History of Main Street SkyTrain Station

I hope that you had a good holiday season. I will be back to regular blog posts starting on Monday, but I thought I would share a picture I found while sorting through boxes of old photos over the last few weeks.

While I grew up in the Okanagan, my family frequented Vancouver fairly often to visit family and friends. I’m sure it comes as no surprise, but I thought that the SkyTrain system was simply amazing.

I recently read a series of articles about the development of the Main Street SkyTrain station on the SFU Urban Studies Blog. While not about the South of Fraser, it is none the less very interesting. Main Street SkyTrain station was the first station built back in the 1980’s along with a section of test track along Terminal Avenue. This section was put into services as a demonstration line before the rest of the SkyTrain system was built and put into service.

In the 1980s, there was an ambitious plan, much like New Westminster SkyTrain station is today, for a transit-oriented development. This plan was toned-down and transformed into what you see around Main Street Station today.

Citygate I building under construction in the summer of 1991.

Anyway while digging through those old photos, I found that the eight-year-old version of me took a picture of the Citygate I building while it was under construction. This was one of the first buildings that was part of the redevelopment around the SkyTrain station.

Apparently my desire to build transit-friendly and walkable communities started at a young age.