The Government of British Columbia has taken a major step to advance the standalone project of building an additional SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre (OMC) in the South of Fraser.
This will be the fifth OMC location for SkyTrain’s main network of the Expo and Millennium lines operated by TransLink subsidiary BC Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC).
OMCs are facilities where trains are cleaned, maintained, and repaired, and provide an operational hub for crews to maintain SkyTrain’s extensive infrastructure. Currently, the primary base of operations and maintenance for the Expo and Millennium lines are OMC1 and OMC2 near Edmonds Station in Burnaby, and there is a small facility for train storage, known as OMC3, near Inlet Centre Station in Coquitlam.
It has long been known that a significantly sized additional OMC will be built somewhere along the future 16-km-long Surrey-Langley extension of the Expo Line, most likely near the eastern end of the extension. However, the exact location has not been determined until recently.
The BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has now confirmed that the 36.5-acre site of 17916 Fraser Highway in Surrey’s North Cloverdale area has been acquired for OMC5.
The site is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Fraser Highway and 176 Street (Pacific Highway) — just east of the Serpentine River, surrounded by agricultural uses to the north and west, and a public park and single-family neighbourhood to the east and south.
Along the future Expo Line extension, the OMC5 location will be between Bakerview-166 Street Station and Hillcrest-184 Street Station.
Site of SkyTrain’s future OMC5 at 17916 Fraser Highway, Surrey, along the future Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line. (Government of BC/Daily Hive)
Site of SkyTrain’s future OMC5 at 17916 Fraser Highway, Surrey. (Google Maps)
Site of SkyTrain’s future OMC5 at 17916 Fraser Highway, Surrey. (Google Maps/Daily Hive)
Site of SkyTrain’s future OMC5 at 17916 Fraser Highway, Surrey. (Google Maps)
Records show the property was acquired for $8 million in early November 2023. Five weeks after the acquisition, the provincial government formally removed the property’s classification under the protected Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
“This land has been purchased for the future construction of a SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre,” the Ministry told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“The Province and TransLink are working through details related to OMC5. More information, including details about timing and budget, will be available in the future. OMC5 will provide necessary storage and maintenance to support Surrey-Langley SkyTrain operations and help enhance the SkyTrain system’s overall efficiency.”
Daily Hive Urbanized previously reported that OMC5 will be a separate project from the $4-billion Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension project, which will feature a 16-km-long elevated guideway along Fraser Highway with eight stations.
The decision to pursue OMC5 as a standalone project was reiterated by the Ministry, which also noted that OMC5 will be built concurrently with the SkyTrain extension and that there will be a contribution from the $4 billion extension project to fund a portion of OMC5.
Major construction work on the 16-km Expo Line extension is scheduled to begin later in 2024 for an opening in late 2028.
OMC5 in Surrey is in addition to the brand new OMC4 currently under construction at a 27-acre industrial site at 225 North Road near Braid Station in Coquitlam. The Expo Line’s service pattern through the area is currently temporarily altered through 2026 to accommodate the construction of OMC4’s track connection with the existing elevated guideway next to Highway 1.
TransLink previously pegged the total project cost of OMC4 in Coquitlam at about $300 million.
The Ministry did not provide details on the estimated cost of OMC5 in Surrey, but the provincial government’s BC Major Infrastructure Projects Brochure — a procurement guide for public and private sector use that lists major public infrastructure projects for bidding opportunities — has provided hints on the facility’s estimated cost range.
As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, the Spring 2022 brochure pegged OMC5’s cost at between $500 million and $1 billion.
Updated versions of the brochure in 2023 and Spring 2024 now peg OMC5 in the range of over $1 billion, based on the expected construction start date in 2027. This follows the steep inflationary trend in construction costs seen since March 2022.
February 2024 construction progress on SkyTrain’s OMC4, as seen from the Expo Line. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
February 2024 construction progress on SkyTrain’s OMC4, as seen from the Expo Line. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
But some major cost savings have already been realized, with OMC5’s cost of the Surrey site acquisition being just $8 million under the previous ALR classification. As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, in 2021, before the provincial government assumed the responsibility of funding, planning and building the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project, TransLink’s board of directors approved committing up to $150 million to acquire the land required for OMC5 — before accounting for any design and construction costs.
The new OMC4 in Coquitlam and OMC5 in Surrey will each be comparable to the size of OMC1 at Edmonds in Burnaby.
In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in Fall 2023, Sany Zein, the president and general manager of TransLink’s BCRTC, said there is a need to have the new OMC5 for the Expo Line in the South of Fraser to be built as soon as possible, coinciding with the opening of the Surrey-Langley extension.
“We extended the Expo Line to Surrey in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we built the Millennium Line, and we built the Evergreen Extension, but we never thought anything more about maintenance facilities, except for OMC3 as a small facility near Inlet Centre Station in Coquitlam. OMC2 in Edmonds was built to assemble trains,” said Zein.
“This is the first time we’re thinking ahead. With 16 km of new SkyTrain route in the South of the Fraser, we need something down there.”
OMC5 is intended to serve not only the Surrey-Langley extension, but also the overall long-term needs of the SkyTrain network.
Zein deemed the future OMC4 to be their “catch-up depot” that should have been built when the Expo Line was expanded in the 1990s, and especially after the opening of the Millennium Line in 2002 and its Evergreen Extension in 2016.
Artistic rendering of SkyTrain’s OMC4 in Coquitlam. (Charter PDI/TransLink)
Artistic rendering of SkyTrain’s OMC4 in Coquitlam. (Charter PDI/TransLink)
The new OMC4 and upgrades to OMC1 will also enable the storage and maintenance of the forthcoming mass arrivals of 205 new generation Mark V cars, which will be connected into 41 five-car articulated trains that stretch the entire length of the platforms on the Expo and Millennium lines — the longest and highest capacity trains yet on the SkyTrain network. All 41 trains from an initial order of Mark V trains will arrive over the coming years through 2028.
In May 2024, it was announced that TransLink had exercised the option for a second order of 30 additional Mark V cars to form six five-car articulated trains. This second order will be used to help serve the capacity needs of the Surrey-Langley extension.
Zein says the two new additional major OMC facilities in Coquitlam and Surrey will be a game changer for BCRTC, which should enable improved maintenance outcomes of the fleet and infrastructure.
“This points to the evolution of BCRTC from being a single-node company — the node is here at OMC1 in Edmonds — to being a multi-node company. This is one of our big transformations with the future OMC4 in Coquitlam and OMC5 in the South of the Fraser. We’ll begin to have different centres of operations where we can be much more nimble in our response to any issues that show up on the line,” he told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“This is one of the first times when we’re ahead of the game, where we’ve identified the need and are working with our provincial colleagues on getting the site identified, planned, and designed.”
BCRTC is also in the process of building a new state-of-the-art control room building for the Expo and Millennium lines at OMC2, which will replace the 1980s-built control room facilities of OMC1 across the street in the Edmonds area.
The SkyTrain network has another OMC near Bridgeport Station for the Canada Line, which is separately operated and maintained under contract by Atkins Réalis’ (formerly SNC-Lavalin) ProTrans BC division. This Bridgeport OMC underwent a storage capacity expansion about five years ago to handle an incoming expansion of the Canada Line train fleet.
Summer 2022 construction progress on the new SkyTrain control centre building at OMC2 (left) and upgrades on OMC1 (right) to handle the future Mark V cars. (TransLink)
Inside the Expo and Millennium lines’ maintenance facilities at SkyTrain’s OMC1 in Edmonds. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Inside the Expo and Millennium lines’ maintenance facilities at SkyTrain’s OMC1 in Edmonds. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)