[11] However, the trains are powered by conventional motors with third rail electrical pickup rather than the linear induction system used on the other SkyTrain lines.

The Canada Line begins in Downtown Vancouver at Waterfront station (0.0 km [0 mi]) in a cut-and-cover subway tunnel beneath Granville Street.

The tunnels then dive deeper to pass below False Creek before rising back up to Olympic Village station (2.7 km [1.7 mi]).

Just beyond Bridgeport station (11.1 km [6.9 mi]) at a flying junction, the line splits, with the Richmond branch heading south on elevated tracks along No.

Waterfront station provides connections to the R5 Hastings St, Expo Line, West Coast Express, and SeaBus.

[25] As indicated in material presented by the City of Vancouver at public meetings in early 2006, this station was designed with such a future extension in mind.

They provide customer service, troubleshoot certain problems with the trains, observe and report safety issues, and check fares.

The selection of Rotem was largely a consequence of the request for proposals process for the public-private partnership, whose terms did not allow Bombardier to consider efficiencies in combining operations or rolling-stock orders for the new line with those for the existing system.

[28] This placed all bidders on a level playing field, albeit at the cost of not necessarily picking the most efficient choice for long-term operation.

The RFP also required that the system have a capacity of 15,000 passengers per hour in each direction (leaving the choice of technology and platform length to the proponent) and a maximum travel time between the airport and downtown Vancouver of 24 minutes.

In 2018, twelve additional trainsets were ordered by Translink from Hyundai Rotem at a cost of $88 million to increase capacity on the line.

[33] The sole-source contract allowed for commonality between the two train models, and reduced the number of specialized tools and parts required.

This name was adopted for the demonstration modern streetcar service that operated along the Downtown Historic Railway for a two-month period centred on the Olympics.

InTransitBC is a joint venture company owned by SNC-Lavalin, the Investment Management Corporation of BC (bcIMC), and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

[70] RAVCO was set up by the agencies funding the transit line to oversee project design, procurement, construction, and implementation.

This TransLink subsidiary, later renamed Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc (CLCO), made distributions to the builder as work progressed.

The P3 process did not allow precise plans to be developed with public consultation, but limited discussion to certain abstract parameters, while leaving actual design details to the private partner.

[79] In 2019, former Vancouver city councillor Gord Price noted that the desire to have the line open in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as not exceeding the budget, led to cautious decision making.

The planners and RAVCO, however, countered that the Arbutus corridor does not have the major concentration of transit destinations and origins that exist along the Cambie Street corridor, such as Vancouver City Hall, Vancouver General Hospital, Oakridge Centre, and Langara College, which are necessary to provide the ridership required for this project to be successful.

Residents along Cambie Boulevard created the Cambie Boulevard Heritage Society in 1994, which opposed any alteration to a wide green centre median that is currently a grassy area with various species of trees, including cherry trees donated by the City of Yokohama on occasion of the 1967 Canadian Centennial.

Advertisements asked residents to join "to prevent Vancouver's worst traffic nightmare and from burdening ourselves and our children with unnecessary tax risks for years to come".

[85] Despite the society's concerns, one of the final two proposals for the Canada Line in 2004 involved a trench in the centre of Cambie Street from 49th to 64th Avenues.

The province responded to the suggestion by withdrawing funding until after the 2010 Olympics; Minister of Transport Kevin Falcon said that such a change of scope could no longer be accommodated in the time left before 2010.

If an at-grade service was not feasible, council had instructed staff to look into the possibility of relocating the elevated guideway further west, along Minoru Boulevard.

To excavate the final 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of the tunnel underneath the downtown core a crew of 36 Latin American workers were brought to Canada from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia in April 2006.

The employer, a joint partnership of SELI Canada and SNC (Pacific) engaged workers to assemble the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and begin excavations.

This was the first time in Canadian history that a group of temporary foreign workers in the construction industry had successfully exercised their right to form a union.

The BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) sided with the employer's (SELI–SNCP) explanation that there had been a mistake in calculations of wages during the months before the workers voted to join the union.

On November 9, 2007, the BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Latin American workers had been intimidated to sign a petition against being represented by their union.

[97][98] The tribunal found that the workers were intimidated and coerced to sign a petition in the fear of possibly losing future job prospects with their employer.