It’s difficult to put a thumb on the exact etymological beginnings of the phrase “a train to nowhere” or its derivatives, used in context with Calgary’s Green Line project.

What’s much clearer, however, is the 2025 approved, provincially mandated, provincial-consultant delivered, Government-of-Alberta-preferred alignment is virtually the same one the UCP derided as such going back to at least 2019.

On Jan. 28, 2025, The City of Calgary and the Government of Alberta agreed upon plans to deliver a southeast portion of the new Green Line project, from a planned Grand Central Station to Shepard in southeast Calgary.  They will also continue the functional planning on an above-grade entry into downtown Calgary.

Using the vernacular of today’s politicians: To be clear, construction will begin on a line with termination points at 4 Street SE and Shepard, this spring.  There is no plan for the construction and delivery of a downtown connection – only functional planning.  

In the business case framework for the Green Line project, provided as a public document after the January 2025 Green Line discussions, it clearly delineates between a “South Segment” and a “Downtown Segment.”

That means there are two separate projects, in much the same way Calgary’s 2019, 2020 and 2021 versions had. Only in 2024, when the project was cut down to the Eau Claire to Lynnwood version did it arguably get compressed into one deliverable line.

It’s reasonable to assume the downtown entry could hit future snags, as it’s not slated for design completion until 2026, with construction pegged for 2027. The same business case framework, in the rationale for early construction on the south segment, raises a concern about risk.

“Given the early stage of its design development, the Downtown Segment requires further refinement of design with a risk profile that may drive additional financial pressure,” the document reads.

It goes on to say that the province won’t commit any further funding past the $1.53 billion already committed (2015 dollars), nor any risk transfer from the city – since it’s a city project.

The train line to nowhere takes hold

Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, once a champion of the Green Line during a time when the political calculus was appropriate, changed his tune in 2019 after being chosen as the leader of the United Conservative Party.

It was largely due to his belief that the originally-promised $1.53 billion would get the City of Calgary a line that stretched 40 kilometres, connecting far north Calgary with the far south.

This is when the first rumblings of the so-called train to nowhere begin.  Calgary was cutting the Green Line down to a project that would take it from 16 Avenue N to Shepard (126 Avenue SE). The project would be phased into the southeast leg, a downtown leg and a portion that would ship the Green Line across the Bow River north to 16 Avenue.

(It’s worth noting that through the various iterations of the Green Line project, the 4 Street SE station has been a mainstay as the divider between a southeast segment and downtown segment.)

In July 2019, as Calgary city council wrangled over the proposed alignment, then-Ward 8 Coun. Evan Woolley even suggested a pause on the Green Line project so that it wasn’t “a train to nowhere.”

In June 2020, Premier Danielle Smith, who was then a talk radio host with AM770, penned an op-ed for the Calgary Herald. The piece was titled: “Smith: Calgary on the cusp of catastrophic decision to OK Green Line to nowhere”.

In that piece, Smith writes: “The main problem remains unresolved: it’s of no real use to anyone. It doesn’t go far enough south or far enough north to serve any of the communities that need it.”

A few paragraphs earlier she called it “an excessively expensive line that goes nowhere and never will.”

Also in June 2020, Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell wrote, “OK, it is a Train To Nowhere. It only goes from 16 Ave. N. to Shepard. It neither goes to the far north or the deep southeast of the city.”

In December 2020, in a story by CBC Calgary, they received a response from then-Alberta Transportation Minister Ric McIver’s press secretary, McKenzie Kibler, saying there was no credible plan for connecting the downtown with the southeast leg.

“All the City of Calgary has presented is a plan for a train line to nowhere,” Kibler wrote, on behalf of Minister Ric McIver.

It will eventually connect to Red and Blue lines, said Minister Dreeshen

It’s important, once again, to reiterate that over the past six years, while minor alterations may have been made, the station locations of 4 Street SE and Shepard have remained. This is the southeast portion of the Green Line. It was in 2019 and it is in 2025.

How it enters the downtown has been the biggest question.

Last week, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek helped resurrect the “train to nowhere” trope. In a scrum with reporters, the mayor said the Green Line doesn’t make any sense without a downtown connection.

(Does any of this seem familiar?)

“This is the same government that called this, what did they call it, a stub of a rail, rail to nowhere, when we were proposing our first phase,” she said.

“They’re doing exactly the same thing. Frankly, people from the south don’t want to end up at the Event Center and then have no way to get to where they need to go.”

By foot, according to Google Maps, the approximately walk time from a 4 Street SE terminal to Victoria Park LRT station is about 13 minutes. It’s about a seven-minute walk to the City Hall Station. This is without a transit tie-in to the downtown. A tie-in that hasn’t been costed, nor approved.

When asked by CBC Eyeopener host Loren McGinnis about Mayor Gondek’s comments, Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen discounted that this was a train to nowhere.

“It eventually will go to the Red and Blue line down on Second Street,” he said.

“The total project is it actually meets the three conditions that we as a province set out back in July when we first talked about tying into the Red and Blue line, which is obviously downtown, going to the new Event Center, and then stretching as far south as possible.”

As is often the case, the meanings of words and phrases change over time. From their origins they are used and misused and they evolve to mean different things to different people in different times.

This appears to be the case with Calgary’s newest iteration of a train to nowhere.