Fraser River Line

The Fraser River Line is one of the six lines of the Greater Vancouver Metro operated by the BC Hydro Railway on behalf of the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority.

The Fraser River Line connects to the Olympic Line at UBC Centre Station, to the Central Line at New Westminster Station, and to the Evergreen Line at Columbia Station. Between Marine Drive-70th Avenue Station and Marpole Station it shares track with the Expo Line.

History
The Fraser River Line was originally opened in 1910 by the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) as the Westminster–Eburne Line from New Westminster to Marpole (then called Eburne), South Vancouver, for freight and interurban service. Connecting at Marpole to the BCER's Lulu Island Line and with the Central Park Line in New Westminster, the opening of the new line creating a triangular network of interurban and freight service linking the municipalities of Vancouver, South Vancouver, Richmond, and New Westminster. Originally electrified at 1500V DC, in 1934 it was converted to 25kV 60Hz AC operation, and the new 1000 series multiple-unit trainsets were introduced to replace the old wooden-bodied interurban cars, the newest of which were twenty years old at the time. The line remained an important transportation artery through the 1970s.

Plans for the construction in several phases of the Greater Vancouver Metro (GVM) system were finalised by a joint commission of the Dominion government, the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority, and the BC Hydro Railway in 1977, with the first phase involving the conversion of the Lulu Island Line and the Westminster–Eburne Line rights-of-way from regular at-grade railway lines to dedicated lines without road crossings, using a mix of ground-level, underground, or elevated guideways as appropriate. As part of the realisation of the programme's first phase, freight service along the Westminster–Eburne Line was permanently discontinued in 1984, and then, just prior to the commencement of reconstruction work, passenger trains were suspended and replaced by a substitute bus service for the duration of work.

The new Fraser River Line follows the right-of-way of the Westminster–Eburne Line between Marpole and Nelson; from there to New Westminster, it runs along an elevated guideway following a different route. Work on this section was completed in three years, becoming the second GVM line to be opened to the public, with a ceremony conducted by Prime Minister Grace McCarthy being held at New Westminster Station on 4 April 1987. Work on two extensions, one from Marine Drive-70th Avenue Station on the Expo Line to the University of British Columbia and one from New Westminster to Liverpool, envisioned as part of the first phase of GVM construction, began in late 1989. The short Liverpool extension was opened in July 1991, whilst the much longer UBC extension, running underground for almost its entire length, was opened in August 1993, with trains of the Expo, Airport, and Fraser River Lines sharing the section between Marine Drive-70th Avenue and Marpole Stations.

Five miles of the original line remain in service: the four miles from Greenall to the BC Hydro Railway's classification yard and shops at Trapp Yard as the Vancouver & Lulu Island Line (so named in honour of the railway company that originally built the Arbutus Line), and one mile from Trapp Yard to Hydro's New Westminster freight yard, shared by the Central Park Line, the Liverpool Line and the Queensborough Line.

Route


From UBC Centre to Milepost 6.6 just west of Marine Drive-70th Avenue Station the line is underground, and from that point to Milepost 13.3, west of Nelson Station, the line is at ground level. From Milepost 13.3 it moves to an elevated guideway, on which it remains for a short distance past New Westminster Station before returning underground. Columbia Station is itself underground; immediately east of there the line turns onto a bridge across the Fraser River; this bridge becomes an elevated guideway for the remainder of the line to Liverpool Station.