All about Mission City station

When you think about TransLink, you think about how it goes as far north as Lions Bay, as far south as White Rock, and as far west as Bowen Island. However, it does offer services outside of what is traditionally thought of as Metro Vancouver and that is where the curious case of Mission City station comes in.

Opened in 1995, Mission City station is the easternmost TransLink-operated service and yet Mission itself is not under the jurisdiction of TransLink; instead it’s BC Transit. Its West Coast Express service only operates on weekdays minus holidays with five trains in the morning towards Vancouver with them all returning in the evening to then be serviced.

Outside of these times, bus service to Coquitlam Central is provided but only on the days the West Coast Express operates. With one bus late in the morning, one mid-afternoon, and two in the evening, its existence is solely to be supportive to commuters and nothing more.

Prior to the pandemic, the station handled under 550 passengers per day.

BC Transit service is available all day and has connections all over Mission and to parts of Abbotsford. It’s one of two train stations operated by TransLink which another agency provide service to; the other being Lougheed Town Centre.

It’s also the only point where the West Coast Express and Via Rail, Canada’s national passenger railway service, meet even though the stop for Via is located at another station located 300 metres away down track at Mission Harbour Road. However, this sort of wasn’t always the case.

Prior to the dissolution of passenger rail service by the Canadian Pacific Railway, Mission Junction was the city’s railway station. Named for the junction which Mission City sits just east of, the station was located on the west side and became a heritage building in the early-1980s. Service to the station ceased in 1990 and for five years the street known as Railway Street which it sat on lacked a station until the West Coast Express came into being.

Sadly, a fire in 1999 burnt down the original CPR station and it is suspected that arson played responsibility. Prior to the fire, plans were made to turn it into some sort of community hall but a lack of funds led to it being disused.

This was originally posted to cohost.org/VancouverTransit.