Largest federal investment to fund Calgary’s Green Line LRT
July 28, 2015
By
CCE
The federal government announced on July 24 that it would provide $1.53 billion towards the proposed C-Train Green Line in Calgary.
Calgary Southeast MP Jason Kenney called it the biggest single federal investment ever made in Calgary.
The original plans were for the Green Line to be a rapid bus way, but now it will be an LRT line, with a total projected cost of $4.6 billion.
The Green Line will be the third LRT line in the city and will run north-south, from the northern outskirts at Country Hills Boulevard (North Pointe), down Centre Street through downtown, and into the South Heal Campus in the southeast (Seton). It would have 25 stops and will almost double the length of the current C-Train LRT network.
The current LRT network consists of the Red Line roughly running from the northwest to the south, and the Blue Line running from the northeast then west.
According to an article in the Calgary Sun, the major decisions still to be made include how the line will cross the Bow River. There are three options: “attaching a bridge to the lower level of the current Centre Street Bridge, building a new, standalone crossing, or tunnelling.”
A report on the project is due to be submitted to the city council by the end of the year, but Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who called the announcement “historic,” said construction should start in 2017.
To see the article in the Calgary Sun, click here.
