The Canada Line is operated on the same principles by the private concessionaire ProTrans BC under contract to TransLink and is an integrated part of the regional transport system.

[19] In 2004, Busby and Associates Architects, designers of the Brentwood Town Centre station in Burnaby, were honoured for their work with a Governor General's Medal in Architecture.

[21] Construction on the Millennium Line's Evergreen Extension, from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Lafarge Lake–Douglas in Coquitlam, was completed in 2016 and it was opened for revenue service on December 2, 2016.

One-time fares are valid for 90 minutes on any mode of transportation with any number of transfers, including all SkyTrain lines and bus and SeaBus routes.

Instead, fares were typically enforced by random ticket inspections – usually by police or transit security but occasionally by SkyTrain attendants – through trains and stations.

Those transit users paying cash but beginning their trips at a SkyTrain or SeaBus station are not subject to this second fare because they are issued Compass tickets which are accepted as valid transfers on TransLink buses.

SkyTrain attendants provide customer service and first aid, troubleshoot train and station operations, and perform fare checks alongside the transit police force.

[66][67][needs update] In 2009, Inspector Kash Heed of the Vancouver Police Department said that little crime takes place in the stations themselves; however, criminal activity becomes more visible 400–700 metres (1,000–2,000 ft) outside them.

[70] In 2007, it was reported that the entire surveillance system was upgraded from analogue two-hour tape recording to digital technology, which was to allow police to retrieve previous footage for up to seven days.

[76] In 1980, the "Advanced Light Rapid Transit" system was selected by the British Columbia provincial government for use on one of two planned corridors, connecting Vancouver to New Westminster in time for Expo 86.

Phase II was postponed following a change in provincial government and a shuffling of priorities that led to prioritizing building the Canada Line due to Vancouver's hosting of the 2010 Olympics.

[91] The Canada Line was built as a public–private partnership, with the winning consortium (now known as ProTransBC), led by SNC-Lavalin, contributing funds toward its construction and operating it for 35 years.

Although most of the system is elevated, SkyTrain runs at or below grade through Downtown Vancouver, for the Vancouver portion of the Canada Line until just before it reaches Richmond at Marine Drive station, through the 2.1-kilometre (1.3 mi) tunnel used by the Millennium Line between Coquitlam and Port Moody, through the 0.6-kilometre (0.4 mi) tunnel between Columbia and Sapperton stations in New Westminster, and for short stretches in Burnaby and New Westminster.

SkyTrain's Expo Line uses the world's second longest bridge dedicated to transit services, the SkyBridge, which crosses the Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey.

Accessibility is provided for deaf individuals through real-time English signage and displays at stations and on newer trains, although a reliance on verbal communication for service disruptions has been identified as a transportation barrier.

[112] The trains are also slowed and staffed by TransLink attendants, who can manually override the automatic controls in the event of an obstruction caused by snow or ice.

[113] The initial fleet consisted of 12.7 m (41 ft 8 in) lightweight Mark I ICTS cars from Urban Transportation Development Corporation, similar to those used by Toronto's Line 3 Scarborough and the Detroit People Mover.

When the Millennium Line was built, TransLink ordered new-generation Mark II ART trains from Bombardier Transportation, some of which were assembled in a Burnaby factory.

Mark II trains have a streamlined front and rear, an articulated joint allowing passengers to walk the length of a married pair, white/grey/blue interior, and six doors per car, three per side.

TransLink also ordered 48 Mark II ART (2009/2010 model) in 2009 to further supplement supply and integrate new features like CCTV and visual maps with LED lights.

On February 22, 2018, TransLink announced an additional order of 24 Canada Line cars to be brought into service by 2020, bringing the total to 32 trains operating as two-car units.

A pair of expansions—the Broadway corridor extension and the Expo Line to Langley—began construction in the early 2020s alongside the addition of 235 new cars and upgrades to SkyTrain facilities.

[124][125] Early proposals planned to extend SkyTrain west along the Broadway corridor, but stopped well short of UBC because of the cost, estimated at $700 million in 1999.

[34] Government statements suggested that the UBC line would be an extension of the SkyTrain network from VCC–Clark station via elevated platforms or a tunnel along Broadway ending at University of British Columbia Vancouver.

[130] On April 19, 2018, the UBC Board of Governors indicated it would consider contributing funds towards accelerating the extension of the Millennium Line from its new planned terminus at Arbutus to the university.

[134] The provincial government announced on November 24, 2022, that the opening of the extension would be pushed back to early 2026 owing to a labour dispute affecting concrete workers which took place that June.

[125] In March 2021, it was announced that a new yard would be constructed to provide storage space and maintenance needed for the upcoming extensions of the Expo and Millennium lines.

On February 15, 2019, the TransLink Mayors' Council again approved an extension of the line to the UBC campus, although funding for this continuation past Arbutus Street had not yet been secured.

[154] In 2019, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure announced its intention to study a rapid transit link from Vancouver's city centre to the North Shore, possibly in the form of SkyTrain.

By March 2020, the provincial government confirmed it had selected six possible routes for a "high-capacity, fixed-link, rapid transit crossing across Burrard Inlet between Vancouver and the North Shore".