Mountain Man
Senior Member
At this point, they should just connect it to the arena and this future HSR station and leave it for someone else to figure out the downtown part.
Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
darwink
Senior Member
I wouldn't put too much stock in this. Their main communications goal is to signal to business interests that tunnels are a non-starter, so be prepared to accept a non-tunnel alternative. Otherwise, the consultants are left to cook.
FCC1982
Active Member
Good questions.
Makes me wonder if they are trying to get the line to 7th Ave and run it down the existing corridor.
darwink
Senior Member
They are answering questions that aren't illuminating while they wait for a consultant's report.
outoftheice
Active Member
With Bhatti's departure and the end to the Green Line Board, the project governance is back to where it was in 2020 when the Jim Gray group first arrived on the scene demanding governance that was independent of council. So we are now full circle.
livewirecalgary.com
Green Line's Darshpreet Bhatti to leave his role as CEO - LiveWire Calgary
Darshpreet Bhatti, CEO of Calgary’s former Green Line transit project, has decided to move on, saying that now’s the right time. Bhatti, who was first hired to oversee the Calgary transit megaproject back in August 2021, made the announcement during a Green Line wind-down update to Calgary city...
livewirecalgary.com
lemongrab
Active Member
With Bhatti's departure and the end to the Green Line Board, the project governance is back to where it was in 2020 when the Jim Gray group first arrived on the scene demanding governance that was independent of council. So we are now full circle.
Green Line's Darshpreet Bhatti to leave his role as CEO - LiveWire Calgary
Darshpreet Bhatti, CEO of Calgary’s former Green Line transit project, has decided to move on, saying that now’s the right time. Bhatti, who was first hired to oversee the Calgary transit megaproject back in August 2021, made the announcement during a Green Line wind-down update to Calgary city...
Not really surprising, but it's definitely not a good sign that he wants to jump off the ship without a lifeboat lined up:
lemongrab
Active Member
This is fairly tangential, but if you ever watch a council meeting about the GL you'd hear from her a fair bit (though you'd likely hear from her in any council meeting involving significant spending)
City of Calgary CFO Carla Male and the director of corporate planning relieved of duties
City of Calgary CFO Carla Male and the director of corporate planning relieved of duties
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
One thing missing from all this is who will be making the final decision on the downtown alignment.
AECOM? Or are they just providing a report? Council? Either way once that decision is made is there a separate RFP that needs to go out? I wonder what the contract looks like with the current winning bidder?
Outside of alignment still so many questions...
AECOM? Or are they just providing a report? Council? Either way once that decision is made is there a separate RFP that needs to go out? I wonder what the contract looks like with the current winning bidder?
Outside of alignment still so many questions...
HudsonA08
New Member
I wonder if the plan is to move this under Alberta Infrastructure management. That would make sense in no longer needing a full project team for the green line. Just Calgary input into the larger project.
darwink
Senior Member
With no inside knowledge, what likely will happen is:
Report goes to province.
Province chooses option, writes in a letter to the City that any spending above the projected for that option will not be eligible for provincial cost sharing.
This creates a dilemma, as the provincial option potentially would cover cost overruns/errors in the report, but other options are not protected in the same way.
City chooses option, and how to pay for it.
City goes ahead with its choice.
darwink
Senior Member
Its really too late to do it. If the province was ready, it could have shown faith in the technical leadership of the project by 'buying' the project team instead of telling the city to fire them.
lemongrab
Active Member
City wants province to take it. Province wants city to do it. Green Line Board seems to want to wash their hands of it, too...I didn't realize the board was still winding down, but I wonder if it's because the board members simply want out?
Not good if the governance reverts to council, in an election year no less!
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
I think this gets it across the line sooner than it otherwise would. If you're on council and running you want the fact it's going to get done on your resume.
With the proverbial provincial funding gun to their head I assume it goes through.
In saying that...
I worry Gondek will take the AECOM report and will want to take it to the people. In the news she's angling at a "people don't know me" pitch and I think she'll want to be seen as listening to Calgarians. I really fear that council is spooked by their satisfaction numbers and will hesitate to make a decision pushing a downtown alignment decision into the election.
FriendlyDrunks
Active Member
Spoke with a friend who's working on this last night. Seems they've been given the ok to continue work East of the Elbow and going South. Apparently there is talk that the province wants it to continue to Seton, but would need to commit more funding for that.
As for downtown there is also discussion on crossing under the CP tracks, but that whole segment is still up in the air.
As for downtown there is also discussion on crossing under the CP tracks, but that whole segment is still up in the air.
ahuch
Active Member
There's not really much point in speculating further in my mind (since it's been beaten to death at this point and we'll find out more in a few months hopefully), but it really seems like the province wants to ignore the learnings from previous transit projects and just dump people downtown onto other transit. I don't see the city agreeing to something like this... presumably there are some 7 ave ridership projections for 2031+ with or without the additional strain, would be curious to see something like that. If we're just deferring one subway to necessitate building another subway I don't really get the appeal of such a drastic change in scope.