Waterfront Station Open House

On my way back home from work, I happened to stumble upon the Waterfront Station Area redevelopment plan open house. The City of Vancouver calls it "The Hub." The plan is to transform the area into "a world-class transportation interchange to integrate the many transportation modes which converge in the area, connect the City of Vancouver with the waterfront in this part of Downtown, and introduce high quality new development integrated with the transportation hub." The main areas of focus are the integration of a multimodal street network, transit-oriented land use, build heights and views, and the interface with transit, rail, and marine transportation network. You can read more at the City of Vancouver website on this plan. The plan is going to Vancouver City council for a vote in April and redevelopment isn't expected to happen for the next 10 years.


Of course TransLink is part of this planning process as this area is a major transit hub. TransLink is looking at redeveloping the whole station complex to better integrate SkyTrain, the Canada Line, West Coast Express, and SeaBus. It was interesting to note the comments on the following photo on Intercity Passenger Rail Service:

While not currently on the horizon, consideration will be given to providing passenger and track capacity for future intercity passenger rail service (e.g. to Seattle and Portland) within the facility given its strategically central location and lack of alternatives

Now when are we going to fix that Fraser River Rail Bridge!