On March 29, Vancouver City Council approved a plan to extend the SkyTrain Millenium Line to UBC.
The plan would extend the Millennium Line from its upcoming Arbutus Street station — set to be completed in 2025 — to UBC with stations at MacDonald Street, Alma Street and Jericho Lands. TransLink developed the proposal in partnership with the City of Vancouver and Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples to ease congestion on the busiest bus route in North America. It will now be sent to the Mayor’s Council for endorsement.
Though funding for the development of the business case for the project has been committed, funding for the extension itself has yet to be finalized. No timeline was given for the extension’s construction following the approval.
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VP External Saad Shoaib said that the AMS “was super excited” about the approval, describing the planned extension as a boon for many areas in addition to transit.
“The SkyTrain is not just about convenient transit. It’s about the creation of more affordable housing, thousands of new jobs, important and key Indigenous partnerships and an increased focus on sustainable infrastructure.”
Respondents to a TransLink survey last year overwhelmingly expressed support for the project.
However, City Councillor Jean Swanson expressed concern about housing prices and climate impacts resulting from the construction of the line. She and Councillor Adriane Carr asked staff to investigate how the city can “ensure that the [extension] does not result in … high housing prices and rents as in the case of the SkyTrain on Cambie” and “the impact of embodied carbon in SkyTrain construction.”
In a report published in the International Economic Review, assistant professor of economics Andrea Craig and Bank of Canada economist Alex Chernoff found that recent Vancouver SkyTrain expansions increased housing prices in newly connected neighbourhoods and those near pre-existing lines.
They also found wealthier individuals saw greater benefit from transit expansion than lower-income earners. This was with the exception of those working in newly-connected neighbourhoods.
Urban design professor Patrick Condon said UBC should invest in on-campus housing and fund surface rail rather than an underground extension, noting the cost and environmental impact of subway systems.
“Subway is ten times more expensive per kilometre than a surface rail option ... it also has so much concrete that it’s 25 times more greenhouse gas intensive...”
Condon went on to describe an alternative solution to transit congestion in the form of housing on the Endowment Lands. “I find it astonishing that UBC does not choose to use its land inventory to house students, staff and faculty at affordable prices when they could easily do so," he said.
UBC is currently building numerous on-campus housing options for students and faculty.
Despite concern about housing prices, Shoaib said the line could provide new opportunities for affordable housing development.
“The Jericho Lands have the capacity to provide up to 8,000 new homes to the Metro Vancouver region,” said Shoaib.
Though Vancouver City Council provided no timeline for implementation of the plan, Shoaib suggested that construction of the line could begin as early as 2025.
“We could see shovels in the ground for the SkyTrain to UBC by 2025.”