Evergreen Extension

The Evergreen Extension (previously known as the Evergreen Line) is a 10.9-kilometre-long (6.8 mi) extension of the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The extension runs from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Lafarge Lake–Douglas in Coquitlam and included six new SkyTrain stations and an upgraded existing station (Lougheed Town Centre) on the Millennium Line. It began operations on December 2, 2016.

Since the extension opened, the Millennium Line has operated between VCC–Clark and Lafarge Lake–Douglas. In 2012, the Evergreen extension was expected to see 50,000 riders daily in its first year of operation, rising to 70,000 passengers per day by 2021. Actual usage, however, has consistently been lower than this, with 30,000 trips taken on an average weekday in January 2017, rising to almost 40,000 trips per day in 2019, before usage dropped sharply as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

History

A rapid transit extension to Coquitlam was intended to be phase 2 of the new Millennium Line that was completed in 2002. As the costs of the project rose, however, plans to extend the line into Coquitlam were cancelled, though not before a third incomplete concrete platform on the westbound side of the Lougheed Town Centre station was built, with a spur of tracks for a potential extension.

After completion of the Millennium Line, TransLink undertook several studies regarding the fate of the extension, considering a variety of possible options, including a diesel multiple unit-based railway, a light rail transit line, a new SkyTrain line, and an express bus service. In September 2002, the 97 B-Line express bus service was launched.