Waterfront is a major intermodal public transportation facility and the
main transit terminus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is
located on West Cordova Street in Downtown Vancouver, between Granville
and Seymour Street. The station is also accessible via
two other street-level entrances, one on Howe Street to the west for
direct access to the Expo Line and another on Granville Street to the
south for direct access to the Canada Line.
The station is within
walking distance of Vancouver's historical Gastown district, Canada
Place, Convention & Exhibition Centre, Harbour Centre, Sinclair
Centre, and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre float plane terminal. A
heliport operated by Helijet, along with the downtown campuses for Simon
Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, are
also located within the vicinity of the station.
Waterfront
station was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and opened on
August 1, 1914. It was the Pacific terminus for the CPR's
transcontinental passenger trains to Montreal, Quebec and Toronto,
Ontario. The current station is the third CPR station. The previous CPR
station was located one block west, at the foot of Granville, and unlike
the current classical-styled Waterfront station was built in "railway
gothic" like the CPR's many railway hotels.
In 1978, when Via
Rail took over the passenger operations of the CPR and the Canadian
National Railway, it continued using both railways' stations in
Vancouver, but a year later, Via consolidated its Vancouver operations
at Pacific Central Station, the CN station near False Creek, and ceased
using the CPR station. The last scheduled Via passenger train to use
Waterfront station departed on October 27, 1979.
Waterfront
station's transformation into a public intermodal transit facility began
in 1977. That year, the SeaBus began operating out of a purpose-built
floating pier that was connected to the main terminal building via an
overhead walkway above the CPR tracks. The CPR's passenger platform and
some of its tracks were torn up in the early 1980s to make way for the
guideway of the original SkyTrain line (Expo Line), which opened on
December 11, 1985. During Expo 86, SkyTrain operated special shuttle
trains between Waterfront station and Stadium–Chinatown station (then
named Stadium station), connecting the Canadian Pavilion at Canada Place
to the main Expo site along False Creek.
A private ferry
company, Royal SeaLink Express, ran passenger ferries from a new dock on
the west side of the SeaBus terminal to Victoria and Nanaimo in the
early 1990s, but ultimately folded. In 2003, HarbourLynx began operating
out of Royal Sealink's old facility at the SeaBus terminal. In 2006,
following major engine problems with their only vessel, they folded as
well.
In 1995, platforms were built adjacent to the SkyTrain
station for the West Coast Express, which uses the existing CPR tracks.
The platforms for the West Coast Express were built in the same location
as the old CPR platforms.
In 2002, Millennium Line trains began
to share tracks with the Expo Line at Waterfront station. The lines
continued to share tracks until late 2016, when an Expo Line branch to
Production Way–University station was created in replacement of the
Millennium Line service between VCC–Clark and Waterfront stations.
In
2009, the Canada Line opened with separate platforms which are
accessible via the main station building, but require leaving the fare
paid zone when transferring between other modes. Waterfront station
serves as a common terminus point for both the Expo Line and the Canada
Line.
Waterfront station was one of the first stations to receive
TransLink's "T" signage, denoting a transit station. This signage was
originally installed in the downtown core of Vancouver to help visitors
during the 2010 Olympics, as it made transit hubs easier to identify.
In
2018, TransLink announced that Waterfront's Canada Line platforms, as
well as two other stations on the line located within downtown
Vancouver, would receive an accessibility upgrade which includes
additional escalators, as most Canada Line stations were built with only
up escalators initially. Construction is expected to begin in early
2019.
Waterfront's main station building was designed in a
neoclassical style, with a symmetrical red-brick facade dominated by a
row of smooth, white Ionic order columns. The Ionic columns are repeated
in the grand interior hall, flanking the perimeter of the space. The
main hall features two large clocks facing each other high on the east
and west walls. Paintings depicting various scenic Canadian landscapes,
completed in 1916 by Adelaide Langford, line the walls above the
columns. The Montreal architecture firm Barott, Blackader and Webster
was responsible for designing the main station building.
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