[Update: Approved] First Leg of the Green Line LRT

[Tyler]

Didn't see another thread about this.

City Blog

http://www.calgarycitynews.com/2017/...for-first.html


CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...111121?cmp=rss

City administration has unveiled the recommended first phase of construction for Calgary's Green Line LRT.

If approved by council, stage one would extend from 16th Avenue N. at Crescent Heights, to 126th Avenue S.E. in Shepard, making it the longest LRT line built at one time in Calgary.

Construction on the 20-kilometre track would start in 2020 and is projected to cost of $4.65 billion.

If completed it is expected to carry roughly 60,000 people across 14 stations.

Thoughts?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Why build the South leg first? The north: 1) Has existing ridership 2) Center Street is saturated with buses at Peak hours and can't be increased significantly.

Weren't they talking about rewarding ridership first before commuting to unproven areas first?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Why build the South leg first? The north: 1) Has existing ridership 2) Center Street is saturated with buses at Peak hours and can't be increased significantly.

Weren't they talking about rewarding ridership first before commuting to unproven areas first?

Storage and maintenance facility is in the south. Whatever phase 1 is has to get to the storage and maintenance facility.

[Bunk]

This is the best they could do I think. Best to build it right, then extend over time.

In the north, as long as frequency is high enough, bus travellers can quickly transition to the LRT station, and that would keep the big volumes of buses out of downtown, which is a big part of the problem.

In the south, it gets it far enough that bus connections from deep south communities will be relatively quick.

[LanceUppercut]

I would guess that the south portion would take a lot of vehicles off the south part of Deerfoot in the morning. I fully support this, as the Shepard station is 5 minutes from my house.

[GGG]

I was going to ask why not defer the most expensive part of the north line by stopping downtown but bunk makes an excellent point of the value of reducing bus traffic downtown.

[RW99]

So all the North buses will drop everyone off at the 16th Ave station?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by RW99

So all the North buses will drop everyone off at the 16th Ave station?

I asked via Twitter this question - I don't know, but there would be some value in it (for some or most buses).

[foshizzle11]

We live in Lynnwood and can't wait for this to be built. I hate the bus and would take the train downtown for sure more often for work with this thing built. Commuting to Anderson or another station when I used to live in MacKenzie Lake was a nightmare and would take forever. This is 100% better. When do they start?

[getbak]

This makes a lot of sense. The Maintenance and Storage facility will be at Shepard, so it has to go that far south. By stopping at 16th, they don't have to go above ground in the north, so there won't be any disruption to Centre Street, for now.

I just wish they could find some way to put a station at 9th Ave so this wouldn't be completely useless for those of us who live north of the river, but nowhere close to 16th Ave.

[calgarygeologist]

I saw a program last week on the new London Crossrail subway and it is an amazing project. I wish Calgary could do something similar for the green line. Crossrail is apparently a 15 billion Pound project but considering that it is almost all tunnelled and some of the stations are pretty complex engineering wonders that price tag seems cheap compared to what we are paying.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I saw a program last week on the new London Crossrail subway and it is an amazing project. I wish Calgary could do something similar for the green line. Crossrail is apparently a 15 billion Pound project but considering that it is almost all tunnelled and some of the stations are pretty complex engineering wonders that price tag seems cheap compared to what we are paying.

I think I heard the morning host on QR talking about this the other day, but I missed half of it. Is it the one where they were boring a tunnel just 3' above a different tube line? If so, what was this show called? What network was it on?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I think I heard the morning host on QR talking about this the other day, but I missed half of it. Is it the one where they were boring a tunnel just 3' above a different tube line? If so, what was this show called? What network was it on?

I believe it was a PBS Nova episode, if its the same one I saw. I don't see it airing again soon in my guide.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I think I heard the morning host on QR talking about this the other day, but I missed half of it. Is it the one where they were boring a tunnel just 3' above a different tube line? If so, what was this show called? What network was it on?

It was on PBS either last Wednesday or Thursday on Nova I believe. That is the same project. They are boring the tunnel through an existing station and are actually boring at 13 inches above an existing tunnel and 30-something inches below the escalator structure in the station. They refer to that section as "the eye of the needle." I'm amazed they could do it without damaging anything.

[Ducay]

Can anyone clarify where the tunnel starts / ends? The City's final recommended map is pretty crappy in terms of the shading/gradients of green all looking the same.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Can anyone clarify where the tunnel starts / ends? The City's final recommended map is pretty crappy in terms of the shading/gradients of green all looking the same.

If I'm reading the map correctly, it looks like it will be above ground across the Elbow River into Inglewood. The transition into/out of the tunnel will be somewhere around where the bus barns are now in Victoria Park and all stations through downtown up to 16th will be underground. I believe the plan is for the train to resurface around 24th Ave N, but that will be left for Phase 2.

Based on that, it looks like the 4th St station (by the new arena) will be underground. That's likely subject to change with the building design, but it's a good way to get some of the building's construction costs covered with the C-Train construction if there's a station with direct access to the arena.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Can anyone clarify where the tunnel starts / ends? The City's final recommended map is pretty crappy in terms of the shading/gradients of green all looking the same.

The tunnel will be from the National music centre to 16th avenue N.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I asked via Twitter this question - I don't know, but there would be some value in it (for some or most buses).

Apparently it is the case that buses would keep going downtown, in which case I'm not sure it makes sense to bother crossing the river for now - might as well spend to extend deeper in SE where most of the line's ridership lives.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Apparently it is the case that buses would keep going downtown, in which case I'm not sure it makes sense to bother crossing the river for now - might as well spend to extend deeper in SE where most of the line's ridership lives.

Once they're tunnel boring, it probably makes the most sense to dig it all than to stop partway and need to go back later and finish it.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Apparently it is the case that buses would keep going downtown, in which case I'm not sure it makes sense to bother crossing the river for now - might as well spend to extend deeper in SE where most of the line's ridership lives.

I'd imagine they were afraid of the reaction of they didn't try to throw a small (if useless) bone to the North.