The Surrey commute got a little easier Sunday with the reopening of the King George SkyTrain station, a pivotal Metro Vancouver transit hub.
The station, which serves as the terminus for the Expo Line, had been closed for six weeks for essential maintenance.
TransLink says the upgrades were required to repair and replace aging infrastructure that had been in service for three decades.
Among the completed maintenance upgrades was the replacement of two turnouts — vital mechanical devices guiding trains between tracks, which represented the bulk of the repair work, according to TransLink spokesperson Thor Diako.
The King George SkyTrain station in Surrey will be closed for around six weeks for maintenance work, with the terminus of the Expo Line temporarily shifting to Surrey Central Station. Ali Pitargue spoke to TransLink’s Tina Lovgreen about how to plan ahead for the closure and how the transit authority plans to keep commuters moving.
“The section of track that we were actually replacing had been in use since the station first opened 30 years ago,” Diakow told CBC News.
“With a lot of the aging infrastructure on some of the SkyTrain systems, these kinds of necessary upgrades and maintenance are required to keep it safe and to keep it running in good working order.”
Diakow said other upgrades were also completed in the last six weeks, including improvements to power rails, cables, elevators, lighting and electrical systems.
During the service disruption, the Expo Line extended only as far as Surrey Central, while adjustments were made to various bus routes to better accommodate commuters affected by the King George shutdown.
The SkyTrain station serving the Expo Line will close for six weeks, from April 27 until mid-June, due to what TransLink is calling “essential maintenance”.
“Customers were still able to access most of the area surrounding King George Station and the businesses were well informed of this work and the impact that it would be having on them well before it started,” said Diakow.
However, Anita Huberman, president and CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, says the closure inconvenienced commuters and local businesses.
“The businesses in the area around the King George hub, they felt the actual bottom-line impact as well,” she said. “What that is, I don’t know, but anecdotally, I’ve heard that it’s been a challenge.”
Huberman says congestion around the Surrey Central SkyTrain station increased due to traffic diverted during the closure.
Despite some inconvenience, TransLink says it contacted the public, media and local businesses in advance to mitigate potential disruptions.
“We didn’t hear of any complaints from people. We had let the media know and the community know and customers well in advance of the station closing, probably about a month before it was set to close and the work begin,” a spokesperson said.