Feds approve funding for updated Green Line LRT project
Posted Mar 18, 2025 9:47 pm.
Calgary’s Green Line LRT is a step closer to reality after the federal government approved the business case for the project.
A statement from the province on Tuesday says the on-again off-again transit project has been given the green light for construction to begin.
“This approval ensures the matching federal funding commitment of $1.53 billion for this critical project and that construction can finally begin after a decade of delay since 2015,” reads a statement from Transportation and Economic Corridors minister Devin Dreeshen.
“The City of Calgary is responsible for delivering the project. Tenders for construction will go out in spring 2025 with the focus to utilize local construction companies.”
The province says the revised business case meets the provincial requirements of connecting to the Red and Blue CTrain lines downtown, the new event centre and Shepard Station in the south.
Earlier this year, Calgary city council approved all of the recommendations from city administration to move forward with the province’s proposed realignment that includes an elevated downtown track that they believe will make the line cheaper.
The realigned project will include a line that extends from 160 Avenue in Southeast Calgary north to the new events centre — with future plans to extend the line through downtown along 10 Avenue and 2 Street SW.
Construction is expected to begin on the southeast leg of the Green Line this year.
Dreeshen says planning from the city for the downtown segment is expected to begin shortly with the design to be completed by 2026, leading to construction in 2027.
Organizations representing real estate and business communities in Calgary’s downtown and Beltline wrote a letter to Smith and Dreeshen in January expressing opposition to the elevated track through the downtown core.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek followed up with her own letter to the pair that invited them to walk along the proposed route to show them “first-hand” the potential impacts that a proposed elevated line downtown would have.
