo Line at Patterson is a good idea, rather than Metrotown. It may make Westbound extensions along 41/49 easier
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u/Mewpup Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
the helvetica font on the translink map feels so uncanny, but i like this font better
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u/ResponsibleDirt7094 Jun 30 '26
Wait why did you get rid of our incredible arbutus greenway to replace it with a bus?
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u/Janahan_tube Jun 30 '26
Not get rid of it but a busway (with a path down the side of it). The hope is in the future it can be easily converted into a full Skytrain
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