The Government of Alberta has put forth its plan for a southeast Calgary transit line, including an elevated entry into the city’s downtown.

The province announced the details Friday morning in a news release to the media.

Back in July, after a series of events that led to the province refusing to fund the City of Calgary’s revised Green Line, the province contracted AECOM to assess potential alternatives for an at-grade or elevated route through the downtown.

The province said they’re now approving a plan that more closely aligns with the business case from 2021. The overall cost of the transit megaproject remains at $6.2 billion.

“This new Green Line route saves more than a billion dollars in tunneling costs. This alignment adds five more stops, will be 76 per cent longer and will serve 60 per cent more Calgarians – all within the same budget,” said Alberta Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen.  

“The ball is now in Calgary City Council’s court to approve this alignment and to finally start construction on the Green Line in the new year.”

The line will extend from Shepard in the south and have a stop in Inglewood/Ramsay before turning to a not-yet-designed or developed Grand Central Station. From there, it will elevate and travel west along 10 Avenue to 2 Street SW, turning north and connecting with the Red and Blue Lines at 7 Avenue.

According to the province, AECOM considered the overall impact on the ridership of all three lines, and on the operations of the Red and Blue Lines. It also looked at interaction with downtown infrastructure, including plus 15s and the heavy rail tracks.

The province said this plan can save $1 billion in costs. That’s due to no underground tunneling and a shorter downtown line that connects with the Red and Blue lines.

The north shut out, says Ward 3 Councillor

Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said that stopping at 7 Avenue and not getting through the downtown with a dedicated line is ignoring the north completely. Under the prior revised plan, the truncated line would have gone from Lynnwood/Millican to a station at Eau Claire. From there, the plan was to head north along Centre Street.

“I’m pretty disappointed to see that we’ve known for a long time, that getting through the downtown is what’s tricky. It’s not running surface rail to the south that’s the problem,” Mian said.

While it’s conceivable that if a north line via Centre Street was still the preferred option, rather than the Nose Creek Valley option mused by both the Minister and Premier, it could be somehow spurred off the downtown line to a future Eau Claire location. Or, people could walk from 7 Avenue to the north terminus.

“None of this has been designed. It’s still just the line on paper, and so there’s just so many details that need to be figured out,” Mian said.

“I think it’s easy to sort of say, Oh, the line is longer on paper now, and we’re getting better value there as a result. But I don’t think we can really confidently say that until we actually design it a go to market on the downtown portion, which is again, going to be likely years of work, and we’ll see if the cost can stay within the allotted budget. I highly doubt that they can.”

Mian said that a lot of people feel as though the funding for the project came as a result of the future potential ridership in the north – which far surpasses the south – and will be disappointed that’s being walked back.

“I don’t think that the current government is interested in going to the north, and so I’m not surprised to see them release this and leave the harder work of figuring that out to a future government,” she said.

“Then, to see that response to the Eau Claire, now, we’re not even doing that. It’s just it’s very unlikely that the North is going to see a train and even many more years now.”

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said it was premature to provide meaningful comments on the province’s plan, mainly because no one’s seen any actual details on it.

“We haven’t even seen the details of the plan, so we can’t say yes or no. Now we need to analyze it,” he said.

“We have to have our experts look at it and look at financial implications of what they’re suggesting and of course, they need to make sure they got their numbers right because I don’t know that they actually have their numbers right.”

Chabot also said it was critical to build in time to ensure that citizens have the opportunity to chime in on the plan, given that proportionally speaking, Calgary is still holding the lion’s share of the financial risk.

“This is something I’ve always said all along, consulting with my constituents is extremely important to me to hear what they have to say. I can’t even consult with my citizens right now because I don’t know the details of this proposal,” he said, noting city admin’s perspective is required before they can do that.

“It can’t just be one-sided of ‘here’s what it is. Trust us. We’re government. We’re here looking out for you.’ People want to have a more robust analysis of things, especially when we’re talking about numbers and infrastructure.”

Funding departure time crunch

With the plan now before Calgary city council, time becomes a factor.

According to Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, there’s a deadline on the federal funding envelope of March 31, 2025.

“We’re all working backward for March the 31st. That’s when all of the federal funding disappears if we don’t have a deal,” the mayor told LWC in a year-end interview.

“So, time is of the essence, but we also need to consider what’s been put in front of us and whether it’s the best thing for Calgarians.”

While Mian understands the timeline, she also said they need to do what’s right for Calgarians. She said that when she held a town hall on the failed Green Line after the deal died in September, she asked her residents what conditions should be met to continue supporting the project.

“Getting through downtown, and having a way to get to north through Eau Claire was one of the things that was mentioned to me over and over again. So, I don’t think that you build a Green Line at all costs,” she said.

LWC has asked for a copy of the report done by AECOM for further review.

“The AECOM report will not be made public as its contents are integral to the upcoming bidding process for the proposed route,” read a response from Minister Dreeshen.

“Releasing the report at this stage could compromise the fairness and competitiveness of the process, which is essential to ensuring the best outcome for taxpayers.”

Calgary city council has also not seen the details, according to several councillors. City admin had apparently not seen the AECOM report before the province released details.

“We have not received the AECOM report before (Minister) Dreeshan ran to (Postmedia columnist) Rick Bell,” wrote Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott via text.

In an official statement, the City of Calgary said that until council had the opportunity to review the report, including alignment and costing, they couldn’t provide comment on the plan.

“The City has not received the AECOM report and it is disappointing that after working collaboratively since September on a reimagined Green Line that the Province shared the details publicly prior to Council’s review,” read their emailed statement.

“Council has been clear that the City’s commitment of $1.53B remains and look forward to understanding the Province’s plan on their new alignment.”