Get ready for that new SkyTrain smell.
If all goes as planned, the first train of the order of 47 new generation fully-articulated five-car-long SkyTrain cars will go into service sometime in the first quarter of 2025, according to TransLink.
By the end of 2025, between 10 to 12 of these five-car-long trains will be running on the Expo Line and Millennium Line network.
These new generation trains are known as the Mark V cars, and they are the longest and highest capacity trains on the SkyTrain network yet.
TransLink has ordered a total of 235 Mark V cars.
The very first Mark V train built by Alstom arrived in Metro Vancouver in December 2023, and testing began in early 2024.
According to a TransLink board report last month, this first Mark V train has completed many tests over the course of the past year. A second train arrived in August 2024 and is currently undergoing testing, while a third train arrived in October 2024. The trains are being built in Alstom’s manufacturing facility in Kingston, Ontario.
The first Mark V SkyTrain train being tested at Alstom’s facility in Kingston, Ontario, August 2023. (TransLink)
New Mark V SkyTrain cars arrive at TransLink’s Edmonds facility in Burnaby, December 2023. (TransLink)
Out of the 205 cars from the initial order in 2020, 125 cars (25 trains) will be used to retire the entirety of the fleet of 150 old Mark I cars from the 1980s and early 1990s, 80 cars (16 five-car-long trains) will increase overall network capacity on both the Expo and Millennium lines, and 30 cars (six five-car-long trains) will increase capacity on the Millennium Line for the Broadway extension’s opening in Fall 2027. In May 2024, TransLink exercised its option to order an additional 30 new Mark V cars (six five-car-long trains), specifically for the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension, bringing the new generation fleet size to 235 cars or 47 five-car-long trains.
As an upgraded version of the fully-articulated four-car-long Mark III cars, which were rolled out between 2016 and 2020, these new Mark V cars feature improved interior designs, such as a new seating and standing configuration with flex spaces, Indigenous art, and a large video screen above the doors for the programmable display of useful information, including next station details. According to TransLink, they completed the “design of the onboard route map display and messaging screens” in late 2024.
The first completed new generation five-car Mark V train for SkyTrain. (TransLink)
The first completed new generation five-car Mark V train for SkyTrain. (TransLink)
These five-car-long trains will span the entire length of the approximate 80-metre-long station platforms found on the Expo and Millennium lines. The five-car-long Mark V train will be able to hold 672 passengers regularly, both seated and standing, while the four-car Mark III train can currently hold 533 passengers. This is an increase of 139 people per train compared to the four-car-long Mark III train. Under crush capacity, the Mark V train can potentially hold up to 1,207 passengers, whereas the Mark III train can handle up to 940 passengers.
The first 205 Mark V cars (41 five-car-long Mark V trains) have an arrival schedule from 2024 to 2028. The remaining 30 Mark V cars (six five-car-long Mark V trains) from the exercised option are expected to arrive before the 2029 opening of the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension.
A new additional SkyTrain operations and maintenance facility, known as OMC4, is currently being built in Coquitlam near Braid Station to handle the incoming new fleet of trains. It is expected to open in 2027.
There are also plans to build a new additional SkyTrain operations and maintenance facility, known as OMC5, in North Cloverdale in Surrey, next to Fraser Highway on the future Expo Line extension.