Vancouver, BC, CN Skytrain

Opinion: "Future" SkyTrain stations should be built from the get-go instead

Capstan Station, the newest addition on TransLink’s SkyTrain network that opened just before Christmas 2024, sets a very high benchmark for a metro system’s station design with its thoughtfully optimized configuration and architectural design.

When the Canada Line was designed and planned in the 2000s, there was no need to include a station at the northeast corner of the intersection of No. 3 Road and Capstan Way — an area that was largely undeveloped at that time, with dense bushes on dozens of acres to the east and auto dealerships to the west.

But even in the 2000s, the City of Richmond had long-term plans to catalyze the area’s development into a high-density mixed-use residential community called Capstan Village.

And so the Canada Line was designed in a way to enable the future construction of Capstan Station at that specific location of the elevated guideway, which is also the midway point between Bridgeport Station and Aberdeen Station.
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