Ball in city’s court after province proposes new Calgary Green Line route

A completed report on the Green Line LRT commissioned by the province has the government proposing a new alignment for the embattled project that it claims will serve more communities and save more than $1 billion.

The province contracted AECOM in July to come up with an alternative at-grade and/or elevated route for the Green Line through downtown, after the City of Calgary and province couldn’t come to an agreement on which way to go.

Now, the province says it wants the line to begin at 7 Avenue SW and run to Shepard in the southeast — five more stops than the shortened line approved by council in July, and more alike to the original proposal made in June 2021.

The province claims this route will result in more than $1 billion in savings by elevating tracks and shortening the route through downtown. However, the project will still come at a cost of more than $6 billion.

“You are getting a lot more bang for your buck with this alignment,” says transportation minister Devin Dreeshen. “This new alignment is ultimately 76 per cent longer and will serve more than 60 per cent more Calgarians.”

“So the savings we made from not having a tunnel downtown we put that down to the southeast part of the city to serve more Calgarians.”

A statement released Friday from Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s office says she, alongside Couns. Peter Demong and Andre Chabot, met with Dreeshen and Premier Danielle Smith earlier in the morning to get a briefing from the province and AECOM on the proposal.

Gondek’s office says that while the meeting provided an outline of the provincial proposal, Calgary city council has yet to see the report submitted by AECOM to the province or the related financials.

Gondek, Chabot, and Demong are set to hold a media availability on Monday to address questions and provide additional insights based on the information presented by the province.

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In July, the city learned the project’s budget had ballooned to $6.248 billion and approved several changes to the line.

One of the approved changes included building the core of the project from Eau Claire in downtown Calgary to Lynwood/Millican in the southeast. Previous plans had the first phase of the project going all the way south to Shepherd with five more stations in southeast.

Recommendations from the city at that time also included deferring building a Centre Street Station in the Beltline and moving a station at 4 Street SE to above ground. The province claims this would have resulted in a more than 40 per cent reduction in ridership.

It ultimately wasn’t happy with the changes, pulling its $1.5 billion share of funding and effectively bringing the project to a halt.

Calgary council voted 10-5 mid-September to wind down the project, which was estimated to cost over $2.1 billion and impact more than 1,000 jobs.

Without the cash from the province, the city said it couldn’t afford to continue, and asked Alberta to take over, including assuming responsibility for the wind down.

The province said no, standing firm in its desire for a return to the project’s original alignment.

Weeks later, after discussions with Calgary City Council, the province recommitted funding and both sides agreed to a December deadline for decisions on re-alignment.