Green Line LRT surface route through downtown Calgary finalized by city council
Calgary city council has finalized the route the Green Line LRT will take to enter the downtown core, after years of back and forth on the issue.
In a 12-to-two vote, council chose the alignment that would see trains travel at street level down 10 Avenue S.W., with the line ending at a station between 1 and 2 Street S.W.
Couns. Jennifer Wyness and Raj Dhaliwal were the sole votes against while Coun. Dan McLean was absent from the vote.
“We’ve debated this for years and years, but finally here in the city of Calgary we’re getting this needed transit project done, and we’re not stopping,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters Tuesday.
Although the alignment has the lowest projected ridership amongst the options presented to council — at just 41,000 estimated daily riders — its $850-million price tag was the only one that the project could afford with its current budget.
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City council to finalize Green Line LRT alignment through Calgary’s downtown next week
The other options included an elevated track above 10 Avenue S.W. and that would turn north above 2 Street S.W. and another elevated alignment above 1 Street S.E.; however, they were $1 billion and $500 million above the project’s budget, respectively.
“The ridership numbers are a little bit lower stopping on 10 Avenue than they would be going into downtown, but they’re a heck of a lot higher than where they’d be if we stopped at the Grand Central Station, which is where the current plan sits,” Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said.
Original plans had the Green Line tunnelling under the downtown core, but those were scrapped when the province pulled its $1.5 billion share of funding after significant cost escalations with the route.
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The provincial government said a tunnel wasn’t feasible and contracted an engineering firm to study an elevated route through the downtown core.
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The project was revived early last year when council approved a revised alignment for the project, which allowed construction to begin on the southeast leg of the line from Shepard to Victoria Park.
‘We’re in’: Premier backs Calgary’s new Green Line plan despite downtown uncertainty
Following the vote, Wyness told reporters the surface alignment will fail to deliver for Calgarians.
“This was presented as the least-bad option and ‘We better do it or else we won’t have a Green Line,'” Wyness said. “Green Line has been a constant debate for council (with) the federal and provincial counterparts dictating an outcome for a capital project — where Calgarians carry the cost overruns.”
Global News reached out to the province for a response to council’s vote and received a statement from Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen that had been issued previously.
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It said the province is open to discussing “refinements to the alignment” and that their focus is to deliver an above-ground alignment that “respects commuters and taxpayer dollars.”
Calgary breaks ground on Green Line LRT as questions remain over downtown segment
When asked about the surface route on Monday, Premier Danielle Smith told reporters she believes this allows for a “renewed conversation” on how to complete the LRT.
“This seems to me that it addresses a lot of the issues that council members had heard. It addresses a lot of my issues,” she said.
How the future LRT line travels through the downtown core has been a significant concern for residents and businesses in the area.
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John Batas, who owns Michael’s Pizza on 10 Ave SW near the Calgary Tower, said he’s experienced many “sleepless nights” over the potential impacts, after his business was affected by two years of construction for utility relocation work that was aimed to make way for a Green Line tunnel.
“This is the worst possible scenario for us,” he said Tuesday at city hall.
When asked if the future line bringing transit riders into the area could help following the construction, Batas didn’t hold out hope.
“I say look at 7 Avenue,” he said, in reference to the current Red Line LR route that runs through the downtown core.
Tuesday’s decision means city administration can move forward on planning, design, and procurement on the downtown route, with “targeted engagement” with residents and businesses.
The first phase of the Green Line LRT is set to open in 2031 with 16 kilometers rail track, and 10 stations, with a maintenance and storage facility in Shepard.
At full build out, the project was set to be 46 kilometres long with light-rail between Seton and 160 Avenue N; which some city councillors said they haven’t given up on.
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“I look forward to the conversation from here on in about how we get that line through downtown to the north,” Kelly said. “Because as it stands right now, we’ve spent $6 billion getting a train line to the south and zero dollars getting it to the north.”
Green Line LRT route through downtown Calgary endorsed by city committee
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