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A possible clue about when the decision to switch maintenance facility comes from the submitted development plans for the Shepard facility. The most recent submission was on May 23, with plans (that significantly shrunk the facility) dated to May 2. So that would suggest the decision was...

But the reason why we are at 10 years of planning work, is that lots of work done 8-10 years ago have been chucked out by the Green Line team and/or no longer valid due to the steep rise in costs. We've discussed the Bow River crossing before, didn't the Green Line effectively replaced years of...

The full details are probably only available in the confidential meetings, but yeah the 60% design plan was only presented in June. It would seem unlikely that any significant contracts would be signed, especially knowing about the major scope change that would need approval not just from...

The source for that table comes from this 100 page report on the North Central LRT corridor from December 2014: https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=10325 As part of the Transportation and Transit committee meeting which focused heavily on the North Central LRT...

It's not just about austerity. Even for a very wealthy region and where every taxpayer understand and agree that transit doesn't need to pay for itself (or even come close) we still should worry about ROI and opportunity costs. Spending so much on the Green Line also affects all of the other...

Or maybe it's just transit and transportation enthusiasts discussing how to fix a project with a $13B appetite but currently only a $6B budget? It also shouldn't just be the downtown and SE. I find it quite funny that there can be years where there is not a single update (or even peep) about...

It would be possible, one option that was looked at was elevated in DT to bridge and relatively shallow tunnel under Centre Street. It shouldn't be too expensive given the depth (estimated in 2015 at $800M vs $1.3B for full tunnel). However, it's hard to imagine that anything will change the...

That's the section of tunnel they already cut in 2020. There's more details in my post at #2510.

Have you looked at some of the parts of the SE? It also runs through the middle of places that few people live that everybody has to drive to and from. But for some reason, that's never a big deal for it. Meanwhile NC LRT has do both high transit ridership, have every station be within range of...

It was an estimated $1.8B savings in 2021, it's probably higher now given how much money was slated to be spent in DT. And the Green Line plan also wouldn't go north and would still require billions to get to Seton first. Making cuts in the quality of an alignment because it simply costs too...

But it's not being paid for now. Centre Street on paper does have many advantages, but if it's so good and North Calgary already having high transit ridership why did it lose out to the SE in 2017? And why has it consistently been on the bottom in terms of priority, with no work or land...

But there is a significant difference between: 1) A planned $20B project, where every stakeholder from governments, areas affected and the public beforehand understand the true cost, why certain decisions were made, what are the priorities and that there are viable construction and funding...

It was reported that not fitting out the Centre Street Station was enough to save $400M. Despite the high nearby population, its low estimated ridership makes it tempting to cut the station box as well (especially if you're a transit user that would not be served by Stage 1). Combined you're...

For their plan, it can go further to enable a connection with the NCLRT. I think their plan is trying to minimize risk by minimizing the amount of new infrastructure and essentially staying out of the downtown core, and using all of that savings to maximize reach. The plan was proposed in May...

I wonder if there's a reluctance to move trains to 8th Avenue because 7th Avenue is closer to the central heart of DT Calgary and the ground-level stations makes it more convenient to hop-on and off a train.

There's a study from 2006 that actually claims the limit on 7th Avenue is 36 trains/hour in one direction. https://www.calgarytransit.com/content/dam/transit/about-calgary-transit/reports/lrt/downtown_final_report.pdf I'm not sure if 36/hour really is possible. But due to loss of DT...

Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't even consider that. In hindsight, it's almost crazy that the capital costs and constructability of a >$1B project only counted for 10 points out of a 140 point scoring scheme.

Yeah, it was likely another one of those studies which were biased to a specific option, the full tunnel. This report has a more detailed breakdown of the scoring and the elevated option was a decent all-rounder except for community stuff. But because it wasn't the best at anything, it didn't...

Yes, in an ideal world it would be connected and grade-separated. But the significant costs over-run have already compromised the Green Line: -high ridership NC segment cut -the top ranked Bow River crossing using a tunnel was downgraded to the poorly ranked bridge, before being cut -most of...

I fully agree with you here, except that the lack of any progress in planning or land acquisition in the North mean it'll be hard to flip the alignment. And other than Michelle Rempel, there's really no politicians even talking about the North anymore. Unfortunately the train will go SE first...