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

Go Elevated or try for Underground?

  • Work with the province and go with the Elevated option

    Votes: 21 72.4%

  • Try another approach and go for Underground option

    Votes: 6 20.7%

  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 1 3.4%

  • Go with a BRT solution

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Total voters
    29
Maybe this is just my desire to get this thing going but VE the stations and whatever else as much as you want on the first phase. Go minimalist and simple, save the fancy bits for the refresh in 2050. Just when you get to building over the bow downtown, do something special. But then get back to VE'd everything. Just build it.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Maybe this is just my desire to get this thing going but VE the stations and whatever else as much as you want on the first phase. Go minimalist and simple, save the fancy bits for the refresh in 2050. Just when you get to building over the bow downtown, do something special. But then get back to VE'd everything. Just build it.
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If the procurement fails entirely, which is still possible but way less likely now that there are two short listed firms, the VE and more importantly risk reduction step was to switch to elevated.

Fortunately we likely will never have to explore that. And we will never know if it would have saved half a billion bucks or more.
 
It's more than a little concerning to see those other major transit snafus (add Edmonton's signalling debacle near NAIT)...something similar seems inevitable for the green line at this point.

CalgaryTiger said:
Maybe this is just my desire to get this thing going but VE the stations and whatever else as much as you want on the first phase. Go minimalist and simple, save the fancy bits for the refresh in 2050. Just when you get to building over the bow downtown, do something special. But then get back to VE'd everything. Just build it.
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The obvious VE that nobody ever wanted to consider is going back to BRT design for the short-mid term, which has another huge benefit of being able to open in smaller chunks. At this rate they could pave a BRT and barely be ready to actually lay tracks when it is due for re-paving.
 
whatchyyc said:
I think we're gonna see at least one extension break ground before stage 1 opens similar to VLW already well underway before VLSE has opened
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But the only real possible extension at such a point, given the uncertainty of whether Stage 1 even crosses the Bow, is for it to continue further south. A bitter pill for NC Calgary to swallow given how the NC LRT was essentially cut in Stage 1.

Unlike the Green Line, Valley Line SE only only took about $2B so there was plenty of money leftover for Valley Line West. With the Green Line Stage 1 consuming every last dollar of the initial funding, Calgary will need significant grants from Alberta and Ottawa to build a meaningful northern extension.
 
I used to think Toronto was slower than molasses to get rail projects done, but I think Calgary has won that title now!
 
It is kind of funny the argument to go with the SE first back around 2019 was that the ROW was already in place. If since the project was announced, the ROW for NC was acquired from then to now, the NCLRT would probably be ready to go, and it would rightfully be going up north first instead, with the garage over by Aurora Park.
 
Joborule said:
It is kind of funny the argument to go with the SE first back around 2019 was that the ROW was already in place. If since the project was announced, the ROW for NC was acquired from then to now, the NCLRT would probably be ready to go, and it would rightfully be going up north first instead, with the garage over by Aurora Park.
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Not ROW.

Design. Centre Street has proven to be a much harder nut to crack than they expected before utility line surveys and geotech.
 
darwink said:
Not ROW.

Design. Centre Street has proven to be a much harder nut to crack than they expected before utility line surveys and geotech.
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Is that why costs to even 64th seem to be pretty pricy than considering the ease of how it looks externally? It feels like the estimates to go that far, should be to get it to about 96th or North Pointe instead.
 
darwink said:
Not ROW.

Design. Centre Street has proven to be a much harder nut to crack than they expected before utility line surveys and geotech.
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Joborule said:
Is that why costs to even 64th seem to be pretty pricy than considering the ease of how it looks externally? It feels like the estimates to go that far, should be to get it to about 96th or North Pointe instead.
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The challenge and cost of going up Centre Street N is why I think the next extension must be laser-focused on going to 64th only. I don't want a replay of 2017, where they supposedly get enough money to go in both directions but future circumstances changes that and the Green Line team gets to decide to go further south again because they can't afford to reach a useful northern terminus.

Even if the next Green Line grants reaches $1.5B, Stage 2 must be to 64th, Stage 3 can be whatever.
 
UrbanWarrior said:
Holy Christ is this thing ever delayed. So the “design development phase” won’t even be done til 2024? What a joke. I was always the biggest proponent of this project, but holy shit. Ottawa - a city smaller than us with a smaller tax base - has built an entire LRT system since this was proposed, and already has the 2nd phase under construction, including an airport link. By 2025 their system will be just over 5 km longer than ours (65 km) and same number of stations, having only been built in 15 years essentially. Not to mention fully grade-separated. Ridiculous.
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I get the frustration, but keep in mind that Calgary built their first LRT line a full 40 years before Ottawa, and Calgary was a significantly smaller city at the time. Rail system projects go in phases for different cities at different times, and cities tend to leapfrog each other because of that. I totally agree, this project should have moved along much faster, but when it's finished Calgary will leapfrog Ottawa. Someday later on Ottawa might end up leapfrogging Calgary, and so on.

Though, after the Green Line is completed, I don't see any more rail lines for Calgary any time soon. Some new stations and extensions, but no new lines.
 
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