Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[Trainguy]

12 May 2018

Vancouver City Staff Recommend That Council Endorse Millennium Line SkyTrain Extension to Arbutus Street
Vancouver British Columbia -

On Wednesday (16 May 2018) Vancouver city council's policy and priorities committee is scheduled to vote on a key staff recommendation.

It calls for a "primarily tunnelled SkyTrain extension" from VCC-Clark Station to Arbutus Street.

Staff has also recommended that council "authorize the granting of access to City streets and certain City properties to the owner of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension or its delegate".

In addition, council is being asked to approve amendments in principle to the noise control bylaw.

This would permit the chief licence inspector to provide exceptions for the builder of the line.

This is "provided that an acceptable noise mitigation strategy is in place".

A report going to council's policy and strategic priorities committee states that rapid transit along the Broadway corridor has been "prioritized in City and regional plans for over twenty years".

"Following the announcements last month unlocking an estimated $7 billion of regional, provincial, and federal funding, TransLink is now developing the Investment Plan required to implement this next phase of the Vision," the staff report states.

Last month, the B.C. and federal governments reached an agreement that will result in $4.1 billion in federal funding coming to the province in the next decade for infrastructure projects.

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond reacted by saying this "further secures the resources" needed for a Broadway SkyTrain extension, as well as light rail in Surrey and an additional 420,000 addiction bus-service hours per year.

A TransLink report in late April pegged the cost of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension at $2.83 billion.

It noted that this "may be refined through additional technical analysis, public input, and design modifications".

The Millennium Line Broadway Extension will have six stations.

In mid-March, the chair of the TransLink Mayors' Council, Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan, announced that a deal had been reached with the province to ensure that the Broadway SkyTrain extension would proceed, as well as two light-rail lines in Surrey.

"This is a huge win for transit users, drivers, cyclists, and for pedestrians," Corrigan said at the time.

"In fact, this is the largest transit funding announcement in B.C. history and one of the largest ever across this nation."

Charlie Smith


Excuse my ignorance but what is "addiction" bus service? Is that where a bus load of addicts get together and act out or something like that? I guess Translink likes to cater to all types of passengers....

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Trainguy

12 May 2018
Excuse my ignorance but what is "addiction" bus service? Is that where a bus load of addicts get together and act out or something like that? I guess Translink likes to cater to all types of passengers....

"Additional"

[Hot Rod]

so, construction begins..... ?

I'd think given the criticality of this route which should have been built long ago, and the fact that we have had meetings to death about this for the past "what?" 10+ years, that this MLine extension should be shovel ready. Given the approval from the city, the mayors, fed and prov govt, and Tlink - doesn't that mean we now start construction?

Immediately? Yesterday? .....

[M00dy]

Originally Posted by Hot Rod

so, construction begins..... ?

I'd think given the criticality of this route which should have been built long ago, and the fact that we have had meetings to death about this for the past "what?" 10+ years, that this MLine extension should be shovel ready. Given the approval from the city, the mayors, fed and prov govt, and Tlink - doesn't that mean we now start construction?

Immediately? Yesterday? .....

Try after an RFQ/RFP process....optimistically you MIGHT have shovels in the ground a year from now.

[cganuelas1995]

How do you feel about the proposal to have aboriginal names on the stations? I feel like it's kinda SJWey

[nname]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

How do you feel about the proposal to have aboriginal names on the stations? I feel like it's kinda SJWey

Recently, TransLink spent years for station rename, skytrain route changes, bus route re-number, splitting, merging.... to reduce confusion in the transit system. Now the City propose to confuse the public to have two names for a station, or with one of them coming from nowhere?

I just think this proposal is completely opposite of TransLink's naming standard, so I don't think they will even consider it... Unless, of course, the City rename the streets into aboriginal name first.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

How do you feel about the proposal to have aboriginal names on the stations? I feel like it's kinda SJWey

Yep, very SJWey. And the money is going to somewhere that's corrupt...

