SkyTrain station | |||||||||||||||
Track and platform configuration at the station (left to right): Spare platform, outbound platform, inbound platform
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Location | 590 Beatty Street, Vancouver | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 49°16′46″N 123°6′34″W / 49.27944°N 123.10944°WCoordinates: 49°16′46″N 123°6′34″W / 49.27944°N 123.10944°W | ||||||||||||||
Owned by | BC Transit, TransLink | ||||||||||||||
Platforms | Centre and side platforms | ||||||||||||||
Tracks | 3 | ||||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||||
Structure type | At grade, elevated, and underground | ||||||||||||||
Disabled access | Yes | ||||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||||
Station code | ST | ||||||||||||||
Fare zone | 1 | ||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||
Opened | December 11, 1985 | ||||||||||||||
Previous names | Stadium station (1985–2004) | ||||||||||||||
Traffic | |||||||||||||||
Passengers (2011) | 28,527 | ||||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||||
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Stadium–Chinatown station (formerly Stadium station) is part of the SkyTrain system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It serves the Expo Line, at the eastern entrance of the Dunsmuir Tunnel, located beneath Downtown Vancouver. It is one of four stations on the Expo and Millennium Lines currently serving Downtown Vancouver, and is partially elevated with an entrance both above and below street level.
As its name implies, the station is located near both the Stadium District and Chinatown, specifically at the International Village neighborhood. It is accessible from the surface on two levels: from the "Downtown" level at Dunsmuir Street and Beatty Street, or from the "Stadium" level near the corner of Expo Boulevard and Abbott Street. There is also a "Chinatown/International Village" entrance near Keefer Circle.
Stadium station, built in 1985, was named such due to its proximity to the then-new BC Place Stadium (built in 1983). Both the station and the stadium were vital pieces of Vancouver's Expo 86. The "Chinatown" portion of the station's name was added in 2004, after Vancouver City Council felt it would increase tourism to the area and increase awareness to visitors about Vancouver's ever-expanding Chinatown district, just one block away.
During Expo 86, the station served as a transfer point between the main site of the World's Fair and the Canadian Pavilion (now Canada Place), located on Burrard Inlet at Waterfront Station. Transferring between these two stations was free to fair attendees during the World's Fair using special shuttle trains which ran from a third platform at Stadium station (where there was a connection to the monorail serving the main Expo 86 site) to the Canadian Pavilion at Waterfront station. An automated announcement was aired during people's shuttle ride explaining how SkyTrain and automated driverless technology operated. The third platform and track was shut out of revenue use after Expo 86, although in rare cases of extreme crowds from hockey games and concerts, the third-platform may be used. This third track/platform is now used for training purposes, train storage, special event service, and rerouting during rail replacement.