Provincial officials say all track installation for the Broadway Subway’s Millennium Line extension to Arbutus is complete, enabling next-phase testing toward a late-2027 opening.
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All track installation work for the Broadway Subway has been completed, a provincial update says, reaching 100% completion for the Millennium Line extension to Arbutus. The milestone covers installation of the running rails, power rail and linear induction motor (LIM) rail in both the eastbound and westbound directions across the project’s 5.7-kilometre alignment.
The completion of track work is expected to allow more advanced testing to begin across the extension’s full segments. The update says that as the project moves closer to opening, stress testing will ramp up under real-world conditions, with trains running all day at normal frequencies and stopping at each of the new subway stations.
Construction of the extension began earlier in phases, with initial testing on the first segments starting in spring 2026 once track work in those areas had been finished. With the track now complete across the whole alignment, the provincial government says construction focus is shifting to other major remaining tasks.
Those tasks include installing utilities, filling in the below-grade space above the structures of the six new stations, and completing station entrance buildings and interior work. Outside the corridor, the project’s work also continues to shape street access, with roadway changes remaining part of the construction schedule.
Two blocks of West Broadway between Cambie Street and Alberta Street, the area associated with Broadway–City Hall Station, have been closed to all vehicles since late July to remove a temporary traffic bridge deck and restore the roadway. The update says the road is expected to fully reopen in January 2027, with buses and other vehicles diverted along 8th Avenue via Cambie Street and Alberta Street during the closure.
A separate roadway closure earlier in the project also informed the current approach. The update notes that a full vehicle closure was required for a one-block stretch of East Broadway between Quebec Street and Alberta Street, near Mount Pleasant Station, lasting four months, though it involved a different scope of work.
For the next stage of bridge-deck removal at Arbutus Station, South Granville Station and Oak–VGH Station, officials said closures are expected to be more limited than a full detour. The update says only partial lane closures, rather than highly disruptive full road closures, will be required for that work.
Work at station entrances is also underway along the line. The update highlights progress above ground at Great Northern Way–Emily Carr Station, indicating continued construction activity at station locations as the project transitions from rail installation to station and utilities completion.
The provincial update also provided a separate progress report on the Surrey–Langley SkyTrain project, known as the Dave Barrett Extension. Officials said construction of the 16-kilometre elevated guideway along Fraser Highway is about 65% complete, extending the Expo Line from King George Station to Langley City Centre with eight new elevated stations.
The update says one of the specialized gantry crane launching machines used to assemble the elevated guideway is scheduled to move from Surrey into Langley this week. The machine, called the Langley Launcher, has already built roughly three kilometres of guideway starting at Hillcrest–184 Street Station and is expected to build the segment over Willowbrook Drive before continuing toward the Willowbrook Station site.
Other launching machines are also at work. The Surrey Sprinter is expected to reach Green Timbers Station in the coming weeks and build elevated guideway west of the station this fall, while the Fleetwood Flyer is due to finish its assigned stretch of about three kilometres in October 2026.
Officials said these machines install 4,400 precast concrete elevated guideway segments onto more than 480 concrete columns. The segments are manufactured at a temporary plant in Campbell Heights, and the update says two of the four machines are expected to complete their elevated guideway installation work before the end of 2026.
In addition to guideway progress, the update states that more than 95% of the elevated guideway’s foundation piles and support columns are complete and that all eight stations are under construction. Trackwork on the Expo Line extension is also described as having begun this past spring, with initial testing expected to start in late 2026.
Looking ahead, officials said the Dave Barrett Extension is expected to be completed and open in late 2029. Once it opens, the update said TransLink’s combined SkyTrain network—which includes the Canada Line, the extended Millennium Line and the extended Expo Line—will total just over 100 kilometres, representing about a 22-kilometre growth before the end of the decade from the opening of both extensions.
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