Inlet Centre
Coquitlam Central SkyTrain station opened on the Evergreen Extension on December 2, 2016. The station is located on the southern edge of the Coquitlam Central Park and Ride and bus station that first opened as the Coquitlam Centre Transit Exchange on September 2, 1991 and was rebuilt for the opening of the West Coast Express Station of the same name in 1995. Unlike at Moody Central that resulted in the rebuilding of the West Coast Express Station to accommodate the new SkyTrain station, here the SkyTrain station was simply built as an elevated station on a concrete guideway on the southern edge of the park and ride lot, with the entrance on the edge of the original West Coast Express Commuter Rail passenger pick-up and drop-off loop.
The new station is across from the original bus loop. To connect between the station and buses stopping on a central island, the sidewalk requires crossing two sets of roadways. Although the SkyTrain ROW beyond the station curves above the southern edge of the bus loop as it stops following the CP/West Coast Express ROW to curve north and follow BC Highway 7/Pinetree Way. Some of the unique purple and yellow West Coast Express lampposts were kept in the station entrance area with one even in front of the SkyTrain station entrance, next to modern black lampposts that are at a lower height than the West Coast Express ones. Passengers connecting here to the West Coast Express can simply take the sidewalk around the passenger kiss and ride area to the original West Coast Express entrance that looks the same as it did when I visited in the station in 2011.
Passengers enter the SkyTrain station under the eastern end of the platforms, here there is a small airy SkyTrain entrance at street level, before faregates lead to a single combined two escalator with a staircase in between up to the middle of each of the two side platforms. The elevators are up to the extreme southern end of the side platforms, these require double-backing a little bit after going through the faregates.
The two side platforms have the normal elevated Evergreen station design surrounded by glass windscreens. A large canopy structure covering the entire length of the platforms with just a small opening between the two tracks. The bottom of the station’s canopy structure (and canopy that covers the station’s entrance) looks like unpainted wood.
Artwork: Our Foundations, 2016 by Maynard Johnny Jr. There are black and red panels along with a hanging canoe honor the rich natural and cultural heritage of the Coquitlam Watershed and the First Nations People (see this photo because I don’t know now to type their name in their native language in HTML properly).
Photos 1-39: October 13, 2022;
