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

[CalgaryTiger]

The NDP just announced a commitment to fund the north leg of the Green Line up to 160 Ave N as part of their electoral promise

Jeez, that seems ambitious! And I'm an NDP voter.

 

[accord1999]

The tweet I saw says $1.2B spending on Calgary but split over a number of areas and for the Green Line primarily just for land acquisition.

 

[darwink]

Getting ready for it in the near term. Next phase for federal money will be post 2026 anyways.

 

[YYCguy]

The tweet I saw says $1.2B spending on Calgary but split over a number of areas and for the Green Line primarily just for land acquisition.

Well they have now identified that the site for the North Calgary/Airdrie hospital won’t be equidistant between the two communities, but indeed in North Calgary so might as well stop saying it’s an Airdrie hospital. I wonder if it’s on that large site north of Stoney Trail off of Centre Street identified in the Livingston NSP? Would make sense given the Green Line is right there.

Edit: whoops a little bit off topic, sorry!

 

[accord1999]

Well they have now identified that the site for the North Calgary/Airdrie hospital won’t be equidistant between the two communities, but indeed in North Calgary so might as well stop saying it’s an Airdrie hospital. I wonder if it’s on that large site north of Stoney Trail off of Centre Street identified in the Livingston NSP? Would make sense given the Green Line is right there.

Yeah, most likely that piece of land in Livingston, that was what Brookfield reserved it for. It isn't too far from Airdrie, 15-20 minutes by car and probably less with the improvements they want to make to Airdrie-Calgary road connections.

 

[YYCguy]

Yeah, most likely that piece of land in Livingston, that was what Brookfield reserved it for. It isn't too far from Airdrie, 15-20 minutes by car and probably less with the improvements they want to make to Airdrie-Calgary road connections.

Probably will be closer/faster for Airdrie residents than is the PLH.

 

[jhappy77]

Here is the map including the institutional site where the hospital would likely be:

 

[CBBarnett]

Well they have now identified that the site for the North Calgary/Airdrie hospital won’t be equidistant between the two communities, but indeed in North Calgary so might as well stop saying it’s an Airdrie hospital. I wonder if it’s on that large site north of Stoney Trail off of Centre Street identified in the Livingston NSP? Would make sense given the Green Line is right there.

Here is the map including the institutional site where the hospital would likely be:
View attachment 476627

It'll be cool when this is done but let's not kid ourselves here - Greenline to 160 Avenue is many decades away. Further, any north hospital here is repeating the mistakes of the South Health Centre - it's facility sprawl.

Even moving the health centre a few kilometres further south (e.g. towards 96 Avenue N for example) it would likely connect transit to the hospital a decade or more sooner, as well as integrate into the overall airport connection, other regional rail investments that are possible over that timeframe, still decades away.

Don't repeat the South Health Campus. It's so far away it's likely 1 or 2 further phases from the existing planned Greenline, which itself is only planned to reach Shepard in 2028 - 2030. The South Health Campus will be 20 - 30 years old by the time the LRT reaches it. While part of the issues is that LRT build timelines are painfully slow, the bigger problem is that we are making the destinations the LRT is hoping to serve about as spread out and far apart as possible. Any new major facility as important as a hospital should have as a prerequisite a site accessible by high-quality transit today, not 30-50 years from now.

 

[accord1999]

96 Ave also has better crosstown transit opportunities to other destinations like the commercial area around Harvest Hills T&T

That commercial area, Aurora Business Park, is really the only area with the available space. But the City of Calgary has lofty mixed development plans for it and hasn't been keen on giving up its land there for other purposes, it didn't consider it for the maintenance yard for the Green Line for example.

 

[YYCguy]

That commercial area, Aurora Business Park, is really the only area with the available space. But the City of Calgary has lofty mixed development plans for it and hasn't been keen on giving up its land there for other purposes, it didn't consider it for the maintenance yard for the Green Line for example.

Yet, except for the small retail/office area immediately adjacent to 96 Ave, the rest of the land remains undeveloped with no imminent construction.

 

[accord1999]

Yet, except for the small retail/office area immediately adjacent to 96 Ave, the rest of the land remains undeveloped with no imminent construction.

I've noticed that too. I think that the delays to the Green Line has really affected its development, LRT was supposed to be an important part of it (even when it was coming from the Nose Creek direction) and now they have no idea what to do. They haven't even bothered to update the area structure plan from 2008.

In hindsight, it would probably beneficial to have used it for something now rather than wait another 20 years so they could build their idealized vision:

 

[DougB]

The Green Line and Aurora are unlikely to feed off one another. The chances of Aurora turning into a Quarry Park scale employment hub are slim to none. It will most likely be mostly warehouses - not conducive to transit.

 

[YYCguy]

I’m getting way off topic here. Could a moderator please move this to/create a more appropriate thread?

A hospital in Aurora might create an opportunity to enhance the local road network (connect Centre Street to Harvest Hills Blvd and build out an interchange there for example) and having an LRT station next to a hospital (and a high speed train station nearby) would definitely be a good idea. So I can see that being a better location for a hospital than the site in Livingston.

 

[badc0ffee]

I always thought that Centre St was pretty deliberately not connected (except for buses) to Harvest Hills Blvd. Centre St goes across most of the north, and directly into downtown, but has some bottlenecks like 2-lane sections, and will have even more with the Green Line. So, planners have to be careful about how much traffic it collects.

 

[superelevation]

$1billion is steep, but that’s the price of projects these days. In 15 years it’ll feel like a bargain.

The research all suggests that "the price" is not fixed. Bad procurements practice, design etc. drives costs up but, it's not a given: https://transitcosts.com/

Tunnels and guideway are riskier, but at grade track on street need not be uber expensive.

And this is beside the point; if it was free, it wouldn't be worth connecting the red and blue lines to the green.

Alright, then no point in discussing because we don't agree on the fundamental premise.