After a nine-day shutdown to complete track realignment, power-line straining, new signal installation, and pedestrian access upgrades, the new Victoria Park/Stampede Park LRT Station is open for transit riders—permanently.
The station was officially opened to Red Line users on the morning of Dec. 4, marking the end of the largest Calgary Transit replacement bus service operation in the city’s history.
Doug Morgan, General Manager for Operational Services for the City of Calgary, thanked transit users for the patience.
“Your patience and willingness to work with us through the last nine days was key to the success of this phase of the construction,” he said.
“This is probably the most intensive work we’ve ever done to respond to a closure. It would rival what happened during the flood the amount of people we had to move without the LRT.”
During the shutdown, less than 50 people called Calgary Transit to complain about the replacement bus service for the Red Line, said Morgan.
“There were, of course, travel times that were different than on the train and we’d expected that, but we didn’t get very much negative feedback from customers,” he said.
He said that during peak hours, the Red Line has more than 6,000 passengers an hour.
“Certainly, the plan from Calgary Transit was to know we needed to quickly recover and restore service. So, they’ve done that, and they’ve been working around the clock to make sure we could meet our commitments to Calgarians,” Morgan said.
There were, as of Monday, no further planned shutdowns of the Red Line that would require replacement bus services to be utilized.
Extensive work done to complete the construction phase on the station
Clare LePan, CMLC’s Vice President of Communications and Strategic Partnerships, called the morning CTrains pulling into the new permanent station beautiful.
“The sound of the train behind me is a beautiful sound, and I’m sure that many people and some tired faces in front of me today are happy to hear it as well,” she said.
LePan said that over the nine days of work that was done, more than 100 crews were working 24 hours a day to complete an extensive and complex set of work to transition from the temporary LRT station to the new permanent one.
More work needs to be done on the station itself, and on the surrounding area for it to be fully completed, she said.
“Over the coming months you can expect to see that crews will complete the pedestrian and vehicle crossings at 14th Avenue and 17th Avenue, the construction of built planters and benches, constructing sidewalks and planting trees, installing the canopy cladding behind me installing permanent handrails and guardrails, lighting, digital signage and screens, installing shelters on the inbound platform, and permanent pedestrian access on the outboard outbound platform.”
She said that there will be further temporary lane closures on Macleod Trail as the temporary station is removed, and as road work is completed opening Stampede Park to 17 Avenue SE.
“There will also be some continued overnight construction at intervals as we complete the final stages, but not at the level or volume that many of the residents may have experienced in the last nine days,” LePan said.
The entirety of the work is expected to be completed in time with the opening in Summer 2024 of the new BMO Centre Expansion project, which is Calgary’s first Tier 1 convention facility.
