The station serves Vancouver's financial district and is within walking distance of the Coal Harbour and West End neighbourhoods. The station is accessible via the surface from Art Phillips Park or via the underground shopping centres of the Royal Centre and Bentall Centre skyscraper complexes.
History
Burrard station opened in 1985 and is named for nearby Burrard Street, which in turn is named for Sir Harry Burrard-Neale.[2] Prior to the opening of the Canada Line in 2009, Burrard station was the northern terminus of the 98 B-Line and was served by a number of bus routes that provided service to Vancouver's southern suburbs of Delta, Richmond, Surrey, and White Rock. In 2016, bus service to the eastern suburbs of the Tri-Cities was discontinued when the Millennium Line's Evergreen Extension opened.
In May 2018, preliminary plans were revealed to renovate and expand Burrard station.[3][4] On July 13, 2021, TransLink announced that it would close the station for two years beginning in early 2022 to allow construction for the rebuild.[5] On March 25, 2022, these plans were abandoned due to rising construction costs.[6]
Structure and design
The structure housing the surface station entrance was designed to resemble Victorian-era British railway stations, with a peaked glass roof. The station was designed by the Austrian architecture firm Architektengruppe U-Bahn.[7][8]
When originally opened, the station's only underground passage was to the Bentall Centre skyscraper complex. A connection to the Royal Centre complex was constructed some years later, while an anticipated underground passage to the Park Place skyscraper across the street was never built. The construction of a new east entrance to the station, at the southeast corner of the intersection of Burrard and Dunsmuir, was considered as part of upgrades to the station included in TransLink's 10-Year Vision, but the cost of such an addition was higher than expected and TransLink turned to reviewing options to improve the existing entrance.[9][unreliable source?]
Like Granville, the station was built inside the Dunsmuir Tunnel and has a distinctive platform design. The inbound track (to Waterfront) is stacked on top of the outbound track (to King George and Production Way–University), with the inbound platform being one level above the outbound platform.
Burrard Street entrance: the main entrance for Burrard station, with connections to Royal Centre and Bentall Centre at concourse level. Three escalators are available between platform and concourse level, and 1 up-escalator between concourse and street level. Fare gates are located at inbound platform level for this entrance.
Burrard Street elevator access : separated from the main entrance at street level and located to the north, closer to the Burrard and Dunsmuir intersection. A small station house accommodates fare gates at street level. At platform level, the access to the elevator is behind a narrow door and a short corridor.[10]
^Snyders, Tom; Jennifer O'Rourke (2002). Namely Vancouver: A Hidden History of Vancouver Place Names. Arsenal Pulp Press. p. 51. ISBN978-1-55152-077-3.
