TransLink announced on Tuesday beginning Oct. 3 that it will begin running overnight testing to prepare for major network expansions. Starting Saturday, SkyTrain cars will begin running overnight on weekends and some Mondays for approximately five months. The testing will take place on both the Expo and Millennium lines. Testing will take place outside of regular service hours with no customers on board and will not cause any disruptions to regular SkyTrain service. In a release, TransLink says some residents living near SkyTrain stations may hear trains running overnight, but testing will rotate between locations with measures in place to reduce noise. Overnight testing will run Saturdays from 1:45 to 5:45 a.m., Sundays from 1:45 to 6:45 a.m., and Mondays from 12:45 to 4:45 a.m. TransLink says this is a critical step toward the opening of the new, 40,000 square foot Operations Control Centre at Edmonds Station in Burnaby, set to open in 2027. The new OCC will support ongoing expansions, including the Broadway Subway Extension next year and the Dave Barret (Surrey-Langley) Extension, set to be ready in 2029. The new centre will gradually take control of trains and test a range of operations, including regular service, routine maintenance and emergency response. This is the first expansion of SkyTrain’s operations control space since its opening in 1985.