Now I will throw a bone and say that if there is a station that is stopping at a significant Aboriginal centre that they should give the station that aboriginal name. However if we want to honestly incorporate the aboriginal language at this point, then we should be adding it to all of the Skytrain stations as a direct translation.

[David]

I hope people commenting about including Aboriginal names actually read the document which states these will be "additional names" and not the official station names.

[nname]

Originally Posted by David

I hope people commenting about including Aboriginal names actually read the document which states these will be "additional names" and not the official station names.

IMO that is so much worse than being the official name or part of the official name. Just imagine all the confusion that will cause.

Like I said, if Vancouver want that, they should start doing it on the street name or even city name first.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

How do you feel about the proposal to have aboriginal names on the stations?

I am not keen, mainly because I think it's important that the name of the station match the location. (This is one big reason why I thought sponsored station names was a terrible idea: especially as they would change when sponsorship changed.)

This would not be a problem if the streets were renamed to match. I am not advocating that, but I think it would be a better solution than giving stations unhelpful names.

P.S.: Yes, I did see the bit about these being additional names. That is less bad. Still, I think names should be functional.

[Metro-One]

The station names should be the cross streets, which also should not change given that they are quite pretty in this area named after trees.

At most one or possibly two stations could be hyphenated.

Perhaps “Arbutus-Musqueam Exchange”

If they do it for all 6 stations then it will come off as trying way to hard and somewhat insincere.

Also no “xycxxyuv” type names that none can pronounce.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Also no “xycxxyuv” type names that none can pronounce.

*BING* "The Next Station is: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh"

I can agree with you there but be damned if it wouldn't be something fresh.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by David

I hope people commenting about including Aboriginal names actually read the document which states these will be "additional names" and not the official station names.

Yes, and that's worse: now you've got a "prefix" that only the First Nations use and everybody else ignores. The last thing the Coast Salish languages need is the good ole separate-but-equal treatment.

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Also no “xycxxyuv” type names that none can pronounce.

Originally Posted by MIPS

*BING* "The Next Station is: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh"

Audio would actually be fine, since people can kinda mimic the recording and go from there.

Metro's right otherwise. Without at least partially Anglicizing it, you'll have one-third of riders saying "Squixwumesh" and the other two-thirds calling it by the English name. Neither is conducive to reconciliation.

[jollyburger]

I'd rather have sponsored station names for additional exits

[Mac Write]

I thought UBC agreed to provide funding for Skytrain on the UBC grounds. If so shouldn't the gov push to have SkyTrain go all the way into UBC? We need to have this line open by 2023.

[Metro-One]

They have, but none of the details have been worked out (or made public).

Realistic best case scenario is that construction commences on phase two (UBC) immediately following the opening of phase one, with an earliest possible opening date of 2028.

[logan5]

Chief Dan George Station has a nice ring to it.

[dpogue]

Originally Posted by Mac Write

I thought UBC agreed to provide funding for Skytrain on the UBC grounds. If so shouldn't the gov push to have SkyTrain go all the way into UBC? We need to have this line open by 2023.

Even if all the money were available to built it out to UBC right now, none of the surveying or pre-construction work has been done for that section. Trying to do it all at once would end up further delaying the project.

[KPELLY]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I'd rather have sponsored station names for additional exits

*BING* "The Next Station is: Lululemon" :p

I really hope they just leave the station names as the cross-streets.

Since we already ditched the Event Style Line Names (Expo, Millennium... should've been Olympic Line), I wouldn't mind a new Skytrain, LRT or streetcar line with a First Nations name (as long as it's easily pronounceable).

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by KPELLY

*BING* "The Next Station is: Lululemon" :p

I really hope they just leave the station names as the cross-streets.

Since we already ditched the Event Style Line Names (Expo, Millennium... should've been Olympic Line), I wouldn't mind a new Skytrain, LRT or streetcar line with a First Nations name (as long as it's easily pronounceable).

Yeah, but this isn’t a new Line, just an extension.

That would be more appropriate for one of the proposed Vancouver Street car lines.

I personally hate the retention of “Evergreen Extension” already.