Broadway’s tracks are in. The wait moves to 2027
Final track installation marks a major step for the Broadway Subway. Train testing and station work continue, with passenger service scheduled for fall 2027—and disruption still visible above ground.
Six new stations. One changing corridor.
VCC-Clark → Arbutus · Opening target: fall 2027The story
Broadway’s next chapter is getting closer, although passengers still have a wait ahead. The province’s latest major project announcement, dated 21 September, said final trackwork would be completed that week. Its opening target remains fall 2027. That is a construction milestone, not the start of passenger service.
What happens next
Test trains began operating on completed sections in May. The testing programme checks how vehicles, signals and communications work together, progressing west from VCC-Clark. It continues in phases through 2027, with full-system trial running planned before opening: trains operating at normal frequencies and stopping at every new station.
The project’s current-work page also lists station construction, mechanical and electrical installation, backfilling and street restoration. Tracks alone do not make an operating railway.
Above ground, the disruption continues
Broadway between Cambie and Alberta remains closed to vehicles until approximately January 2027. The project says all 133 traffic-deck panels and their supporting girders have been removed; crews are relocating utilities, backfilling and rebuilding the road. Sidewalks and access to businesses remain open. At Mount Pleasant, the September provincial update reported that driving lanes and widened sidewalks between Main and Quebec had reopened.
What the extension will change
The 5.7-kilometre Millennium Line extension runs from VCC-Clark to Arbutus, adding six underground stations and a direct connection to the Canada Line. The projected end-to-end journey is 11 minutes. This phase does not reach UBC: passengers heading farther west will connect with the 99 B-Line at Arbutus.
Southwood perspective
A railway changes a city through ordinary things: getting to a shift, reaching an appointment, meeting someone across town without planning an evening around traffic. Broadway’s progress deserves attention for that reason. But the promise of a better commute should not erase the present experience of people navigating barriers, detours and disrupted shopfronts. The next measure of progress is both below and above ground: a reliable line, and a corridor returned to the people who use it.