Millennium Line

Millennium Line
Two trains meeting at Brentwood Station
Overview
Type	Light Metro Rapid Transit
System	SkyTrain
Termini	VCC–Clark Lafarge Lake–Douglas
Stations	17
Operation
Opened	January 7, 2002
Owner	TransLink (BC Transit)
Operator(s)	British Columbia Rapid Transit Company
Rolling stock	Bombardier ART Mark I and Mark II
Technical
Line length	31.2 km (19.4 mi)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	Third rail (Linear motor)
Operating speed	80 km/h (50 mph)

The Millennium Line is the second rapid transit line built in the SkyTrain metro system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by TransLink. Millennium Line uses the colour yellow on route maps, wayfinding and station signage.

Effective December 2, 2016, eastbound service on the Millennium Line terminates at Lafarge Lake–Douglas station in Coquitlam. The Expo Line now serves Production Way–University, Lougheed Town Centre, Braid, and Sapperton, with Braid and Sapperton now being exclusively Expo Line stations.

When the Expo Line was opened in 1985, an extension to Lougheed Mall in east Burnaby was proposed. The most likely junction point for the spur to Lougheed Mall would have been from Royal Oak Station, up Edmonds Street to Lougheed Mall, although early SkyTrain route maps also suggested an extension northeast from New Westminster. Neither plan was realized, although the extension of Expo Line tracks to Columbia Station in 1989 and the completion of the Skybridge to Surrey in 1990 resulted in a short spur east of Columbia Station, which was later incorporated into the new Millennium Line.

In 1995, the British Columbia government announced that an entirely new line, a street-level light rail line, would be built along Broadway and Lougheed Highway to Lougheed Mall (served by Lougheed Town Centre Station), as the first phase of the "T"-Line (one of three Intermediate Capacity Transit System lines) outlined in the Metro Vancouver's Livable Region Strategic Plan that extended into Coquitlam. An 18-month review of rapid transit was scheduled and started in January 1998 but was cut short by the government's announcement of its choice of Bombardier's technology in June 1998. This meant that the first phase of the line would have to connect to the existing Expo Line to use its maintenance yard. Connecting the two lines at Broadway Station was deemed impracticable, so the lines were connected in New Westminster. Switches to the Millennium Line were installed on the Expo Line at the north end of the Skybridge. Expo Line service was reduced to a single track over the Skybridge during the installation of these switches.