TransLink offers a first look inside SkyTrain’s new control centre.

For more than 40 years, SkyTrain’s control centre has operated from the Edmonds operations and maintenance centre (OMC1) in Burnaby, overseeing the Expo and Millennium lines. Built in 1985 for the original SkyTrain route, now known as the Expo Line, it was later expanded and updated, including for the Millennium Line’s opening in 2002 and the Evergreen extension in 2016. But the old centre’s limited space could not keep pace with the growing network. Operators worked in cramped conditions and lacked adequate amenities. TransLink officials told Daily Hive Urbanized in 2023 that the facility no longer met modern standards or the system’s current and future needs. In the 2000s, the centre was also mocked for relying on floppy disks to help run driverless trains.

For the past four years, TransLink has been building a standalone Operations Control Centre at OMC2, a smaller SkyTrain maintenance complex across Southridge Drive from OMC1. The four-storey building, clad in reflective stainless steel, is visible to Expo Line passengers passing through the area. Its new control room replaces numerous separate main screens with one large, seamless display wall. Systems combine information from dozens of sources, including automatic train control, staff communications, track intrusion detection, CCTV and fare gate operations. TransLink compares this to consolidating what would otherwise require many internet browser tabs. The combined view is intended to help operators assess situations quickly, support staff in the field and maintain reliable service.

The control room occupies the top floor, with a major data centre on a lower level supporting automatic train control and other systems. The building has about 40,300 square feet of total floor area: 28,500 square feet for offices and the control centre, and 11,800 square feet for the data centre and storage. It is designed to serve the Expo and Millennium lines for decades, supporting a larger fleet, more operations and maintenance centres and an expanding network. Planned growth includes the Millennium Line Broadway extension to Arbutus, scheduled to open in late 2027; the Expo Line Surrey–Langley extension, scheduled for late 2029; and longer-term projects such as the planned UBC SkyTrain extension and other extensions that have not yet been identified. The building is designed to withstand earthquakes, floods and fires. Given its role in SkyTrain operations and passenger safety, it will be among TransLink’s most secure facilities, if not the most secure, with a secured perimeter and guardhouse.

The new centre was estimated to cost $110 million in 2021, based on an early design concept. The estimate rose to $327 million in 2024 and to about $360 million as of December 2025. TransLink attributes the increase to higher construction material, labour and equipment costs, as well as sharp price increases for specialized technology, machinery and software for the facility and its data centre. According to TransLink, between 2021 and 2024, market prices rose 16 per cent for computers and peripherals, 62 per cent for power distribution equipment, and 36 per cent for temperature regulation equipment. Globally, average data centre construction costs increased 42 per cent over the same period. TransLink also said the project’s cost increase partly reflects the inclusion of other SkyTrain infrastructure work: an automatic train control signals project, fibre-optic upgrades, the secured perimeter and guardhouse, and a reconfiguration of the OMC2 parking lot.

Construction is nearing completion, and the new centre is scheduled to open in 2027, in time for the Millennium Line Broadway extension. System testing is also nearly finished, including checks that the systems work together and that control room staff can use them effectively. Longer operational simulations remain, covering situations staff may face during regular service. The new centre’s procedures must meet the same standards as OMC1. TransLink is gathering evidence to show that the facility can operate safely and move to the next preparation stage. Before opening, it will finalize building maintenance programs and staff training plans so the facility, equipment and procedures are ready for regular service.

To support the final testing stages, TransLink announced that every train model used on the Expo and Millennium lines will be tested on selected track sections. Tests will run overnight, outside regular service hours, to avoid disrupting passengers. Starting Oct. 3, 2026, they are scheduled for 1:45 to 5:45 a.m. on Saturdays, 1:45 to 6:45 a.m. on Sundays, and 12:45 to 4:45 a.m. on Mondays. Residents near outdoor sections of the lines may hear trains at times when they would not usually be running. TransLink will rotate test locations rather than use the same area every night, and suspend alarms and announcements to reduce noise impacts. The Canada Line has its own separate control centre at its operations and maintenance facility near Bridgeport Station. Built in 2009 as a major component of that line’s project, it serves a network physically separate from the Expo and Millennium lines.

TransLink is also building OMC4 near Braid Station in Coquitlam as another operations and maintenance centre for the Expo and Millennium lines. The $1.3-billion facility covers 27 acres and is similar in size and importance to OMC1. It is expected to open in 2029, with capacity to maintain and store 145 cars and room for future expansion. OMC4 will address existing operating needs and accommodate the new Mark V trains now arriving. TransLink officials previously described it as a “catch-up” depot, saying such critical facilities have not kept pace with the extended network over the decades. It is a facility that should have been built after the Expo Line extensions into Surrey in the 1990s and the opening of the original Millennium Line.

Further ahead, TransLink plans to work with the provincial government on OMC5, on a 37-acre site beside the Surrey–Langley SkyTrain extension, at the southeast corner of Fraser Highway and Highway 15. It will serve the extension, the broader Expo Line and the wider SkyTrain network. Major construction, expected to cost about $1 billion or more, is scheduled to begin in the early 2030s. Site preparation and early work are under way, including tree and vegetation clearing and placing gravel and sand over peat to compress the ground. Activity at the site is currently limited. The preload settlement period, when the added material is left in place to compress the ground before construction, began in summer 2027 and is scheduled to continue until late 2029.