Quote:
Originally Posted by temple5
Lots of generalized statements in this post, hard to know if it was supposed to be written in green text.
I guess the West LRT isnt an increase or improvement in service for anyone. They should just shut it down as its just an empty train going back and forth.
I wont comment on the rest of the post because there is no point in having a conversation about municipal financing and governance with someone who already thinks our property taxes are too high.
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Nice cut green text. Here is a little information about our great city leaders building of the West LRT line, where they had to get Provincial Government approval to borrow the money with backing from the province.
"There’s no question that the rapidly growing Western city was due for an upgrade to its rail network. But according to
Steve Lafleur, a policy analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the project was supposed to cost taxpayers $700-million, but came in at just under $1.5-billion.
That means that the 8.2 km of new track cost $195-million per kilometre. With an expected ridership of 35,000 per day, that’s $42,857 per passenger — enough to buy them each a shiny new car. Over its lifetime, the new line will last much longer and service many more people than a fleet of new cars, but the statistic gives a sense of just how much the project ended up costing.
In comparison,
Vancouver’s Canada Line, which was built for the 2010 Olympics and runs between downtown and the airport, cost just over $2-billion for 19.2 km of subway and elevated track. How the city of Calgary could have done such a horrendous job with the original budget estimates and provided taxpayers with so little value for their hard-earned money relative to other large infrastructure projects is a question all Calgarians should be asking.
Instead of heads rolling over this latest boondoggle, Calgary’s elected officials are already moving on to discuss new and innovative ways to waste money. Council is set to debate its
RouteAhead plan on Wednesday, which calls for $12.9-billion in transit upgrades — including $11-billion for new LRT and bus lines — by 2040. If that estimate is as bad as the west LRT, it could cost taxpayers closer to $25-billion.
Part of the debate is whether the next extension will run into the southeast, or the north. A report released over the summer priced the southeast line at $2.7-billion. The RouteAhead plan makes no mention of where such funds would come from. But the larger question is whether the government can be trusted to come up with realistic budget estimates, when the latest one was 100% over budget — which is extremely high, even as government-funded infrastructure projects go."
The City spent hundreds of millions on the East Village infrastructure and clean up, plus "gave" the land to the developer to achieve some big thinkers idea of what a "modern" city is all about, they should do the same for development in the West Village.
Your comment about new communities needing infrastructure which we all need to pay for is disingenuous also. The developer of the area needs to pay for the services and increase the lot prices accordingly. We all pay some additional taxes yes, but the majority are covered by the new home owners. If you actually feel that your property tax dollars are being utilized efficiently then apparently you work for the city unions. I also never said our taxes were too high, I stated that they have increased up to 60% with no increase in service.