Lougheed Town Centre station

Lougheed Town Centre (sometimes abbreviated as Lougheed) is an elevated station on the Expo and Millennium Lines of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The station is located at Lougheed Highway and Austin Road in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Initially a Millennium Line station, a reorganization of SkyTrain service patterns in 2016 brought a branch of the Expo Line over the existing tracks to serve the station. It is one of three stations where transfer between the Expo Line and the Millennium Line is possible, the other two such points of transfer being Commercial–Broadway and Production Way–University stations.

Lougheed Town Centre
SkyTrain station
Platform level at Lougheed Town Centre station
Location	9755 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby
Coordinates	49.24846°N 122.89702°W / 49.24846; -122.89702
Owned by	TransLink
Platforms	Centre platform Side platform
Tracks	3
Construction
Structure type	Elevated
Disabled access	Yes
Architect	Paul Merrick Architects
Other information
Station code	LH
Fare zone	2
History
Opened	August 31, 2002
Traffic
Passengers (2019[1])	4,144,000  1.4%
Rank	14 of 53
Services
Preceding station   TransLink   Following station Braid toward Waterfront via Columbia Expo Line Lougheed Production Way–University Terminus Production Way–University toward VCC–Clark Millennium Line Burquitlam toward Lafarge Lake–Douglas

The station is adjacent to a mid-size shopping mall, The City of Lougheed, formerly named "Lougheed Town Centre", from which the station drew its name. A Korean neighbourhood exists within walking distance of the south side of the station.

History

Lougheed Town Centre station was opened in 2002 as part of the original Millennium Line project. The station was designed by the architecture firm Paul Merrick Architects.[2]

An unfinished third platform had been roughed in on the east side of the station during its construction, in anticipation of a future connection for a SkyTrain extension to Coquitlam. The provincial government suspended plans for the extension in the early 2000s, and in the interim TransLink decided to use light rail technology for the alignment instead of Bombardier's Advanced Rapid Transit technology (as used on SkyTrain's Expo and Millennium Lines), which would have rendered the roughed-in platform and the adjacent switches obsolete.

In 2008, the provincial government announced new plans for the line, including a return to the use of SkyTrain technology. As a result, the third platform at the station would be built and used to connect to the Evergreen Extension stations. In 2012, construction began on the Evergreen Extension, which included the third platform at Lougheed Town Centre station.[3]

In 2016, SkyTrain service was reconfigured in anticipation of the opening of the Evergreen Extension; as a result, Lougheed Town Centre station became a temporary terminus station of the Millennium Line on October 22, 2016, with service running between VCC–Clark station and this station. At the same time, the third platform at the station opened, and a new Expo Line branch running between Waterfront and Production Way–University stations was created to serve the station.[4] When the Evergreen Extension opened on December 2, 2016, Lafarge Lake–Douglas station became the eastern Millennium Line terminus.

For the first 18 months of service on the Evergreen Extension, the third platform served eastbound trains while the southern half of the island platform served westbound trains (with Millennium Line trains running left-handed through the station); this measure allowed a cross-platform transfer between Millennium Line trains headed to VCC–Clark station and Expo Line trains headed to Waterfront station (via Columbia station). On June 25, 2018, normal right-hand running of Millennium Line trains through the station resumed, making it possible to do a cross-platform transfer between Expo Line trains headed for Production Way–University station and Millennium Line trains headed to Lafarge Lake–Douglas station.[5]

Services

The station is served by a bus loop and was the western terminus for the defunct 97 B-Line, which connected to Coquitlam Central station. Other bus connections to Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Moody, and Coquitlam areas make Lougheed Town Centre station a major transportation hub for the area and one of the busiest stations on the Millennium Line.

Station information

Platform 3 provides westbound Millennium Line service

Station layout

S	Street (west)	Austin Road entrance Compass vending machines and fare gates
C	Concourse	Austin Road entrance only; Walkway access to mall
T	Side platform; doors will open on the right
	Platform 3	← ■ Millennium Line towards VCC–Clark (Production Way–University)
	Platform 2	← ■ Expo Line towards Production Way–University (Terminus)
	Island platform; doors will open on the left
	Platform 1	■ Expo Line towards Waterfront (Braid) → ■ Millennium Line towards Lafarge Lake–Douglas (Burquitlam) →
S	Street (east)	Compass vending machines and fare gates, bus loop, convenience store

Entrances

Austin Road entrance

The entrance located on Gatineau Place is adjacent to the stations bus exchange

• Austin Road entrance : located at the west end of the station platform, with an elevator linking the street, concourse, and platform levels; however, there is no escalator between street and concourse level.
• Gatineau Place entrance : located at the east end of the station, connecting the platform with the bus loop at street level via elevators and both up and down escalators. Retail shops are present at this entrance. Bus and HandyDart drop-off areas are also located on Gatineau Place, in front of the station plaza.
• Mall entrance : located on the concourse level of the Austin Road entrance. It connects to The City of Lougheed via a weather-protected walkway through the mall parking lot.

Transit connections

See also: List of bus routes in Metro Vancouver

Lougheed Town Centre station provides an off-street transit exchange in between Gatineau Place and Lougheed Highway. The station is close to the boundary of Burnaby (fare zone 2) and Coquitlam (fare zone 3). Bus bay assignments are as follows:

Bay	Routes
1	Unloading only
2	152 Coquitlam Central Station
3	110 Metrotown Station
4	101 22nd Street Station
5	157 Burquitlam Station
6	180 Moody Centre Station
7	136 Brentwood Station
8	555 Carvolth Exchange
9	156 Braid Station
10	109 New Westminster Station N9 Downtown NightBus N9 Coquitlam Central Station NightBus

References

1. "2019 Transit Service Performance Review – SkyTrain Stations Ranked by Annual Boardings" (PDF). translink.ca. TransLink. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
2. Taggart, Jim (July 1, 2001). "Vancouver's Millennium Line". Canadian Architect. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
3. Brown, Scott (November 7, 2016). "TransLink will open Evergreen Line on Dec. 2". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on January 12, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
4. "Changes Coming to SkyTrain October 22". TransLink. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
5. Chan, Kenneth (June 11, 2018). "Train directions at Lougheed Town Centre Station permanently change this month". Daily Hive. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2019.