Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit

Go Elevated or try for Underground?

  • Work with the province and go with the Elevated option

    Votes: 27 75.0%
  • Try another approach and go for Underground option

    Votes: 6 16.7%
  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 1 2.8%
  • Go with a BRT solution

    Votes: 2 5.6%

  • Total voters
    36
I'm assuming they'd primarily be using that god awful little concrete hell hole on the NW corner of 2nd Street and 7th Ave SW

That would make sense. I know there was a building proposed over that park a while ago, but that's probably a dead proposal.
 
Yeah that's the intended site for the drastically scaled back First Canadian Centre, Tower II, but I have to agree with you that there doesn't seem to be much likelihood of that project ever going forward.
 
I think the problem with that park is it contains the parkade for FCCI. They built the parkade for both of the original towers, but capped it when it got to grade and didn't complete the original, 64 storey tower.
 
I think the problem with that park is it contains the parkade for FCCI. They built the parkade for both of the original towers, but capped it when it got to grade and didn't complete the original, 64 storey tower.

Oh I see. That makes sense though. I really wonder how they're going to do it then. All the other corners are occupied by current structures. Maybe they're talking about eating up a lane of traffic so they can put access there.

NW Corner of 2nd Street & 7th Avenue NW As is:
upload_2017-11-27_17-3-58.png


NW Corner of 2nd Street & 7th Avenue with 1 lane reduced:
upload_2017-11-27_17-10-47.png


You could substitute any of the other street corners as well. I wonder if the plan would be to add an access point directly from the Core. It's probably wouldn't be possible now that that street corner's space has been given over to Simons.
 

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a middle of the street station head would mean you wouldn't need a concourse level potentially.

I'd just get a concession from the scotia bank tower owners instead though TBH
 
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From @UrbanWarrior's post in the General Urban Development Discussion thread:

7-ave-sw-station-concept.jpg


Quite frankly, WTF? Why did we bother burying it again?

EDIT: I took a look at the Vision document on the Green Line site. It isn't as bad as it first appears. Rather than being cut down to a single lane, it's actually two. The person doing this render was awfully generous with the width of the curb on the East side of the entrance. There is a lane separating it from the existing park and sidewalk.

As I expanded on here. I'm fine with it being cut down to two lanes, I just think it's gonna be really unwieldy with the proposed alignment. I'm assuming that there are engineering constraints involving First Canadian Centre's undeground parking garage that are forcing them to do it this way. It would be more sensible if it were right against the existing East Sidewalk and that the two lanes of traffic were only to it's West, but that may not be possible.
 
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I'd imagine so. But I'm hoping there will be a concourse at least at 7th Street, as this will become the central nexus of the C-train System for decades to come, especially once the Red Line Subway comes online.
 
I think I can mostly get behind what they've got going on with the 16th Avenue N station save for the fact that the render appears to eliminate the right-hand turnoff for North-bound traffic from Centre St. on to 16th Ave. I don't drive that stretch often enough to know if that's going to lead to nasty backups. I could definitely see it being touchy at rush hour though.

Here's another view of the station from the vision document:
upload_2017-11-28_15-50-4.png

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TI/GreenLineDocuments/GL-Long-Term-Vision-FINAL-Reduced_Part6.pdf, page 82.

Does anyone know if that mid-rise building with the Save-On has any basis in reality? I just thought it was odd that they specifically put a Save-On and not a more generic place filler.

Also, no 9th Ave N. Station in the vision document. 100% dead then eh? Too bad. I would have liked what it could have done for the area, but it was probably too expensive.


There isn't much more available in the vision document for the 2nd Ave. SW station sadly. I feel like, being the station for Eau Claire, it'll be pretty critical. Expect a revamped plaza by Livingston Place and the Chinese Cultural Centre though.
upload_2017-11-28_15-55-45.png

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TI/GreenLineDocuments/GL-Long-Term-Vision-FINAL-Reduced_Part7.pdf, page 92

I'd vastly prefer to see this renamed Eau Claire Station as well. I think there are already too many stations with street/avenue number names. This is a well known community already, best to make use of the name of the are IMO.


I have to say, I'm totally perplexed by the 7th Avenue Station Entrance. Maybe the First Canadian Centre parking lot juts out more that I know, but if that's the plan why did we even bother with burying it? The vision document offers little more in the way of elucidation, but it does appear to show more clearly that the first render that there are meant two lanes of traffic going through rather than just one.
upload_2017-11-28_15-59-56.png

same link as 2nd ave, page 94.

I can't say I see the point of putting one on either side though. Doesn't that just complicate the pedestrian issue? I guess it must be because that entrance goes directly down to the middle of track. Likely confirming the lack of a concourse level. At least from that entrance. First Canadian Centre's parking garage likely comes into play. Cutting it down to two lanes is palatable to me, but I just feel like it would be better if they were both on the East side of the entrance as opposed to be bifurcated by it. Then maybe it could be better integrated with the "park" on the NW corner and the sidewalks could be widened South of the entrance. It would also mean that most people exiting the train would only have to make a single street crossing to get to either the Core or the 3rd Street station.

4th Street SE looks like a pretty normal Calgary C-Train station revamped for the low floor format. Seems all good to me.
upload_2017-11-28_16-6-28.png

same link as 2nd ave, page 98.

This image from the vision document confirms that it will surface before Olympic Way and traverse above it. I think most of us were probably expecting that, but it's nice to see what the plan looks like in more detail.

Also, am I the only one who wants to see this station renamed Olympic Way-Stampede or just Olympic Way Station?
 

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a middle of the street station head would mean you wouldn't need a concourse level potentially.

I'd just get a concession from the scotia bank tower owners instead though TBH

This would work really well and is very common in many European cities. 2nd Street at 7th is likely on the short-list of the most overly wide roads in the city with no future ever resulting in additional car capacity being required. It begins as a two-lane one way road (plus parking) only 2 blocks to the south, with the addition of only one night-time only travel lane from Stephen Ave. The station head area has a width of 4 lanes.

So the additional capacity available at this location of 2nd Street cannot ever be utilized fully unless travel patterns changed significantly (e.g. 2nd Street has a new connection across the river or into the Beltline is some unlikely theoretical future). Smart to re-purpose the space for the more critical station of the whole network for the next 50 years and likely easier than right next to the skyscrapers.
 
Hmmm..maybe, but the city would have to own the land, so the development would be a lease, or some kind of partnership, which could complicate things. Don't get me wrong, I agree the land could be put to better use than an open plaza with one station entrance, but it's probably not as straightforward as it looks.
 

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