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Archives: New monorail system debuts in Vancouver

This day in Vancouver history: Dec. 11, 1985

Social Credit Premier Bill Bennett cuts the ribbon at Waterfront Station for the opening ceremony of the SkyTrain, a new 22-km rail line linking the city to Burnaby and New Westminster.

“Today is just the first of a lot of exciting things. All British Columbians take pride in what we are opening today,” Bennett told the crowd.

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Built in advance of the Expo 86 world fair, the rapid transit service first began as a demonstration project to showcase new linear induction propulsion technology. The SkyTrain Line (known as the Expo Line since 2002 to differentiate it from the Millennium and Canada lines built since) was eventually extended nearly 30 km to inner Surrey.

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People were allowed to travel for free during an initial eight-day period and roughly 60,000 passengers per day tried out the new transportation system. Paid fares began Jan. 3, 1986.

The video below captures an early non-stop ride along the system that shows how much the city has changed in the past three decades.