SkyTrain Vancouver

The Vancouver SkyTrain is a driverless, rail-based mass transit system in Greater Vancouver. The first line was opened on January 3, 1986 with regard to the World Expo 86. The name (translated Himmelszug ) refers to the predominantly realized a viaduct construction of the SkyTrain network. With 48 stations and a length of 68.8 kilometers of SkyTrain was the longest automatic transport system in the world, until the Dubai Metro since the 9th of September 2011, a greater length of the route. The Expo Line and Millennium Line open up next to the city center and the eastern suburbs Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey. The opened in 2009 in view of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Canada Line runs from downtown south to Richmond and the Vancouver airport. The Expo Line and Millennium Line are operated by linear motor while driving on the recent Canada Line trains with conventional drive.

Line network

The Expo Line connects Waterfront, the former railway station of the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR), the King George Station in Surrey. In the city center, the line runs underground through the Dunsmuir Tunnel, which formerly linked the transcontinental railway line of the CPR with the goods station at False Creek. From the Station Stadium - Chinatown the track is elevated except for brief walk- sections. After New Westminster followed by a short tunnel to the station Columbia. After crossing the route via the Skybridge the Fraser River and reached Surrey. There, the Expo Line runs again elevated to the terminus. Between the stations Nanaimo and New Westminster uses the Expo Line, the old route of the disused 1954 Interurban ( Regional tramway ) of the British Columbia Electric Railway.

The Millennium Line is a quasi- circle line. She is traveling together with the Expo Line section between Waterfront and Columbia. There it branches off to the north and leads to Lougheed Town Centre. It makes there a big swing to the west and opens up the northern parts of Burnaby. Then crosses at the station Commercial Drive the trunk route and finally ends in the station VCC -Clark. The non- cooperation with the Expo Line busy section is fully elevated.

The Canada Line begins at Waterfront Station and first leads underground to the Marine Drive; the rest of the route is elevated or at ground level, because in this area of ​​the bottom of the tunnel is not suitable. After crossing the Fraser River, the track at the station Bridgeport branched. A branch leads to the city center of Richmond, the other to the airport.

History

First electric trams wrong in 1890 in Vancouver, the route network expanded in the sequence in the suburbs of. From the mid- 1950s, however, this was completely withdrawn and replaced by diesel and trolley buses. The last tram reversed in 1958. As part of the urban development project, Project 58, the architect Wells Coates designed the monorail mono chip Twin -Ride system. This design was not implemented, but picked up again in the 1980s. In 1971, the "Kelly Report" appeared, a traffic study for the Metro Vancouver region, which recommended, among other things, the construction of a mass transit rail system. The fundamental decision to build a rail-bound means of transport fell in 1975.

Vancouver in 1980 he received the bid to host the World Expo 86 This caused an acceleration of the Design and construction work, as the system had to be ready until 1986. The British Columbia Rapid Transit Company ( BC Transit ) is strongly oriented to existing systems on the European continent. Among other design features and practices is indeed the Vienna U -Bahn were taken. So the entrance building and the platform of the station Burrard has been designed by the Austrian architect group subway for example.

Just in time for the World Expo, the Expo Line was completed and went into operation on January 3, 1986 between the Waterfront station and the station New Westminster. In July the same year, work on a already decided in May 1984 extension from New Westminster to Scotts Road began. This 2.2 km long, consisting of a 0.3 km long tunnel piece and a viaduct route extension is running on the Skybridge, a cable-stayed bridge over the Fraser River. The extension was put into operation on 16 March 1990. That same year, construction began on a further extension of the Expo Line. A four- kilometer route with three stations of Scott Road to King George in 1994 was opened to traffic.

First thoughts on the Millennium Line, there was in 1996 in " GVRD 's Livable Region Strategic Plan", which found that in the corridor Lougheed -Broadway present significant traffic flows, which could not be offset by diesel or trolley buses altogether. Just another line of SkyTrain grew this traffic. The in 1998, which was organized by the Government of the Province of British Columbia competition was won by a subsidiary established for this purpose the SkyTrain operator Translink, Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd. (RTP 2000). For construction of the line included the procurement of 60 trains of the type MKII Bombardier.

Construction work on the Millennium Line began on 14 October 1999. The first section between Columbia and Braid was opened after several delays on 5 January 2002. A little more than half a year later, on August 31, 2002, the section between Braid and Commercial Drive went into operation. On 6 January 2006, the extension between Commercial Drive and VCC -Clark followed.

1995, plans for a third line, the Canada Line. The decision to build the line was the end of 2004, construction began in October 2005. Initially, the opening for 30 November 2009 was planned, but this date could be brought forward to 17 August 2009.

Construction and planning

For the year 2016Vorlage: Future / In 2 years, the completion of the 11 -kilometer Evergreen Line is planned. Will lead you from the station Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby through Port Moody after Coquitlam. Contrary to the initial plans, which stipulated execute the line as light rail, the line is now available as Advanced Rapid Transit system, ie line are built with the same technology as the Millennium and Expo.

Rolling stock

At the Expo Line originally only 12 meters long ICTS cars MK I / Mark I ( Intermediate Capacity Transit System) were used. These vehicles are similar to those of the system Advanced Rapid Transit used on the Scarborough RT in Toronto and the Detroit People Mover in Detroit. For the Millennium Line built Bombardier Transportation a new 18-meter articulated buses of type MK II / Mark II, identical to those of the transport system in Kuala Lumpur.

The moves of both models operate as two-car train (ie, either two cars of type MK I or one unit of the MK II permanently coupled together ). For the model MK II also additional intermediate cars, but only very rarely be used to exist. In general, the SkyTrain runs trains from two two-car train, a total of four cars. The trains of the different series are not mixed operated. In addition to times come short two-car trains at peak times or during events also units from six cars to use. The cars of type MK I are currently used primarily as an amplifier at peak times. Currently there are a total of 150 MK- I and 60 MK-II-F VEHICLES.

The operator Translink ordered in November 2006 34 MK-II-F VEHICLES with a contract volume of approximately 77 million euros in May 2008, triggering an option for 14 additional vehicles. The production took over the Bombardier works in Sahagún, Mexico and Thunder Bay in Ontario. In 2009, 48 were delivered MK-II-F VEHICLES.