The new Evergreen Line between Burnaby and Coquitlam has officially been launched.
The first train took off from Lougheed Town Centre Station en route to Lafarge Lake Douglas Station in Coquitlam at noon on Friday.
It is a total of 11 kilometres and will connect the Tri-Cities to Downtown Vancouver. About 70,000 passengers will ride the route each day by 2021, TransLink expects.
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The Evergreen Line was supposed to start operations in 2014. However, a series of construction problems forced the opening date to be pushed back.
While Clark’s government insists that the $1.4-billion project has been delivered between $70 million and $85 million under the budget set in 2008, NDP MLA for Vancouver Point Grey David Eby questioned the numbers.
The launch of the new line led to significant changes to the existing Millennium and Expo Lines.
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The Millennium Line will no longer run to Waterfront Station, it will take you from VCC-Clark to Lougheed Town Centre and will continue onto the Evergreen Line extension when it opens.
The Expo Line will now have two routes: One travelling between Waterfront and King George stations and a second between Waterfront and Production Way-University stations.
Due to the opening of the Evergreen Line, 22 bus routes in the Tri-Cities will change as well, including the C24, 97 B-Line, 160, 188 and the 143.