What’s in a name? When it comes to Calgary’s Green Line LRT, that’s a bit of a loaded question. Over the past month, there have been competing proclamations from politicians that the Green Line is dead, and also that a new and improved Green Line will live on.
It’s enough to make a person’s head spin.
To have a clear conversation on what should happen next with the largest public infrastructure investment in Alberta’s history, it’s important to ensure that we are all talking about the same thing.
What is the Green Line? What was it designed to do and how was it designed to do it?
The most important thing for Calgarians to remember is that the Green Line reflects our vision. Every aspect of its plan has been shaped by more than a decade of community engagement by the city, receiving the input of tens of thousands of Calgarians. That vision was then checked and double-checked, by a vast team of planners, engineers and independent experts to ensure it was the best possible solution.
Those who have been closely following the Green Line conversation over the years have seen stations shift, tunnels become bridges and tracks moved by a block or two. Despite those changes, there are several parts of the core vision that have never changed, as they are integral to delivering what Calgarians want and what needs to be built to keep our city moving as it quickly approaches two million people.
So let’s define the Green Line.
The project has always been a vision to bring light rail to Calgarians’ doorsteps, connecting Calgary’s north-central and southeast communities via downtown. It includes a station in the heart of downtown to ensure Calgarians can easily access the highest concentration of workplaces. It provides important transit connections — to the Red and Blue LRT lines, and the Max Orange and Max Teal BRT lines — to serve other key destinations. It also makes use of low-floor trains so stations have minimal effects on a community and can be built for a lower cost.
The Green Line serves the Beltline by giving LRT access to the numerous employers located there, while also giving the nearly 35,000 Calgarians living in that community a link to the developing employment hubs outside of downtown. These include Quarry Park and the hospital in the southeast, and Greenview and Stoney industrial areas in the north-central.
Finally, it creates an LRT station in Eau Claire that provides Calgarians with transit access to Prince’s Island Park, the river pathways, and the numerous festivals and events held there — not to mention unlocking the potential for transit-oriented development in the area. This station also serves as Green Line’s handshake between communities in the southeast and those north of the Bow River, up Centre Street.
Over the coming months, we will see different solutions suggested for the city’s next LRT line. Calgarians should demand that the Green Line tradition of robust public engagement continues and that our opinion on revisions to the plan is counted. We should not accept having a new vision dictated to us by a bunch of hired guns.
What must be made clear to politicians — at city hall, in Edmonton and Ottawa — is that spending taxpayer dollars on any plan that doesn’t respect this core Green Line vision is non-negotiable.
Let’s collectively try to find a path forward. Calgarians should celebrate politicians offering solutions that fit the original vision, and beware of politicians selling snake oil and LRT plans from the 1980s masquerading under the Green Line name.
Jeff Binks has served as president of LRT on the Green since 2015. It is a volunteer-driven community not-for-profit governed by a board of Green Line community members and is celebrating its 10th anniversary advocating for transit in Calgary.