Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas is floating a plan to split the Green Line into phases and pursue federal funding for a downtown underground tunnel — without the province at the table.

Farkas made the comments the day after the Government of Alberta said that they are open to adjustments on the downtown segment of the Green Line, but there would be no tunnel option considered.

Calgary’s Executive Committee voted in favour of finding alternative alignments for the downtown, though a final vote is required at a full meeting of council. If approved, the alternate options would be provided in September, just before a full review of the current downtown elevated line option proposed by the province.

Farkas told reporters on Wednesday that, given all of the potential costs of doing the project wrong, it was worth looking at a variety of options.

“I’d be looking at perhaps parking some of the more contentious portions of the downtown route, potentially stopping a little bit shorter in the downtown, giving us more time to solve for that portion of the alignment, and taking some of the cost savings and pushing even further south into suburban Calgary to be able to get greater ridership,” he said.

The mayor said that stopping in Shepard has disadvantages, particularly because the train isn’t reaching the larger population mass that’s down in deep southeast Calgary.

Mayor Farkas said everything is on the table. He floated an idea that they could look at a hybrid approach, one that included taking the train to a certain point, then having a bus corridor that would take people north of the Bow River.

Short-term that could be a bus bridge, that goes through the downtown and connects the north and south. That’s until they reach a point where an underground option is feasible and approved by the province, Farkas said.

“Another option potentially is to build within the current envelope as far south as we can and perhaps have the city and the feds only partner on the phase two, which could potentially be a downtown underground option,” he said.

“So, all options are on the table at this point.”

‘Spitballing’ options isn’t helpful, says Coun. Yule

Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule said he wants to see these plans on paper. As a north-central Calgary councillor, Yule said it’s been frustrating to watch the process play out.

“We’re spitballing a project that’s been in process since 2014, and spitballing now, when we’ve studied this alignment to death, just feels irresponsible,” Yule said.

 “We have an alignment, and we just, we need to follow it. I think a delay, like that’s all this is, is a delay tactic that will eventually kill the north leg.”

Ultimately, Yule wants better transit in north Calgary, especially when he said the current Max Green bus rapid transit has better ridership than the West LRT.

“The further this goes south, the more it just doesn’t seem like north is on the table,” he said.

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson said breaking the line and creating a bus corridor isn’t really a good option. As he understands it, if there is a different phase with the feds, it would still be a continuous rail line.

“Especially in 2026, people are working and enjoying the city and shopping in different areas of the city, and we need to make sure that the transit that’s provided is actually connecting them the whole way through,” he said.  

“So, making sure that we actually have a contiguous line that runs through the downtown and into the north is the best way to deliver it.”

When the dust settles, Atkinson wants an underground line.

“If you look at elevated lines that have been built across North American cities over the years, there isn’t a highway or an elevated train line that in any way adds to the overall social fabric of an area,” he said.

“Downtown is critical. We have social disorder problems already. We have issues of perceptions of safety within our downtown that need to be met, and doing something that will hurt the public realm, hurt local businesses, hurt the folks that have decided to move into downtown, as many folks have over these past couple of years, that is not putting us on the right path.”

Should Farkas pursue a side deal with the feds, it may be subject to provincial approval anyway, under the Provincial Priorities Act, which went into effect April 1, 2025. That legislation forces all deals over $100,000 to municipalities to receive Municipal Affairs approval.

The province did not respond directly to Farkas’s suggestion of a split project, pointing instead to its June 9 statement.