The Government of Alberta released its new plan to extend the Green Line LRT project.
In July, the province contracted AECOM to identify and assess an alternative an at-grade and/or elevated route through the downtown core that will achieve a functional, cost-effective Green Line. Alberta’s government has now received that report and based on its findings, is proposing a new Green Line alignment from 7th Avenue to Shepard that more closely aligns with the initial provincially and federally approved business case from June 2021.
According Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, the new plan will increase ridership by connecting to the Red and Blue lines, the new Event Centre and communities much further into southeast Calgary. At the same time, it would result in more than $1 billion in savings by elevating tracks and shortening the route through downtown. All of this will be accomplished for the same total project cost.
“This new Green Line route saves more than a billion dollars in tunnelling costs. This alignment adds five more stops, will be 76 per cent longer and will serve 60 per cent more Calgarians – all within the same budget. The ball is now in Calgary City Council’s court to approve this alignment and to finally start construction on the Green Line in the new year,” said Dreeshen.
In a news conference, Calgary Mayor Jyonti Gondek said the city’s hands are tied because the provincial government has deemed the report to be confidential.
“This puts the city in a difficult position where we wish to be as transparent as possible with Calgarians about what has been proposed in terms of a new alignment as well as the financial summary, but we are not sure what we can share publicly,” said Gondek.
The work, contracted by the Alberta government, was in response to Calgary City Council’s approval earlier this year of a $6.2-billion Green Line track from Eau Claire to Lynnwood/Millican, with tunnelling through downtown. The proposal from the City of Calgary reduced the length of the originally planned route and would have resulted in an over 40 per cent reduction in ridership. Accordingly, the new elevated downtown route developed by AECOM has identified significant savings that could be used to expand the transit project farther south to serve more communities.
AECOM’s elevated route would connect with the Blue Line and Red Line in the downtown core along 7th Avenue and considered:
- Impact on ridership of Green, Blue and Red Lines and the station-to-station ridership.
- Impact on operations of the existing Red and Blue Lines.
- Impacts to existing downtown infrastructure, including the plus 15 pedway network.
- Local considerations with an at-grade or elevated route.
- Interactions with the CPKC rail line.
According to the provincial government, the downtown section of the new route (7th Avenue to Shephard) enables savings of more than $1 billion, relative to the downtown section of the council-approved route from July 30.
Savings will result from:
- a more cost-effective elevated line through downtown rather than underground; and
- a shorter line (2.3 km compared to 2.9 km) through downtown that ends at 7th Avenue and integrates with the Red and Blue Lines, instead of extending to Eau Claire.
Featured image: (City of Calgary)
