Green Line advocates say they’re disappointed by a city report that hints the future LRT line would only reach as far north as 64th Avenue N. upon completion of the project’s second phase, leaving several communities in the cold.
An analysis of future Green Line staging options, scheduled to go before council’s transportation and transit committee Wednesday, outlines various possibilities for the direction of the project once its first stage is complete.
The first phase of the project — a $4.65-billion, 20-kilometre line — spans 14 stations from 16th Avenue N. in Crescent Heights to 126th Avenue S.E. in Shepard.
Construction of that portion of the line would begin as early as 2020, with the goal of completing it by 2026.
The blueprint for the line called for it to go as far north as 160th Avenue N. and south to Seton once completed in its entirety, but the next step depends on available funding.
At $250 million to $400 million, the city says it could extend the line south by two stops from Shepard station to McKenzie Towne station.
With $400 million to $700 million to work with, a two-station extension north is possible, expanding the line from 16th Avenue N. to 40th Avenue N. That level of funding could also be used to extend the southern portion of the line by three stops, from Shepard station to Auburn Bay/Mahogany station.
Three options are on the table at a funding level of $700 million to $1 billion, including a four-station extension north from 16th Avenue N. to 64th Avenue N., or a five-stop extension south from Shepard to Seton station. The third option includes both the two-stop extension north from 16th Avenue N. to 40th Avenue N. and the three-stop extension south from Shepard to Auburn Bay/Mahogany station.
Jeff Binks, president of the LRT on the Green Foundation, called those choices disappointing.
“What we were hoping to see was a shopping list that priced staging options for the Green Line from end-to-end, north-to-south. We have a document that . . . leaves an area with a population greater than Airdrie out of the conversation completely,” said Binks, whose not-for-profit group championed the line.
“We think that’s a disservice to the Calgarians who live in north Calgary and who have pushed for this project hard.”
Binks said the options outlined in the report leave him skeptical that the project would extend north anytime soon.
“I’m not sure when we’ll see Stage 2,” he said. “It’s not a very ambitious goalpost that they’ve set.”
Ward 3 Coun. Jyoti Gondek, who has long advocated for the city to push the project farther north, argued the current options “ignore the needs of a major community in north-central Calgary.” She said she plans to raise the issue at committee.
“It’s focusing on cost and not what’s best for Calgarians,” said Gondek.
“I have always hoped that it would come up to the point that it needs to be at a minimum, which is the North Pointe location. If you look at the dramatic growth that’s going on in the communities at Livingston and Carrington, it’s surprising to me that we are not considering how to deliver Phase 2 in a way that actually benefits north-central Calgarians.”
The province’s approved City Charters Fiscal Framework Act outlines dedicated funding of about $200 million per year for transit projects.
For Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, the priority is ensuring the entire line opens as soon as possible, regardless of which sections come next in Stage 2.
“How you phase it is just a result of the physical realities on the line, on the ground,” he said.
“We worked really hard to unite the north-central LRT and the southeast LRT into the Green Line, and I’m just not interested in relitigating north versus south. It’s just not helpful.”
